Ticket to Ride is a classic family game you may have heard of. It is competitive, but not intensely so. Players are competing to build railways connecting specific cities and there are only so many routes available.
Each player up to 5 gets their own colored set of train cars to use to fill the board. Watch how quickly you use them though, because when a player gets under 5 train cars left, the end game begins. In order to play train cars, players collect cards of various train colors that match routes on the board. If a player would like to claim a 4 car route on the board, they need to have 4 cards of the same color to play. Longer routes are worth more points, but are harder to claim. Shorter routes aren't worth as many points, but can sneak in-between cities more easily.
In order to determine your route, you select destination tickets. Again, the longer routes are worth more points, but are more difficult to complete. You can choose how to complete your route and if you are feeling bold, you can take more destination tickets hoping for more points. Any uncompleted destination tickets in your hand at the end of the game count against you.
Ticket to Ride can take a little while to get going as you collect cards to lay routes, but that gives you some time to strategize and plot before laying anything. If this game sounds like fun, come try it out at one of our board game events.
