Analog Gaming: Ticket To Ride

During the time I've spent at home tending to the newborn, I found more time to spend with the misses (GameritisGal).  The more time I found spending with her, the more I thought about playing some good board games.  This led to the eventual purchase of Ticket To Ride, a simple game about trains and routes.

Ticket To Ride was one of the first board games I've played in a while, considering "a while" to be in the days of Monopoly, Scrabble, and Checkers.  It's a game with a simple concept - players cash in their boxcar cards to complete ticket routes between cities, and ultimately have to complete the routes they have in their hands to earn points.  Points are commonly earned as players lay their boxcars out on routes.  The caveat is, all route tickets are not revealed to other players until the very end of the game, so no one knows whether or not players have completed routes or not.  More so, at the end of the game, if any routes are incomplete, their points count against their final score.

So, with all the time we're spending at home, I figured I'd get her to play something different.  Little did I know how well she'd pick up the game.

Game 1

It didn't take long for GameritisGal to pick up on the gameplay.  Before I knew it, she won the first game...by a landslide.  I believe the score was 129 to my piddle 73.  That's fine, it's good that she won the first game; nothing better than having a first-time player win their first game to boost their interest!

Game 2

The gloves were off the second game, and I redeemed myself with a win.  This victory, however, was short-lived, because...

Game 3

...She won the third game.

As simple as this game is, there's not much room on the board for everyone to complete tickets and earn points.  So it's very easy to indirectly step on other players' toes as you're completing routes.  That, along with all destination goals hidden from view, can mean the difference between first and last place in the very end.

In a final testament to Ticket to Ride's appeal, GameritisGal enjoys playing the iPhone app version of this game on the side as well.  How's that for a gateway board game?