Ticket to Ride

[RobbyPants]

Has anyone played Ticket to Ride?

I just got into this one around the Holidays. My wife got it for Christmas. It's different than anything I've played, but I really like how quick it is to start a game and how quick it is to teach to other people.

Beyond that, I haven't really worked much on strategy. I'm fairly risk-averse, so I tend not to take lots of route cards. The last game I played, I decided to just pick up a bunch of six-track routes (15 points each) to pad my score after I completed my routes, and I got second place out of five. I'm not sure if it's really a viable strategy, or not.

What do you think of the game?

[Bloody Initiate]

Got into it over the holidays as well. It's a good game. We call the 6-length tracks "monuments" because often players who draw bad tickets just start building monuments instead of going for the routes.

I haven't played with five players, the most I've played with is 3 I think. In those smaller games you want to find the most elaborate routes you can for your tickets (Because building lines that are 1 and 2 trains long just destroys your score), and hit certain areas especially often because they connect a lot. Los Angeles, for example, is on a ton of the tickets, as is Chicago. You end up wanting a trade-off between access and expense, with the direction you lean likely decided by your tickets.

I and the others I play with also like to spend a long time drawing cards so that we can build rapidly all at once.

[RobbyPants]

Yeah, if you build bit by bit, people might figure out you route and cut you off, too.

The thing I hate about 2 and 3 player games is that you can't use the double tracks; they're only available for 4 - 5 players.

[Hallack]

I've played several versions quite a bit.  It's a good fun game that the number of players makes a big difference in how it is played. 

Of course, as mentioned depending on who you are playing with it is also very strategically important to balance getting your routes built with giving away your routes so there can also be a decent amount of bluffing also involved in the game.  This probably becomes more true when you've played enough that you are familiar with the routes and if you are playing with someone ornery enough to go out of their way to cut your route.

[Bloody Initiate]

When I've played there isn't a LOT of deliberate route cutting, it hurts pretty hard when people do it to you though. Typically if I have a route that requires a specific easy-to-take piece of track I buy it within my first few turns.

The trouble is there's no really hiding what you're doing, it's just a matter of pure luck whether or not it's convenient for them to kill you or not. If it is, then you're fucked. You can pretend to bluff or whatever, but it doesn't really work that well if someone is in the mood to hit you and they have the cards to do it. Usually the spot in which they'll cut you off is a handy piece of track to have anyway. Also if you have certain high-traffic tickets and they do too, there's a good chance they'll cut you off without even knowing it.

[Hallack]

That's probably one of the reasons I like the Europe version.  It has enough routes and ways to get the routes that it is more possible to bluff and/or get routes.

[Dragon Snack]

I'm also a newer player, but, oddly, my strategy seems completely opposite...

I usually keep all 3 routes (sometimes even picking up more) and grabbing the small lines as quickly as possible.  I also try to get the longest train, as the "free" 10 points is nice.  I can't recall a game I've lost when I had the longest train and I've lost a game by less than the 10 points to the player who did.  Taking a round about way also helps keep people from blocking you.

I win a lot (I won my first 5 games, mostly against more experienced players), even against players who know my strategy and try to block me.  My biggest problem is timing when another player will get down to the end of their trains, since taking short lines leaves you with extra trains towards the end of the game (and someone grabbing a 6 train line can suddenly leave them with 2 or less when it looked like they still had plenty).

[Hallack]

You can actually win by ignoring and mostly ignoring your routes and just going for longest train and long (high point) track segments.  This ends up getting you points and often cutting off foes (accidentally or deliberately).

[RobbyPants]

This probably becomes more true when you've played enough that you are familiar with the routes and if you are playing with someone ornery enough to go out of their way to cut your route.

My wife tried this once, but it was because the two games prior, I drew the Vancouver to Montreal route (20 points, plus over 40 points in tracks), and I started building the north-most section of track in the third game. Her natural assumption was that I'd lucked into this route yet again, so she blocked the west-most segment. Luckily for me, that time, I'd drawn Seatle to New York (exact same route, except for the last two tracks, and 22 points).

You can actually win by ignoring and mostly ignoring your routes and just going for longest train and long (high point) track segments.  This ends up getting you points and often cutting off foes (accidentally or deliberately).

I may try this the next time I draw no attractive, high-point routes. The thing that can make this game so swingy is if you pick up a few overlapping high-point routes, it can be something like 20 - 50 free points for nothing more than a lucky draw, and you never see that coming until the end of the game.

I usually keep all 3 routes (sometimes even picking up more) and grabbing the small lines as quickly as possible.  I also try to get the longest train, as the "free" 10 points is nice.  I can't recall a game I've lost when I had the longest train and I've lost a game by less than the 10 points to the player who did.  Taking a round about way also helps keep people from blocking you.

That seems counter-intuitive due to the low point-to-track ratio (and limited numbers of cars available). How do you win so often? Is it that you end the game well before other people have been able to complete all of their routes? I could see a "quick victory" approach working well by virtue of catching everyone else part way to victory and counting their routes against them.

Bonus points if they aren't paying attention and don't realize that you only have five segments left when they decide to draw new routes! 

[Bloody Initiate]

Got to play with 5 people tonight, definitely a lot busier. Luckily everyone but me drew tickets on the East Coast (Playing the U.S.A. version), which is basically a nightmare for everyone there, so I didn't have to get involved in their rat race. However I DID get to watch them fighting each other like mad for every bit of track.

I mostly just screwed around collecting cards and buying the 15 point tracks, but eventually their fight spilled over to the West Coast and they immediately were cancelling each other all over the place again. I only got blocked two or three times the whole game, but I still lost horribly because I made no effort to get any of my tickets done (It just seemed like more fun to build the big 6 train lines ). The amount they suffered at each other's hands just made me so glad I wasn't in there with them. One guy spent the whole game building around the blockades people had dropped on him (Probably always by accident). He couldn't get anything down with minimal effort, what sucked is it was his first time playing too.

By the end of a 5 player game though there isn't anyone who can do things the way they originally intended. You can't see most of the board for the trains all over it.

[RobbyPants]

I tried the "run out of tracks super fast so people don't complete their routes" strategy last night and got stomped. Part of it was my wife got lucky enough to get two good 20 point routes, but while I was busy plopping down all sorts of two-track routes, she just kept drawing off the top of the deck, filling her hand with more and more cards. Since she needed a lot of track of six colors or so, this was just fine, and she caught more locomotives this way. She then proceeded to start laying down five and six-track routes like there was no tomorrow and ran out of track before me!

One thing I'd never considered is not only do longer tracks have a better point-to-track ratio, they have a better track-to-turn ratio. In other words, if I want to lay down ten pieces in five two-track segments, it takes me five turns to draw the cards and five to lay them (ten turns in total). If I decide to lay those ten pieces in two five-track segments (or a four and six-track), then it only takes a total of seven turns, which gives three more turns to draw cards for better routes.

I learned at least one valuable lesson last night.

[Hallack]

Yes, if ignoring your own routes definitely go for the larger track sections.  Better economy of points and action.