subject: Ticket To Ride Board Game [print this page] In Ticket to Ride Europe, you can travel by train through turn-of-the-centure Europe. In the second part of the Ticket to Ride franchise there are several new elements which we'll look at here. Lovingly designed and drawn, the board, trains, stations, tunnels and ferries show great design choices too.
Pieces and gameplay which have changed in Ticket to Ride Europe are:
Pieces: Bigger, easily shuffled train cards; Stations, which are plastic pieces sitting over the trains; a wonderfully illustrated map, which serves as the game board.
Missions: Mission -- or destination -- cards are distributed at the start of the game. The longest ones are now marked separately so that you can build strategy around this from the start.
Ferries: Use Ferries to cross Europe's many waterways, but each comes with a price. You'll need at least one locomotive card up your sleeve to pass.
Tunnels: By cutting under the mountains, you can save plenty of time and circuitous routes. However, you also risk a cave in or other dangers. To show this risk, for each time you try to pass through, you have to turn over the top 3 cards from the deck. For each that matches the colour of your carriage cards, you must match them again to complete the set ... or forfeit your turn.
Train Stations: Another new game piece in Ticket to Ride Europe are the train stations. Each unused train station is worth four victory points ... and that's not something to throw away lightly! However, train stations allow you to co-opt someone else's route, meaning that you need not be cut off by an opponent's tracks.
Ticket to Ride Europe is an exciting addition to the franchise and an award-winning game perfect for family or friendly play.
