There is among the Muggles, in this case defined as beings who understand as a board game not much more than the trick and the ludo, the erroneous conception that these are long, complex to learn, and although not intrinsically boring, these first two characteristics often lead to the third.
Ticket to Ride comes to challenge those pre-concepts, working, then, as we will call here in more hinge games ( or gateways ), while offering a way to introduce the inexperienced little by little to this world of dice and miniatures .
In Creole, this means that it is a good option to take out and put on the table with your in-laws, your boyfriend or your friends who do not touch a board or with a clamp. They will be able to play it easy and simple and, simultaneously, it serves to trap them stealthily in the genre, like a hook to an innocent fish. So, later, to be able to put boxes with more than a thousand components and thousands of kilos of boards, colored dice and more on the table. Mua jua jua!
But little by little Robert … little by little.
While it is true that Ticket to Ride has a huge number of files and letters that can, a priori, scare the untrained eye, the post is that it is explained in less than 3 minutes , clearly contemplating the four mandatory breaks to drink beer and eat cheese sticks. Explanation of a new board game has to keep in mind. If they are still studying, try taking some sticks and then tell me how they are doing. Delirium.
Now, I tell you what it is about . The game has the premise of putting us in the situation of an experienced traveler who decides to connect certain American cities ( although there are boards with maps of other countries in the world ) by means of railway routes, competing against other travelers for claiming these routes and, in what possible to ruin the competition. (NdE: all good capitalist haha)
Undoubtedly, the strength of Ticket to Ride is, in addition to the simplicity to be explained and then executed, the feeling that it gives, especially to new players, of playing something complex . Equivalent to making a sausage for the first time and feeling the Cat Dúmas.
The turns take just over 6 seconds per person, making it dynamic and bearable, as long as threats or extortion between players do not lead to too long physical confrontations.
If this happens, never forget to carry a small bear in your suitcase. You can choose to throw said bear at your opponent, if you think that he has offended his honor or his turn takes too long. Or, if you feel like it, throw it just because. Hey, in this column we don’t judge it.
But this rarely happens, one ends, unfortunately, more concentrated on his own performance than on interacting with others. And there is its weakest point. The interaction between players depends a lot on the objectives that each one has . There is a possibility that the action will take place as an individual race where each one attends his own way, and whoever achieves it faster will claim victory. And all the rest will suck lemon.
However, despite its weaknesses, its strengths make Ticket to Ride good enough to meet its two clear objectives: to spend a few minutes of rain entertaining without having to resort to Netflix, and to get the person we want to incorporate started at our game table on Saturday nights.
A bait that increases your confidence and familiarity with colored boards and sheets, so that later you can take him on the vertiginous descending path of games of Risk (or teg for the gauchos) of eight and a half hours….
