What are those trains? Part 1.

So then:

There is a map of North America with many tracks of different lengths.

At the beginning of the game, each player draws "missions" or tasks that must be completed during the game. For example, build a road from New York to Los Angeles, connecting the cities. A purely technical performance follows.

During his turn, a player can take one (but only one) of 3 possible actions:

1. take cards
2. pave the way
3. take on additional missions.

As you can clearly see in the video, the paths are of different colors, and so are the cards. So, you need to collect the number of cards corresponding to the length of the road, and then you can build a road (for example, if you collect four purple cards, a 4-section road is built).

The winner, as usual, is the one who collects the most points.

Points are obtained in two ways - from the roads built (the longer the sections of the road, the more points) and for the completed missions. It should be noted that unfulfilled missions, in turn, "go into the red" - reduce the number of points.

The player who built the longest continuous path gets an additional 10 point bonus at the end of the game.

At the beginning of the game, each player has 45 wagons, from which roads are also built, and the game ends when, after one of the players makes a move, 2 or less wagons remain. At that point, the final round is played, after which the points are tallied and the winner is determined.

My rating is 9 wagons out of 10.

Credit to this game for starting this genre, keeping it simple and straightforward. However, one wagon is still missing from perfection. This is like a gem on the playing field, but over time it will be polished to a perfect shine.

A good game to start your journey in the world of Ticket to ride.

As the name suggests, here the action moves from America to Europe. The whole main idea of ​​the game is the same as in the first game, but the following improvements have arrived, which make the game more balanced and also more exciting.

* Long missions. Unlike the US, where the missions had a higher luck effect (in the beginning, one can only get short missions for a couple of points, while the other gets long ones, which give advantages), in Europe this thing is more polished - from the beginning, everyone gets one "long" mission and 3 " ordinary".

* Ferries. The US has only land roads. Europe has both land routes and ferry lines. Ferry lines are specific in that they require the use of one or two jokers (depending on the specifics of the road) to build a road.

* Tunnels. Another innovation that makes the game more risky and unpredictable. To build a tunnel, 3 cards from the kava are revealed before the road is built; if they contain the chosen color or joker, the number of expendable resources increases.

Example: If I want to build a tunnel of 3 white sections, I say - "tunnel of three whites". The top 3 cards are revealed from the deck. Let's say - blue, red and white. Since the suit is white and there is also a white card in the open ones, you will have to pay not 3, but 4 cards for this path. In an extremely unlucky situation, you may have to part with up to 3 more cards than planned.

* Stations. Each player is assigned 3 stations along with the game dice. At the end of the game, each unused station gives 4 points. The main point of stations is that they can be used to save the situation if competitors build the necessary road; when building a station, you can use one section of your opponent's road as your own. The first station costs one card, the second - two, the third - three. Sometimes there are situations when it is more profitable to build a station than to build a bypass yourself. But this is already a matter of nuances of tactics and calculations.

I admit that for people who are new to the game, the above may seem very complicated, but in reality everything becomes clear after playing one game. If you have played the US version before, there should be no confusion at all.

My rating - 10 wagons out of 10.

The small flaws that were present in the first version have been ironed out, and the game has been made more balanced on the one hand, and more unpredictable and exciting on the other.

Those who are just starting to play will have to spend 10 minutes more to read and familiarize themselves with the rules, but it is worth it.

Both games described above are basic versions. A European or US game is required to play add-ons.

Ticket to Ride: Nordic countries.

Nordic countries.

This game will appeal to aesthetes - it has individually designed colored dice not found in other games (white and purple), and the cards in this version have a more special design - with snowy wagons. Like a trifle, but nice.

Specifics (in this case I would not like to call it a minus) - the maximum number of players is three. (For comparison, USA and Europe can be played with up to 5 players)

Other differences:

* 40 wagons are used in the game.

* Jokers can be taken as normal suit cards, but can only be used in ferry routes.

* Any 3 cards can be used as one joker.

* The exception is the long road Murmansk - Lieksa. In it, any 4 cards can be exchanged for a card of the required color, but jokers count as normal cards (respectively, if you absolutely need a red card, you can exchange 4 jokers for one red card). In my gaming practice, I have not seen a case where someone would change it like that, but it is theoretically and practically possible.

My rating - 7.5 wagons out of 10. A beautiful hybrid of America and Europe. I remove the semi-wagon because it seems to have a full game set - cards, dice, but cannot be used with expansions.

Author: Mārtiņš Baumanis