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Ticket to Ride: The Card GameList Price: $25.00
 
from 3 customer reviews
Product Awards:
Games Magazine Awards
Best Family Card Game Nominee, 2009
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The Ticket to Ride Card Game delivers all of the excitement, fun and nail-biting tension of the original Ticket to Ride board game, but with several unique game-play twists in a new stand-alone, card game format.
Players collect sets of illustrated Train cards which are then used to complete Destination Tickets -- routes between two cities depicted on each ticket. But before their Train cards can be used, players must face the risk of "train-robbing", where another player may force them to lose their hard-earned cards.
Every fan of the board game will want to own a copy of the Ticket to Ride Card Game!
From the general response this game has been given, it's been badgered for not surpassing the original Ticket to Ride. And that's the problem with those people. It's not meant to replace the board game.
Ticket to Ride: The Card Game stands alone in a different sort of style. Gone are the plastic train models, the giant board and the teensy weensy cards. The game is just about cards. Big, fat, colorful and detailed cards.
There are 3 types: Train cards that come in all colors. Route cards that have point values and color values on them. Finally there are Bonus cards which give you bonus points if you have the most of a certain city at the end of the game.
So how do we play this game? To get points, you must complete route cards at the end of the game. To complete route cards, you need to the right color of train cards that your route cards require. And to be able to pay for your route cards, you need to get your train cards into your "On-the-track" pile, which I refer to as the "safe" pile. And to get train cards into the safe pile, you need to place them on the "danger" or exposed pile, then wait for your turn again. At the beginning of your turn, one card from each color that you own in front of you is placed face-down into your safe pile.
So get that? Points < Route Cards < "Safe" Train Cards < "Danger" Safe Cards
However, your trains can get "robbed" or as I say, "bombed" or "sniped" by other players if they play more cards of a color that you have. So say you have 2 green cards. If Larry plays 3 green cards, your green cards have been destroyed.
On your turn, the first thing you do is take one card from each of the colors that you own and place them face-down into your safe pile. You can never look at these cards until the end of the game.
Then you can do one of the following:
DRAW TRAINS:
DRAW ROUTES:
PLAY CARDS:
Yea, it looks overwhelming, but it's really simple. Just look at the colors you need for your routes and if you see them in the revealed pile, just take them. Rainbows are very good and should be taken.
The biggest choice you want in this game is if you want to play aggressively or defensively. To play aggressive, you'll want to play cards in the 3-color method, however you are prone to being sniped. You can however get cards in your safe stack faster.
To play defensively, you'll do the opposite; waiting for vulnerable cards and sniping them with larger amounts.
The game is about playing cards, sniping people and figuring out the colors you need. Once the train draw pile is gone, the game ends and now you pay your routes with your train cards in your safe stack. You can now look at them and match them up. The routes you beat get you points and the ones you don't SUBTRACT from your total. Then whoever has the most cities from their COMPLETED routes get bonuses. Highest point wins.
So that's about it.
The game is fast and fits four. A four player game however, reshuffles the discard deck and does the process again, after the last card is drawn the first time.
I like the game because again, it's fast, it doesn't require too much thinking, the art is great, there are no fiddly pieces, the game is portable, the cards are big and it's not too mean.
People complain about the memory factor of the game. I don't think think this is a bad thing and in fact I consider it a blessing. It adds more depth to the game; it adds more to master. To counteract it anyway, you can simply get colors for routes with a few circles and then put those missions face down to let yourself know that you beat them.
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.
The previous reviewer provided an excellent description of the game so I will not duplicate that effort. The game is a good one. My wife and I enjoy playing it as a two player game (it has become one we play often) and we do get to play it as a three player game on occasion (which is even more fun). We have not yet played the four player version. 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). Having not yet found a method which works for me (as if I will ever find one), I go with a “feeling” for what I have placed in the stack. Unfortunately, this usually results in my taking on too many tickets and losing valuable points. If one has a really good idea of what is in their stack on their last turn of the game, and they know it to be a surplus situation, they can take four tickets as their last action, keep any that they know they can complete and discard the rest... a quick way to pick up some last-minute points. The game allows for some interaction via your ability to force an opponent to discard cards from their rail yard (always a “nice” thing to do... what’s a game without opportunities to be “nice”). The cards are of excellent quality (and are full size... a pleasant change from the current trend of utilizing those annoying small cards). My only complaint (a minor one) is that the design on the back of the cards is much too similar to the design on the faces. In closing, the game is a good one and one that plays fast, which is great for those times when you do not have a lot of time but want to get a couple of rounds of something enjoyable in.
I had some trepidation about playing Ticket to Ride: the Card Game (Days of Wonder, 2008 - Alan R. Moon), because I enjoyed the board game so much that I didn't think a card game could possibly live up to it. Ticket to Ride is the most popular game I own, and I've introduced it to hundreds of folks with high success. I was eager to see the card game, and to see if portability had been injected into this tremendous series. T2R:TCG (what a bunch of initials!) used memory and card drafting to form an interesting experience, but it was not one that reminded me of the original game.
I think it's best described as watching a good movie sequel, except the main actor you loved from the first movie has been replaced. T2R:TCG is a good, fun little card game, which only really suffers from comparisons to the basic game. Forget that Ticket to Ride exists, and you'll find folks who enjoy this game. You will have to have some fondness for memory games, and there is the opportunity to really mess with your opponents; but most folks I've played the game with have found it enjoyable.
There are two different card types in this game. First, one locomotive and five other Train cards are dealt to each player. Then a deck of the rest of the train cards, made up of ten each of seven different colors and sixteen locomotives, is shuffled and placed in the middle of the table. Five of these cards are placed face up, along with six "Big City" bonus cards. A pile of ticket cards is shuffled; and six are dealt to each player, who must decide which of them they will keep (a minimum of one, but the player can keep them all if they choose). The youngest player goes first, and play proceeds clockwise.
On a player's turn, if they have any face-up train cards in front of them, one of each color is placed in a face down "On the Track" stack that they cannot look at until the end of the game. Then, the player can either
When the last card is drawn from the train deck, each player has only one more turn (unless it's a four player game - in which case the deck is gone through again). Players then discard all remaining train cards in their hands, and use only their "On the Track" stack to complete as many of their own tickets as they can. Each ticket shows two cities that it connects, as well as the cards needed to complete it (each train card can be applied to only one ticket). For example, the Chicago to San Francisco needs a white, yellow, purple, and orange card for completion. Players score points for each ticket they complete and lose points for tickets that they cannot complete. Locomotives, acting as wild cards can be used to complete any tickets. Also, the player with the most completed tickets to each of the Big Cities takes the bonus card for that city, adding the points on it (from 8 to 12) to their score. The player with the highest score is the winner!
Some comments on the game...
So ignore the name of this game - your liking of it will have nothing to do with your opinion of the board game, good or bad. Think instead about the mechanics. If a card drafting, memory-heavy, confrontation-filled, fairly random card game sounds interesting - especially with a train theme involved - then this is the game. Most folks who played it said: "It's not as good as Ticket to Ride, but it's pretty fun." Since that seems to be my consensus as well, let's leave it at that.
Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games"
www.thedicetower.com
