Asmodee Ticket to Ride Europe Board Game - Embark on a Railway Adventure Across The Continent! Fun Family Strategy Game for Kids & Adults, Ages 8+, 2-5 Players, 30-60 Min Playtime

I love playing video games but at times I want to take a break from viewing a monitor or TV screen. My wife and I enjoy a few board games and playing cards, but I wanted some more in-depth to play that is not Monopoly, Sorry, Uno, and etc. I would love to play games like Risk or something in those veins, but I know she will not be up for it. My first tough was to get Catan, but sadly we need at least three players, and my daughter is barely 8 months, so she doesn’t count. I was looking for a game that would fit all these requirements and still be fun for her, but be something that was a little different and I remembered a game I got for free on my iPad a few months back called Ticket to Ride. I remembered having a lot of fun with it but playing against AI was not as fun after a while. I did some research on this game and showed my wife to see if she would be interested. We found that they had another version that was based in Europe instead of the US, and since we love traveling, we opted to get this out. Boy, it was a great investment. The night that it came my in-laws were over for dinner, and I asked if they wanted to play. They said sure to try something else. I was a little concerned as the instructions were a book, and it had a rule that was not in the iPad game since this was a newer version, but we opted to play the game in sections and introduce more advanced features (such as the Stations, ferries, and tunnels) with each new time we played. My in-laws and wife were hooked on his game. It is so simple to play yet, it is also complicated and provides a nice bit of strategy if you want to win. If you notice someone is trying to get to a particular place, do you be a jerk and claim that line, but you could risk losing your own line later? It is really fun to see how each game goes. I will admit the first game we played we had major issues fining some of the Eastern European locations, and none of us have been (or recognize) a few of the names, but after a couple of play thoughts, we now have a great grasp on everything. What I like is that each game can be done in about 30 min to 1 hour. This is great because anything longer would be too hard, as the baby could wake up and spoil the rest of the game. We have not had this be an issue where a game went over that time frame (yet). The concept for this game is SUPER simple, but it takes a while to master. Mark train lines to get from Point A to Point B in the faster route possible. You do this by collecting a train card. You have to have a specific color of train cards to claim a route. What makes this interesting is you can only do one of three things each time it is your turn: 1. Claim a Route 2. Pull Train Cards (from stack or on the board) 3. Get another route card So you have to plan each turn carefully. Is it worth claiming a route, when you see a while card in the open deck? You are out of routes, but do you use your turn to do something else. Each route you claim is worth a certain amount of points, and the object is to get the most points before someone has less than two of their own person trains. Just because you get rid of all your trains doesn’t mean you win, as we have had a game where other people win as they claimed more complicated routes. This is a great game to play and we look forward to teaching our daughter it when she is a bit older, as it is just different from other games currently out on the market, and it makes for a really great time!

Easy to learn but so many variations in strategy that it’s never boring to play. No wonder there are so many geographic editions that include tunnels and ferries (Europe).

I read the reviews on this game and watched some YouTube video reviews as well and decided to purchase it for some new euro style gaming. I previously had purchased another euro style game called Carcassonne which is now a family favorite (or should I say favourite) and I was looking for something else to add to the gaming mix. Ticket To Ride Europe fit with what I was looking for. I first compared the two prominent versions of the game: the USA map to the Europe map and read comparison reviews on them both before deciding to buy. I went with the Europe version of the game because it seems there were more route paths to connect your cities compared to the USA map. What I did not expect was the names of the European cities to be really old and spelled differently than what I am used to now. I think it was done this way to fit into the time period, but not being that familiar with the old names of the European cities it was difficult for us to determine our various routes. The route cards do show a mini map though with highlights in the general area of the two cities you need to connect, but it is still a bit difficult especially for the younger kids in the family. What this means is that we need to take extra time in looking at our route cards and the map to decide on our paths to build. Other than getting used to the city names the only other minor downside I see in the game is that there are so many train pieces. You have to be really careful not to drop them all over the place when picking up. The game does come with 2 extra train pieces per color which is good in case you lose a couple. After that though you may have to dock everyone a piece if you really start losing some (or buy a new game). Regarding the game play, it is great! Not too difficult to learn at all and once everyone knows what they have to do it moves along at a good pace. Although our initial games of 4 and then 5 people lasted about 2.5 hours each to play which everyone thought was a bit too long. The non players passing through the room kept making comments like "You guys are STILL playing that game?!?!" and "When the hell is it going to be over already?!?". But those of us playing the game were not fatigued at all by the amount of time it was taking us to get through it. I think it is conceivable to have a game last maybe 1.5 hours on average. Overall, the family really liked this game. It is definitely a must for a unique and new type of gaming experience that is interactive and not just your boring roll the dice and move type thing. I will be getting the Ticket To Ride 1912 Expansion pack for this game as well since I have read it adds a couple more elements to the play in addition to some new route cards. UPDATE: It has been about 1 year now since I had the game and I did get the 1912 expansion which adds a ton more route cards to the game. We have been playing this game so much that the base routes kept coming up and it was getting a bit boring. It seemed like we were always getting the same routes game after game. The 1912 Expansion is a MUST. My family is addicted to this game and even more so with the 1912 expansion. This is a GREAT GAME.

Having loved and played "Ticket to Ride" countless numbers of times, I decided it was time to buy Ticket to Ride Europe. It's pretty amazing, and comes with a couple more challenges than the original game. (I love trying to pronounce all the old cities of Europe.) The basic rules are the same as they are in Ticket to Ride, gameplay follows the same general order. On your turn, you collect train car cards to get enough to go from one city to another, (If the track has three green spaces, you need three green cards) to accomplish the route on your destination tickets. "Europe" comes with train stations allowing you to connect easier, and also the foreboding ferries and tunnels. The ferries are routes that cross any body of water (makes sense, right?) and you must have, in addition to your cards of the same color, however many locomotives (wild cards) shown on that part of your route. (Example: "Palermo" to "Roma" is a gray track ferry with 4 parts. One of them must be a wild and the other three could be a matching three of any color.) Then there are the tunnels, which are like others, except, after you lay down your cards, before placing your trains on the board, you must flip over the first three cards on the train car card draw deck. If one, two or all three are either the colors you are playing to go from city to city, or wilds, you must have that many more cards of that color (or wilds.) Example: you are trying to go from "Paris" to "Zurich" (which is a gray tunnel route, 3 long), so you play two blues and a wild card. Before placing your trains on the board, you flip over the first card. Say it's a green. No problem. Then, you flip over a second card and it's a white. Good so far. Then, flip over the last card and it's a wild (which counts as a blue.) This means, you must (in addition to the three cards you are playing) play one more blue or wild card in your hand to go on that route. If there were two flipped over, you must have an additional two, and the same if all three. (Of course, there are times when none of the three present a problem and you can play your route like normal, which is nice.) If you don't have either a blue or a wild, you cannot play there and your turn ends. Now, that was kind of a long-winded example, but it makes it quite a bit harder, especially if you have a route that has many tunnel tracks. It can also be VERY frustrating. To sum it up, Ticket to Ride Europe is a very fun game that is easily taught, easily learned and easily played. Anyways,

While the game is laughably unbalanced, Ticket To Ride Europe offers enough strategy and fun gameplay mechanics to keep even more seasoned board game fans coming back. I first played this very recently, long after my initiation into the world of pricey euro-style board games. I grabbed this to play with my regular group and, while we all liked the game very much and intend to make it a mainstay of our get-togethers, I feel like it's necessary to point out a few minor gripes I have with the game. As I've said, the game is hilariously unbalanced but that's mostly from its goal as being more consumer friendly than your more serious board games, such as Agricola or Castles of Burgundy. While the introduction of ferries and mountain paths to this new version adds variety and alternatives to player strategies, there are some nasty chokepoints that often come into play in the heavily overlapping "main goal" cards which can be very frustrating. Though I must say that railroad stations allow you to bypass losing a critical section of rail at the cost of four points each (up to three times) at the end of the game. Despite this making the game a little lighter on the strategy side, I still think it's a very fun game to play with friends when you're just in the mood for something light. Players looking for something very similar in terms of mechanics (with regards to the point system and not the system of building railroads) should look into Lords of Waterdeep. Its D&D setting may turn some away from LoWD, but the mechanics make for a very fun and strategic game that resembles Ticket to Ride enough to help with the initiation process for new players, while also adding much needed complexity and strategy. Another gripe with Ticket to Ride I have, and most likely my biggest, is just how cheap the game feels. The board looks simple but pleasing, in the style of an old-timey map, but the pieces are made of plastic and feel very cheap, even as far as plastic pieces go. Also, the cards feel small and cheaply cut as well. After buying Takenoko, Power Grid, and Puerto Rico, I was very disappointed to open up Ticket to Ride and see how much they scrimped on the materials. I can understand the need to maintain cost effectiveness, especially at a game aimed at beginners, but given its unbelievable popularity and similar asking price as the other games I've mentioned, I would have expected an updated version of the game to include better pieces than cheap plastic trash. Still, I think this game is a lot of fun to play when you accept it for what it is and acknowledge its shortcomings. I would really give the game a 4.5, given its fun and accessible nature as pros and the aforementioned gripes as cons, but decided to round up instead of down to reflect the amount of fun I've had with the game. It's simple, somewhat mindless fun (particularly with only two or three players), but fun nonetheless and I'd easily recommend it to even the most seasoned players.

One of my very favorite board games! Since there are lots of reviews about this game in general, I'll write mine in comparison to the original "America" one. "Ticket to Ride: Europe" is a stand-alone, full board game made of the same quality and durability as the original. The train pieces are plastic, the point markers are wood, and the board is heavy-duty and the same dimensions as the America one. The biggest improvement over the America version is that the train and ticket cards are all full-size instead of mini half-size of the original America version, so you don't need to buy an expansion simply to get larger, easier-to-handle cards. In many ways, "Europe" feels much more balanced than the America version, with more double paths and more tracks in general to get to different cities, where in the America version you could get blocked much easier. Also in the Europe version, the long 20-point routes are separated at the start and each player is randomly dealt 1 along with 3 other short/normal sized routes to choose from. This ensures that every player has the chance to complete a large cross-continent route, which was often the winning strategy of the America board - but only if you happened to of had a long route dealt to you at the start. The inclusion of the new station markers allows you to utilize one of your opponents route segments so you can finish a ticket without building parts of the route. This is really useful in crowded areas of the board where you are unable to build a route. However, don't let these things fool you - there are other elements that increase the difficulty (and entertainment) of "Ticket to Ride: Europe". There are a few routes that are MUCH longer than any routes in the America version that take much more effort to complete. "Ferries" and "tunnels" make even short routes trickier to build: ferries require you to use a certain amount of rainbow locomotive cards to complete while tunnels may require extra cards from your hand depending on a random draw from the deck. These elements can keep even the best strategist in check and allow less experienced players to have a chance at winning. I personally also enjoy that the cities on the board are given their historical local names rather than their Americanized names, so the game acts as a bit of a geography lesson for those unfamiliar with Europe. I'm still a fan of the original America version; it has its own quirks and balance so I can't say I prefer one over the other. If you enjoy the Ticket to Ride series and would like to buy some of the expansion boards (like the "Asia" or "Africa" boards) but don't own either base set, I might recommend the Europe game over the America one just because of the full-size train and ticket cards.

'Gateway Plus' because the 'Europe' variant adds several new mechanisms that create a richer gameplay experience, while retaining most of the original's elegance. Players can take one of four actions on a turn - take train cards (to build routes in the future), take destination tickets (to acquire new points scoring objectives), claim routes by using the appropriate set of train cards (to score points and progress against objectives), or build a train station (to claim a route in alternate way). This simplicity allows the game to move at a very fast clip because players have usually chosen their action by the time their turns come around. The addition of train stations, tunnels, and ferries add a light, but welcome layer of complexity. They also work well from a thematic point of view. Train stations offer additional flexibility. They mitigate the element of chance inherent to drawing destination tickets or being blocked off by an opponent, and they are almost necessary given that the European map is much less interconnected than its United States counterpart. Tunnels add an element of risk that forces players to think more about hand management. And ferries change the way players go about acquiring and using their locomotives. It's little wonder that 'Ticket to Ride' games stand out as one of the most well-known and beloved gateway game series. For me, 'Ticket to Ride: Europe' is superior to vanilla 'Ticket to Ride' in almost every way with significantly higher replay and engagement value. Pros: + Retains most of the elegance and simplicity of vanilla 'Ticket to Ride' + Richer gameplay thanks to addition of new gameplay mechanisms + Players feel a sense of accomplishment even if they don't win + Moves at a fast clip; players quickly get into the groove of pre-planning their turn + Beautiful board game with high quality, colorful game components + Just enough strategy and optionality for a gateway game + Beats out the original in terms of replayability Cons: - Train and railroad theme is not for everyone - Location names can be difficult to read across the table - Luck of the draw can make a big impact in regards to destination tickets - Slightly more complicated than vanilla Ticket to Ride - Little player interaction outside seeking to block others - Works with 2, but not very well

We love this game. At first, it seemed intimidating. But once we got started , it was really easy. When is the things I love is that you can finish the game and one sitting. It doesn't take super long to get through it.so fun