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USA 1910 Ticket to Ride Expansion Board Game

Ed Stephens' review of USA 1910 Ticket to Ride Expansion. Subscribe to this column via RSS or Newsletter.

Column:
Board Gamer

Format:
Board Game

Genre:
Strategy

Written on:
21/02/2010

This USA 1910 expansion contains all you need to revitalise your Ticket to Ride game: bigger, brighter cards, different destinations, and three new ways to play. The perfect companion to Ticket to Ride.

Type of Game

Ticket to Ride is a cross-country train adventure, in which players compete to connect different cities by laying claim to railway routes on a map. No general or geographical knowledge is required to take part, instead It's a strategy game, so timing and tactics are important. The expansion pack gives three different variations on the rules, as well as different tickets, and one additional bonus card.

Kits and Expansions

In order to use this expansion pack, you do first need the basic game. The main game costs around GBP30 and is playable by up to 5 players. Each different main game (America, Europe, or Nordic Countries) has an expansion pack available, and these cost around GBP7-10 each. Be careful though - obviously you can't use the USA 1910 expansion if you have the Europe main game, you need to match the right expansion pack to the main board that you have already!

Getting Started

Assuming that you already know how to play Ticket to Ride when you open your expansion set, it won't take you long at all to get started; the bigger train cards simply replace your original ones, and the destination tickets replace your original ones as well. If you choose to play one of the variations you might need to fiddle around for a while just to make sure you have the right ticket cards in play, but other than that, the gameplay is almost exactly the same as that of the original game.

Playing the Game

As in the main game, players take it in turns to claim train lines and complete as many missions or 'tickets' as possible. We enjoyed testing out each of the different rule sets in the expansion pack and found that these really did breathe life into the game again; we had to change some of our established tactics in order to accommodate the new tickets. We particularly liked the new 'Globetrotter' bonus card, which points for the most tickets completed - a good companion to the 'Longest Route' bonus.

How Long and How Old

With five people in our family, Ticket to Ride does take quite a while for us to play - about an hour and a half. The expansion pack doesn't make much difference to the time taken to play. The age recommendation is obviously the same as the original game, too, with a guide of eight years upwards.

Conclusion

If you've played and enjoyed Ticket to Ride countless times, and you've got to the point where you have memorised all of the journeys, then you pick up one of the expansion packs, as they really do give you plenty of variations on a theme, and these keep the game fresh and exciting for even longer.

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