I have a weakness for board games. My wife finally forced me to pack up half of my board games so we could shut the game closet door. Yes, we have a closet just for board games. It started playing Risk with my dad in 2nd grade. We would play after dinner for three or four days to finish the game. And we always played to the bitter end. Years later our battles evolved into Axis & Allies. Again, we would play until every last Japanese infantry was destroyed in Tokyo. There was no such thing as surrendering.

My brother got me Ticket to Ride a year and a half ago and it was a big success with our family and friends. It finally seemed to be a perfect blend of strategy and fun that didn’t take forever and that I could convince my wife and sister to play too.

This year for his birthday I got him Ticket to Ride – Europe. The basic premise remains the same with a few rule tweaks and a new map. The Europe map seems smaller, but ends up being about the same size as the original US map, with a few more cities that you’ve never heard of. The design is great once again, and the rules easy to follow.

The biggest improvements over the original are the ‘long route’ cards and the stations. The original game started everyone off with three routes. The unlucky player that ended up with three low point cards was usually doomed to finishing in the middle of the pack. Europe separates out ‘long’ from ‘regular’ routes to give each player at least one chance at a high scoring route. Our first time playing still had one lucky player get one long and three regular routes that all basically overlapped, while the rest of us had to carefully choose which routes to keep.

The train stations are the best addition to the game in that they allow everyone to stay in the running until the end. The original game frequently featured some players stuck just one stop away from a city that they had to get to. The train station in the new game allows players to piggyback into a blocked city on someone else’s route. Players that manage to get through the game without needing to use the stations are rewarded with extra points.

 The other additions to the game, tunnels and ferries, were interesting and added some variety to the game, but also made it more difficult to compete in some instances.

I can’t wait to break open the box and play it again.

All aboard!