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Your Ticket to a Successful Date Night
One of the best ways to have a date night-in is to play a board game. And, one of the best board games is Ticket to Ride. Let me start off by saying Meghan hasn’t always been into board games, but a game like Ticket to Ride is one of the main reasons we will spend time at the dinner table during our date nights.
This Days of Wonder board game, by Alan R. Moon, is simple to learn, has wonderful replay value, and is very entertaining. In fact, one of Meghan’s favorite parts of this game is that she crushes me almost every single time we play. She dominates this game so often, I sometimes imagine her with a really cool name, like one you’d assign to a video game. Hmm, I’ll share some of those nicknames later on.
For now, I’ll go over the basic premise of the game. So, let’s take a look at how easy Ticket to Ride is to play.
Before you Play
⊗ Choose a colored scoring marker and take the corresponding colored trains
⇒ Available colors: Black, Yellow, Green, Red, and Blue
⊗ Each player is dealt 4 Train Car cards
⊗ Each player is dealt 3 Destination Ticket cards
⇒ 2 of the 3, if not all, must be kept
Rules of the Game
⊗ Make one move during each turn
⇒ Choose 1 or 2 Train cards
⇒ Choose 3 Destination Tickets
• Must keep 1, 2, or 3 of these tickets
⇒ Claim a route
• Use colored trains to claim routes on the board
• Example: Chicago to Washington, D.C.
⊗ Final turn
⇒ Once a player is left with 0, 1, or 2 trains, everyone gets one final turn
⊗ Highest Score Wins
⇒ Points are earned by claiming routes, completing Destination Tickets, and 10 points goes to the player with the longest train route
Total Domination
Like I was saying before, Meghan owns me in this game. The only thing missing is a sound board calling off her victories as if she were playing Mortal Kombat. “Finish him!” “Flawless Victory!” Or perhaps even, “Your soul is mine!” Of course, if that were true, I’d need my own sounds for the screaming that takes place during each annihilation.
Oh, so what would her player name be if we were trying to make official the total domination that comes with her gameplay in Ticket to Ride?
- The Conductor
- The Dominator
- Crusher of Dreams
- Runaway Train (Filled with my Soul)
What Else is There to Play?
Meghan and I have a blast with Ticket to Ride and we would love to play other versions! There are several to choose from, including the expansion, USA 1910. There’s also Ticket to Ride Europe and other stand-alones that revolve around different locations all over the world.
If you’re looking to have a fun date night-in, and don’t mind risking crushing defeat (each and every time) like me, then Ticket to Ride is the perfect opportunity to see a smile on your partner’s face.
Now, if you don’t mind, I need to think of a new way to lose gracefully.
