Ticket To Ride: what makes it great

Usually when I write about a game, you may have no way to truly understand what I am talking about until you buy the game. However, the great thing about Ticket To Ride is that you can go to daysofwonder.com and play Ticket To Ride right now for free (for a trial period). I understand that they also have iPad and iPhone/pod versions of the game. So, go play it now. You'll be glad you did. It is a great game. One of the best for introducing new players to new strategy games and also a great one to play with a family of non-gamers who say they "don't like to think too hard."

So, as we normally do on this blog, let's analyze what makes the game, in this case Ticket To Ride, so great. First of all, the rules are simple. Players may not understand right away, but it will only take a turns and they will have the hang of it. People cards, they play those cards to lay track, only one player can use each track, and they want to complete the routes on their tickets any way they can. The nice thing about this simplicity is that it still allows enough variation for one's strategy to change every game in terms of how many tickets they take, when they lay down trains, and where they they their trains. (In other words, it is not too simple.)

Second, the train cards (which players use to lay down trains) always have 5 out, face-up at time. Players can choose from those 5 or take 1 off the top of the shuffled deck. Randomness is always something that strategy games need to mitigate and having 5 cards out accomplishes that mitigation nicely. Certainly, sometimes the randomness still ruins a player in that the color they need doesn't show up; nevertheless, it is much, much better than if players always had to draw off the top, being completely subject to the randomness of the deck. In fact, I am certain that Ticket To Ride would be ruined if players always had to draw a unknown card off the deck instead of having the chance to choose from 5 known cards.

As I have already said, Ticket To Ride is a very simple game. (Keep in mind, I am only analyzing the original here, not any of the variations/expansions.) Along those lines, there are a few small things to design that are very important (for instance, only being able to lay down one length of track at a time, as opposed to being able to lay multiple) to the game's fine-tuned gameplay, but there is only one other major piece that contributes to its greatness. That is the map.

Taken from Games By Johnny blog.
If wished, I can take down and use a different pic.

The map is clearly been play-tested and balanced well. The choices were well made when considering where the double lines are and where the short versus long lines are. Without a well thought-out, balanced map, the game could quickly become a simple question of: Did you get the good route or the sucky route? The game is not completely free of that. One can still get stuck with a bunch of short routes on the East coast, making it difficult to build up routes, but the tickets are also well balanced with the map. So, if one grabs more tickets (and they can choose 1 of 3, which is also key to not getting screwed over and reducing randomness), they are likely to get a set of routes with a good mix of long and short lines between cities. It is so refreshing to see such a great map. It would have been very easy for the designers to make it anyway they wanted and just leave it at that, causing a gameplay problem where players that get certain routes always win. However, there are many routes and, as already stated, the line length and placement of double lines is well done; so, they game is allowed to flourish. It has flourished too. It has sold very well, is widely considered one of the best strategy games out there, and is one of my top 3 or 4 favorite games.