Archive for category Ticket to Ride
Places to Buy Ticket to Ride
Posted by oscar in Board Games, Ticket to Ride on October 17th, 2009
Ticket to Tide is a board game as well as a card game that revolves around building railroads and connecting cities. There are a number of ways to purchase the game both online and off.
Days of Wonder, which is the producer of the game, offers an extensive link on their website with options to purchase it and different variations of the game as well.
For the card game version they offer a kit that includes 96 train cards, 6 big city bonus cards, 46 destination tickets, 1 rule booklet and 1 Days of Wonder Online access number. The game is published in English, Dutch and Italian and is priced at $25.00.
There is also a dice extension of this card game. Players still attempt to complete their Destination Tickets and claim routes and block each other on the map.
But the difference is that instead of drawing and collecting Train cards, they roll five custom Train dice each turn. This set includes the 5 custom Train dice, 3 Tunnel dice, 1 Ticker to Ride dice cup, 15 Single Route Tokens, 15 Double Route Tokens and a rules booklet. The set is multilingual and proceed at $20.00.
The board game version is also available. It includes 1 Board of European train routes, 225 Colored Train Cars, 144 illustrated cards, 15 stations, 5 Wooden Scoring Markers, and 1 rules booklet. The game is published in English and is proceed at $50.00.
There is also the Ticket to Ride USA 1910 extension for the card game version. This extension contains 181 large format cards including 39 new Destination Tickets, and a new Globetrotter bonus card, Multilingual rules booklet with three ways to play, Rules in English, French, German, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish and Dutch.
There is another online source that offers the board game of Ticket to Ride for a lower cost than the Days of Wonder site. They are selling it for $39.00 and offer free shipping on orders of $25.00 and up and usually ships within 24 hours.
For more information on this offer visit www.jjthai.com/deta, an amazon.com associate.
There are a number of sources to buy Ticket to Ride offline as well. Most large chain stores such as Walmart or Target will carry the game. Wal-mart carries the 3 board game editions: The Original, Ticket to Ride Marklin Edition, which is the third installment in the bestselling series and Ticket to Ride European Edition.
All three are slightly cheaper than some of the online sources; they range from $43.97 to $49.97. Target sells just the original version of the Ticket to Ride board game for $ 49.99. There is a number of gaming specialty shops located around the world with different versions of the game as well.
The game can be bought in at least 9 different languages as well ranging from English, French, German, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish and Dutch.
Tips for Beginners on Ticket to Ride
Posted by oscar in Board Games, Ticket to Ride on October 13th, 2009
Ticket to Ride, originally board game created by Alan Moon and published by Days of Wonder in 2004, is a fun and exciting card game that can be enjoyed by 2-4 players from age 8 and up. The game contains 3 different types of cards:
1. Train cards that come in all colors
2. Route cards which contain point and color values and
3. Bonus cards that give you bonus points if you have the most of a certain city at the end of the game.
Basically you are just trying to acquire all the colors you can for your routes. If you see them in the revealed pile, you take them. Rainbow cards are very good and should always be taken when the chance arises.
There are a couple of good tips for beginners of this fast paced and exciting game. Aside from just sheer luck you need to have a strategy to stay on all of the routes without making too many detours.
A good Ticket to Ride strategy is performing magic and attempting to read the other players’ mind, watch their facial expressions and try to figure out which ticket to ride destination card they are holding.
You want to steal routes, that’s an excellent strategy, and a sure way to rack up your own routes and begin completing them. But beware with this strategy.
Only steal routes that will effectively connect your destinations. If the route doesn’t look like a good way to connect your destinations then leave it because at the end of the game, incomplete routes are deducted points.
Another effective strategy is cheap route buying.
That implies exactly what it sounds like but also has a double meaning. You want to buy routes that may be of no value to you but are very valuable to your opponents. By buying the routes that would create shorter distances for your opponents, you force them to have to take the longer route to connect their destinations which increases the chance that they may have incomplete routes at the end of the game thereby losing points.
The other meaning of cheap route buying is to buy the routes as cheap as possible but that also have the best payoff.
For example, buying a cheap route that runs through the center of the map is an excellent idea because chances are good most of your routes will need to intersect into the center of the map and if you own a center route you increase your chances of having more complete routes and possibly the longest route at the end of the game which earns an additional 10 points.
While playing this game to main skill you need to have down is having a good memory. You need to keep up with what colors your opponents have and play your game accordingly. The most valuable strategy however, is to have fun with it. It’s a fast paced game with lots of tension and excitement so enjoy it!
Reviews for Ticket to Ride
Posted by oscar in Board Games, Ticket to Ride on October 13th, 2009
Ticket to Ride the card game has been given a variety of mixed reviews by several types of gamers, from the casual to the hard core. The game has been misrepresented by some critics that indicate that the game did not surpass the original Ticket to Ride, board game.
The problem is that the card game is not meant to replace the board game. It’s a standalone entity that is based on the original idea of the board game but with a different formula of game play.
The creator of the game Alan Moon stated during an interview that he “… wanted to make sure that players of the Ticket to Ride Card Game would recognize the family resemblance to the board game, but also get to enjoy new and distinctive game play.”
With the card game there are no plastic train models or giant board maps. The game is solely about cards that are colorful and detailed.
The 3 types of cards are the route cards which have point and color values and there are Bonus cards that give bonus points if by the end of the game you have the most of a certain city.
Among the many reviews for this game one includes this one from Brian Lee, who is a professional gamer. “I really like this game because it plays fast, isn’t too mean and is portable.
However, do not compare it to the board game. It is meant to be different. Why would you want to get a dumbed-down version of the board game? Wouldn’t you rather get a radically different game? I definitely recommend it.
Advice from one gamer says: “In my opinion, the key to being successful is in coming up with a method of remembering what is in your “on the track” stack (since you are not allowed to browse through this face down stack).” (Thomas Smith) Having a good memory is one of the best strategies for playing this game according to many critics.
Most all other reviews for the card game are similar. It is a well liked game with the only negative reviews coming from individuals that try and compare the Ticket to Ride card game to the Ticket to Ride board game.
One gamer stated that the board game is easier to teach to new players because of the visual aids but that the card game is more skill-based and that if you are playing with a group that is addicted to the board game and just won’t stop playing, introduce the card game to the mix.
Other reviews agree that it is a bit overwhelming when trying to absorb all of the rules but that after having played a round it’s a blast with lots of tension and nail-biting excitement. They also recommend that interested players buy the 1910 expansion pack for further enjoyment. (Both reviews courtesy of Amazon.com)
Ticket to Ride is a widely popular game, whether it’s in the board game version or the card game version. Add that to all of the additional extensions that are available, it will probably be a favorite and no less a classic for years to come.
Latest News on Ticket to Ride
Posted by oscar in Board Games, Ticket to Ride on October 6th, 2009
The card game Ticket to Ride, originally a board game created by Alan Moon in 2004, has become a big hit across the nation as well as around the world.
Since its release, there have been several expansions to come out that give the game more flavor and creates a wider variety of interesting concepts. Some of the expansions include Ticket to Ride USA 1910 extension, The Original, Ticket to Ride Marklin Edition, which is the third installment in the bestselling series and Ticket to Ride European Edition.
There is also a dice extension of this card game. Players still attempt to complete their Destination Tickets and claim routes and block each other on the map, but the difference is that instead of drawing and collecting Train cards, they roll five custom Train dice each turn.
It has been a while now since there have been any latest editions or versions of the game released. This month Days of Wonder, the producer of the game, announced the latest edition to hit the market: Ticket to Ride” Europa 1912.
This expansion includes an additional 101 route cards to go with the original Ticket to Ride Europe and will ship with three different configurations:
You can combine a subset of the new cards with the original route cards to give your original version of Ticket to Ride Europe some extra excitement, get rid of all of the old route cards and opt for Tabula Rasa with all new routes or combine both full sets for a larger set of route cards sure to be overwhelming.
This newest edition is popular with critics because it’s going to change the dynamic of the original Ticket to Ride Europe, which some claimed to have lousy routes and why the Ticket to Ride Marklin was the most popular version. There are also some new mechanics included in this expansion.
This expansion also introduces Warehouses & Depots – new game rules and pieces that create an additional strategic layer and can be played with any of the Ticket to Ride maps. Wooden Train Depots are placed on cities selected by each player.
Throughout the game, each player’s Warehouse will accumulate Train cards and those who have the foresight, clever timing, or just plain good fortune to build a route to a Depot can make off with a fistful of Train cards.
Depot placement and skillful Warehouse tactics become a key part of a winning Ticket to Ride strategy! – Days of Wonder
There is a lot of excitement circling the gaming community for the release of this latest edition of Ticket to Ride: Europa 1912. The game is scheduled to release in October of this year.
The set will include 5 player warehouses, 25 wooden train depots, 101 Ticket to Ride Europe Destination Tickets, including 55 new and 46 original tickets and the rules booklet.
The price is $20.00. For more information and to order the game when it is released visit the Days of Wonder website at www.daysofwonder.com/tickettoride/en/europa1912/.
General Info on Ticket to Ride
Posted by oscar in Board Games, Ticket to Ride on October 6th, 2009
Ticket to Ride was originally a board game designed by Alan R. Moon and was published in 2004 by Days of Wonder. The game is a railway themed German style game that is also known as Zug um Zug (German), Les Aventuriers du Rail (French), Aventuros al Tren (Spanish) and Menolippu (Finnish).
The game won the 2004 Spiel des Jahres, the Origins Award for Best Board Game of 2004, the 2005 Diana Jones Award and also came in 2nd in the Schweizer Spielepreis for Family Games. The European version of Ticket to Ride won the 2005 International Gamers Award.
By august 2008, over 750.000 copies of the game had been sold according to its publisher. Ticket to Ride is a game that is centered on the idea of building railroads and connecting cities with the players’ routes.
For the card game version there are 3 different types of cards: train cards that come in all colors, route cards which contain point and color values and bonus cards that give you bonus points if you have the most of a certain city at the end of the game.
The board game version is made up of an oversized board map of North America, 225 custom-molded train cars, 144 illustrated cards and wooden scoring markers. In this version the game players collect cards of various types of train cars which they use to claim railway routes across North America.
The longer the routes, the more points they can earn. Players can earn additional points when they fulfill Destination Tickets, which are goal cards that connect distant cities, and they can also earn additional points by building the longest continuous route.
Ticket to Ride the card game has been given a variety of mixed reviews by several types of gamers, from the casual to the hard core. The game has been misrepresented by some critics that indicate that the game did not surpass the original Ticket to Ride, board game.
The problem is that the card game is not meant to replace the board game. It’s a standalone entity that is based on the original idea of the board game but with a different formula of game play.
The creator of the game Alan Moon stated during an interview that he “… wanted to make sure that players of the Ticket to Ride Card Game would recognize the family resemblance to the board game, but also get to enjoy new and distinctive game play.”
This month Days of Wonder, the producer of the game, announced the latest edition to hit the market: Ticket to Ride” Europa 1912. This new edition is set to hit the market in October of this year.
While playing this game the main skill you need to have down is having a good memory. You need to keep up with what colors your opponents have and play your game accordingly.
The most valuable strategy however, is to have fun with it. It’s a fast paced game with lots of tension and excitement so enjoy it!
Variations of Ticket to Ride
Posted by oscar in Board Games, Ticket to Ride on October 5th, 2009
There are two variations to the game Ticket to Ride. When it was originally published, it was a board game that was made up of an oversized board map of North America, 225 custom-molded train cars, 144 illustrated cards and wooden scoring markers.
In this version the game players collect cards of various types of train cars which they use to claim railway routes across North America. The longer the routes, the more points they can earn.
Players can earn additional points when they fulfill Destination Tickets, which are goal cards that connect distant cities, and they can also earn additional points by building the longest continuous route.
The Destination Tickets represent two end points that the players are secretly trying to connect. Each turn, the players collect “railway car cards” in the various colors, draw additional “destination cards” or use railway car cards to claim routes on the map and earn points.
The routes are all different lengths and each route marked on the board can only be claimed by one player. Some cities are connected by two parallel routes that can each be claimed by a different player.
The longer routes are worth more points than the shorter ones. The game ends when one player runs out of his or her colored train pieces. When this happens, each player plays an additional turn and then reveals their “destination cards”.
There are also extra points given when route cards are successfully completed and subtracted for incomplete route cards. Whichever player has the longest continuous route at the end of the game is also rewarded an additional ten points.
In Ticket to Ride, the card game, the play differs somewhat. There are no plastic train models or giant game boards. There are only cards which contain lots of color and detail.
There are 3 different type of cards:
- Train cards that come in all colors,
- Route cards which contain point and color values
- Bonus cards that give you bonus points if you have the most of a certain city at the end of the game.
In order to complete your route cards, you need to have the right color train cards that your route cards require. To be able to pay for your route cards, you need to get your train cards into your “On-the Track” pile.
And in order to get your cards into the “On-the Track” pile you have to place them in the “danger” pile and wait for your turn again. When your turn comes back around, you place one card from each color that you own face down in your safe pile, you are not suppose to look at the these cards until the end of the game.
Now your train can be “robbed” by other players if they play more cards of a certain color than you have. For example, if you have 2 green cards and Jacob plays 3 green cards, your cards have now been destroyed.
The games are similar but not. The creator of the game during an interview stated that “I wanted to make sure that players of the Ticket to Ride Card Game would recognize the family resemblance to the board game, but also get to enjoy new and distinctive game play.”
Rules of Ticket to Ride
Posted by oscar in Board Games, Ticket to Ride on October 5th, 2009
Ticket to Ride was originally a board game designed by Alan Moon. Although the basic concept of the game is the same, the card game is a different sort of style. There are no plastic train models or giant game boards. There are only cards which contain lots of color and detail.
There 3 different type of cards: train cards that come in all colors, route cards which contain point and color values and bonus cards that give you bonus points if you have the most of a certain city at the end of the game. It can get confusing as to which cards do what and how to play them but let’s see if we can work this out.
In order to complete your route cards, you need to have the right color train cards that your route cards require. To be able to pay for your route cards, you need to get your train cards into your “On-the Track” pile. And in order to get your cards into the “On-the Track” pile you have to place them in the “danger” pile and wait for your turn again.
When your turn comes back around, you place one card from each color that you own face down in your safe pile, you are not suppose to look at the these cards until the end of the game.
Now your train can be “robbed” by other players if they play more cards of a certain color than you have. For example, if you have 2 green cards and Jacob plays 3 green cards, your cards have now been destroyed.
After you take one card from watch of the colors that you own and place it in your safe pile, you have these options:
Draw Options-
1) draw 2 cards from the 5 revealed train cards,
2) draw 2 cards from the face-down train stack,
3) draw 1 card from the revealed cards and 1 from the face-down train rack and
4) draw 1 rainbow train card from the revealed cards.
Draw Routes- draw 4 want to play route cards and throw away 0-4 of them
Play Cards- Play 3 different colored train cards that nobody else has on the board, play at least 2 cards of the same color ( if someone already has the color you want to play, you must play more of it). For example if Jacob has 2 greens, you must play at least 3 greens to destroy his 2.
Basically you are just trying to acquire all the colors you can for your routes. If you see them in the revealed pile, you take them. Rainbow cards are very good and should always be taken when the chance arises.
This is a fast paced game that up to four people can play. When playing with for people the cards in the discard deck are reshuffled and the process starts over once the last card is drawn the first time. It is a game that does require a good memory but not a lot of extra skills.
Where to Play Ticket to Ride Online
Posted by oscar in Board Games, Ticket to Ride on October 5th, 2009
There are over 15 million games played, a new game starting every 13 seconds, 24 hours a day, and 365 days a year. There is an active community of over 50,000 players from cities in all reaches of the world including Sydney, Berlin, Paris, Seoul, Los Angeles and New Delhi.
There is an exclusive site for people interested in playing Ticket to Ride online. It would probably be the most recommended site to play the game on since it is solely for the game of Ticket to Ride where as many other sites cater to hundreds of online games and may not offer the full support that a site catering to only one type of game can offer.
This online Ticket to Ride gaming site has introduced Robots (aka Bots) that are programs that play like other players. If you want to play alone you can create a table full of robots to stand in as your opponents and in this case your game will not be ranked so it’s a good way to brush up on your game skills before combating your friends and family.
The game can be played two ways through this site. In one way you can play right away using the Web Game by just clicking on the “Play” button which is in the top menu bar or you can get the downloadable game which offers a more complete experience. They offer versions for both Windows and Mac OS X.
You can play the game with other people from anywhere in the world and the site has a link that is known as netiquette which is in essence exactly what it sounds like. In order to optimize all of the gamer’s experience; the site would like to establish a set of ground rules for common courtesy for everyone.
They offer complete technical support to cover all potential problem areas that may occur while playing the online game.
They also offer a breakdown of the steps needed to get started playing the game whether you decide to play via the “Web Game” as well as the downloadable version. There are user pages and community forums where players can connect and discuss strategies and other game topics.
This site is a link from the actual producers of the game Days of Wonder. The entire site does have links for other games that they have created both for online players as well as the board versions for real live playing.
The company prides itself in creating games that are great to play as well as providing the materials in a game that make it a pleasure to play. The company also boasts on its “ability to set the standard for the highest quality components and uncompromising production values.”
If you are interested in playing Ticket to Ride online I recommend you try out Days of Wonder Ticket to Ride Online. Visit this link to get started playing this fun and exciting game now www.daysofwonder.com/tickettoride
History of Ticket to Ride
Posted by oscar in Board Games, Card Games, Ticket to Ride on October 5th, 2009
Ticket to Ride was originally a board game designed by Alan R. Moon and was published in 2004 by Days of Wonder. Moon had an early introduction to the classic American board games and traditional card games from his youth.
His professional career has been full of many accomplishments ranging from an Assistant Editor for Avalon hill’s magazine called The General, a developer at Parker Brothers and he also founded his own game company called White Wind.
He was the Director of Games at FX Schmid USA and the Vice President at Ravensburger. Alan Moon has designed and co-designed many games including Elfenland, Union Pacific and San Marco.
The game is a railway themed German style game that is also known as Zug um Zug (German), Les Aventuriers du Rail (French), Aventuros al Tren (Spanish) and Menolippu (Finnish).
The game won the 2004 Spiel des Jahres, the Origins Award for Best Board Game of 2004, the 2005 Diana Jones Award and also came in 2nd in the Schweizer Spielepreis for Family Games. The European version of Ticket to Ride won the 2005 International Gamers Award.
By august 2008, over 750.000 copies of the game had been sold according to its publisher. Ticket to Ride is a game that is centered on the idea of building railroads and connecting cities with the players’ routes.
There are two variations to the game Ticket to Ride. When it was originally published, it was a board game that was made up of an oversized board map of North America, 225 custom-molded train cars, 144 illustrated cards and wooden scoring markers.
In this version the game players collect cards of various types of train cars which they use to claim railway routes across North America. The longer the routes, the more points they can earn.
Players can earn additional points when they fulfill Destination Tickets, which are goal cards that connect distant cities, and they can also earn additional points by building the longest continuous route.
In Ticket to Ride, the card game, the play differs somewhat. There are no plastic train models or giant game boards. There are only cards which contain lots of color and detail.
There 3 different type of cards: train cards that come in all colors, route cards which contain point and color values and bonus cards that give you bonus points if you have the most of a certain city at the end of the game.
The games are different and are not really meant to be compared to one another. While the idea remains the same, at the end of the game you want to be the player with the most routes complete, and also strive to have the longest completed routes as well.
Alan Moon, during an interview stated that “I wanted to make sure that players of the Ticket to Ride Card Game would recognize the family resemblance to the board game, but also get to enjoy new and distinctive game play.”
Places Where You Can Buy Ticket to Ride
Posted by oscar in Board Games, Ticket to Ride on October 5th, 2009
Ticket to Tide is a board game as well as a card game that revolves around building railroads and connecting cities. There are a number of ways to purchase the game both online and off.
Days of Wonder, which is the producer of the game, offers an extensive link on their website with options to purchase it and different variations of the game as well.
For the card game version they offer a kit that includes 96 train cards, 6 big city bonus cards, 46 destination tickets, 1 rule booklet and 1 Days of Wonder Online access number. The game is published in English, Dutch and Italian and is priced at $25.00.
There is also a dice extension of this card game. Players still attempt to complete their Destination Tickets and claim routes and block each other on the map. But the difference is that instead of drawing and collecting Train cards, they roll five custom Train dice each turn.
This set includes the 5 custom Train dice, 3 Tunnel dice, 1 Ticker to Ride dice cup, 15 Single Route Tokens, 15 Double Route Tokens and a rules booklet. The set is multilingual and proceed at $20.00.
The board game version is also available. It includes 1 Board of European train routes, 225 Colored Train Cars, 144 illustrated cards, 15 stations, 5 Wooden Scoring Markers, and 1 rules booklet. The game is published in English and is proceed at $50.00.
There is also the Ticket to Ride USA 1910 extension for the card game version. This extension contains 181 large format cards including 39 new Destination Tickets, and a new Globetrotter bonus card, Multi-lingual rules booklet with three ways to play, Rules in English, French, German, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish and Dutch.
There is another online source that offers the board game of Ticket to Ride for a lower cost than the Days of Wonder site. They are selling it for $39.00 and offer free shipping on orders of $25.00 and up and usually ships within 24 hours. For more information on this offer visit www.jjthai.com/deta, an amazon.com associate.
There are a number of sources to buy Ticket to Ride offline as well. Most large chain stores such as Wal-mart or Target will carry the game. Wal-mart carries the 3 board game editions: The Original, Ticket to Ride Marklin Edition, which is the third installment in the bestselling series and Ticket to Ride European Edition.
All three are slightly cheaper than some of the online sources; they range from $43.97 to $49.97. Target sells just the original version of the Ticket to Ride board game for $ 49.99. There is a number of gaming specialty shops located around the world with different versions of the game as well.
The game can be bought in at least 9 different languages as well ranging from English, French, German, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish and Dutch.
Oscar
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