The Train Game

Continuing on our game journey I thought I would introduce one of my favorite board games Ticket to Ride (aka The Train Game). It's my favorite because it's simple to learn but there are several strategies you can take to win. Plus we have it on the Xbox Arcade so I can play a few games during nap time!

Ticket to Ride can be played with 2-5 players (another bonus!) but gets a lot more fun and complicated with more players. When five people are playing you are bound to see a little more cutthroat action since the board gets pretty crowded. The idea behind the game is that you are creating train routes between cities. You start the game with 2-3 routes and as you complete them you can pick up more. Long routes (like from New York to Los Angeles) are worth more points then short routes (Portland to Los Angeles). At the end of the game you add up the points of the routes you completed and the points from your trains on the board and then subtract the points of the routes you did not complete. There's definiately a risk/reward element to the game which is fun.

The game takes about 45 minutes to play so it's not a super long game which is nice. Unfortunately the only pictures I have of us playing this game is from Thanksgiving when I played with my Mom, Aunt Rhonda, and cousin Randi (who's 11 and actually won our first game!). None of the pictures show the actual game board so I'm borrowing one from a super helpful website for all things related to board games called Board Game Geek. There's a couple other versions of Ticket to Ride out there including Ticket to Ride: Europe which I have on the Xbox Arcade. For the most part the game play is the same but the classic American version is my favorite.