Ticket to Ride: Germany

APPEAL & GAME PLAY: Welcome players to all new worlds with totally new customs and ways to succeed! Ticket To Ride is a game that transforms you into the proud entrepreneur of your very own fledgling railroad, and in order to snuff out your competition, you have to start laying down tracks in all the right places in order to win and keep your customers happy. To do this, you will be commissioned to complete various tickets, which tell you where to build and what cities you will need to connect. Be careful to complete as many tickets as you can so that you get the bonus points on each, otherwise those points will count against you instead of for you. That being said, the original Ticket To Ride is a big hit with my family and friends, so it was only a matter of time until I purchased these expansion maps. Immediately after opening the box I knew that I hadn't made a mistake. These maps come with their own unique set of elegantly designed ticket or destination cards, so no worries about buying more stuff unless you don’t have the original game. NOTE: You MUST have the original Ticket To Ride or Ticket To Ride Europe to use these maps. This is not a standalone game. Also, this is one board with two sides. In order to use one map, the other is face down on the surface you are playing on, so be careful not to put your board down anywhere wet, grimy, or too rough else you might take home a ruined map by accident. Now let's talk about the Swiss map. This map is small and quaintly beautiful, but it doesn't leave a lot of room for well-planned railroads like yours. Due to this, only about 2-3 players can get on the map at a time. Additionally, instead of just going from city to city, this map also throws in the element of the four surrounding countries that land-lock the Swiss. What this means is that some tickets will connect cities as in the original game, but others will include country destinations that ask you to connect different surrounding countries to certain cities on the map. The more countries you connect, the higher your points will be for that ticket! Furthermore, some routes are harder to claim than others because you have to literally move mountains to get where you are going. If you have Ticket To Ride Europe, you already know what I'm talking about. If not, then you need to be prepared to break out the shovels in this game because there are tunnels to be built! And when you build tunnels, all kinds of nasty accidents can happen, so be ready to help your miners out with some extra cards from your hand because those nasty things can stop you from getting the route you need. So get out your pickaxe equipped Swiss army knives and set to work to build the perfect international railroad in ticket to ride Switzerland! Now let’s head south to India! This country doesn't work like Europe or America, so get ready for the culture shock of changing around the way your railroad earns end-game bonuses. Now, India is a land of beauty, and it has a lot of cities to connect. Therefore, it’s not how many routes you can get put together that counts, but the amount of routes you can manage to string together into one large loop instead. This bonus gives you extra points for creating a circular route that includes multiple completed tickets within that same route. The more tickets you complete while making a big loop on the map, the more points you will earn! This map also has water routes like the Europe map does. These are basically ferries routes; and these routes require that at least one wild or engine card be used to build them. Be sure to strategize appropriately as you build your railroad empire and keep the new twists in mind as you aim to Tour India in Ticket To Ride India! GAME FEATURES AND PACKAGING: This expansion is beautiful and just as hearty in design as the original game. The art work is detailed and unique for each country, which is highly refreshing. The box is sturdy and designed with the same feel as the originals, but it is thinner overall. The ticket cards are “full-sized” and of similar card stock as the originals, so they are not flimsy at all. Card sleeves should not HAVE to be used unless you see a ton of game play. OVERALL: This is an excellent expansion for an excellent game. The twists will keep you engaged and entertained as you learn your way around foreign countries and their cities. Frustrations will be inflamed and temporary rivalries are as easily come by as truces, but nothing can stop the unrelenting advance of progress! Throw your top hat into the ring, play your cards right, and you too might be the master of the rails as you play Ticket To Ride!

I've really enjoyed the base game "Ticket to Ride: Europe", but it's not an ideal game for two players. When I heard that Days of Wonder was re-releasing the "Switzerland" expansion, geared towards 2-3 players, I was ecstatic! Additionally, it was packaged with "TtR: India" a new expansion for 2-4 players. How could I refuse such an offer. This expansion has lived up to my expectations and beyond. The Switzerland expansion is an unbelievably tight board, but doesn't really look it. Locomotives can only be used for tunnel routes (of which there are many), so you can now draft two Locomotives from the face-up piles on a single turn if you desire. Two new kinds of tickets are included: City to Country tickets require you to connect a city to one of four countries listed on a card - each worth a certain number of points. Country-to-country tickets require you to connect a certain country to one of three others. In each case, you gain the points if you've made the connection. If you connect to multiple destinations, you receive the points for the country connection with the highest points. If you fail to make any connections, you lose the lowest number of points on the card. It's incredibly fun, and goes by quickly. The India map is a bit more traditional, and features several ferries, but no tunnels. The major change here is a new, additional way of scoring called `Mandala', which can give you up to 40 points. To qualify, you must connect the two cities on a ticket by two completely separate routes (basically, a circular route). This is best accomplished when you're able to choose tickets that fall in a circular pattern (for example, an north-to-south ticket, a southeast to northwest, and a northern west-to-east ticket). This new rule not only creates an additional layer of strategy, it adds drama to the board, making it an excellent game for 2P. Almost every time we take this expansion out, my wife and I will play a game, then flip the board over and play the other side! To say that we like one board is better than the other would be splitting hairs, as they are both excellent in their own way. We can now have a fun and competitive game of Ticket to Ride with as few as 2 players. I highly recommend this expansion to anyone who loves the game and regularly has less than 5 players.

Note: A copy of a base TTR game is needed to play this expansion (it comes with destination tickets and maps, but not the train cards or trains). My fiancé and I like to play games that rely at least a little on luck and aren't too complex (for her), but that also involve some strategy and complexity (for me). We usually play two-player, and we play TTR USA with the 1912 expansion at least a few times a month. So, we decided to give a couple of the expansions a try, and Switzerland and India seemed like it had some nice additions to the game, plus a good amount of bang for the buck. We were not disappointed. This is a wonderful addition to Ticket to Ride. You get TWO maps / sets of destination tickets, and each map introduces a new way to play vs. the base Ticket to Ride USA game (i.e., Switzerland adds tunnels and India adds ferries). We found this to be a great way to introduce these new mechanics to the game (as opposed to adding both at once as TTR Europe and TTR Nordic Countries do). Another thing we loved is that TTR Switzerland added two new types of destination ticket: (1) For City-to-country tickets you have to connect the city in question to one of the four countries on the map. Each country is worth a different number of points, and you get the points for the highest scoring country connection completed (and if you don't connect to any country you lose the lowest points on the ticket). (2) For Country-to-country tickets you have to connect form the primary country to any of the other three countries. Again, each country is worth a different number of points, and you get the points for the highest scoring country you connect (and if don't connect to any country you lose the lowest points on the ticket). Finally, for TTR India they added a fun end game bonus for connecting two cities on a destination card using two different routes (the routs can intersect but not overlap or share any trains). These are not always easy to get, and the scoring is reasonable and not game breaking when you do get them. We have played TTR USA with the 1912 expansion, TTR Europe, TTR Nordic Countries, TTR Nederlands, and this one... I would pick up whatever TTR base set you like best (because the base set is still needed to play), and if you could only pick up one more expansion I would definitely recommend this one.

A game changer, get it? (groan) For folks who already know Ticket To Ride (TTR) and are looking for a change of pace, India/Switzerland are great extensions of the classic game. You will need one original set of Ticket to Ride, either North America or Europe, as this game is an extension and includes only a new board and new destination tickets. These maps are both very different from each other, and it feels like a terrific value getting 2 in one box. Switzerland can only be played with 3 people, which is a shame. It includes the added feature of tunnels, which introduce the possibility that building will fail (or cost extra), which creates a nice uncertainty. There's also a nice fun twist on the locomotive (rainbow cards) rule. India can be played by numerous players, but be forewarned, the map gets crowded VERY quickly and you will find yourself getting cut off on your way to your destinations. There's usually another route open, but it can be frustrating. Somehow, the "close" feel of both these maps gives the game an immediacy and adds a competitive edge that's sometimes lacking in our core map, which is TTR North America. We still go back to that one sometimes, and when we do, it feels spacious in comparison. In any event, I highly recommend this for those who love TTR and want to shake things up a little. We play with a range of ages, from 13 to almost 60, and everyone has a great time. Playability on Shabbos: YES! No writing or electronic tools needed.

Fans of Ticket to Ride USA will definitely enjoy this expansion! You get a two-sided board with two different options of play; one is team play and the other is not. I actually really enjoy the 2-5 player side of this board. Many people seem to favour the team play, but I find the 2-5 player side is one of the best maps of Ticket to Ride. All players get the option of a long ticket, and all other tickets are close in value. This makes for a much closer and tense game. As much as I love the original TTR, sometimes there can be big gaps in player scores and this doesn't happen in the Asian TTR nearly as much. I also enjoy the introduction of tunnels. I won't explain how they work since others have done that, but the tunnels make for a shorter game since everyone is discarding trains. People can also build on tunnels strategically and trash trains to end the game so opponents don't finish their tickets. Overall the Legendary Asia map is done very well and is highly enjoyable. The team map is also fun, but I've noticed some people don't like it too much. Playing with a partner and not communicating plans can be very stressful and some just don't fancy that type of play. In one game, my partner had used all of her trains early and I still had trains left and we lost because the opposing team got two turns for every one I took. This was frustrating. Adding a 6th player is nice though, and I've had pleasant experiences with this variant as well. The components are ok. The cards are flimsy and could have been much better. I really like the cardholders this expansion gives you and I almost always use them in other TTR games. I'm happy to have bought this expansion and recommend it to lovers of TTR.

Two board expansion- India and Switzerland. I enjoyed the Switzerland side, it's up to 3 players and my husband and I usually play as 2 players. Rules are a little different, but not complicated to learn and the game seems to be faster paced because of the smaller routes. Routes are easy to complete, but still competitive as you have many 1 track only routes to some cities. We also played the India game. I usually do exceptionally well on the U.S., Germany, and Switzerland boards we have...India was another story. India has a lot of cities that are similar in spelling and sounding and it made it more complicated to remember where you needed to go, I spent more time looking at my routes than anything else. The extra points you get from having more than one route to a city was not something I thought about because I was trying to constantly remember where I was going and how I needed to get there. It's not a bad map, I just prefer the U.S. map because I know where the cities are and if I'm going to play a game I'd rather spend the time enjoying the game than being frustrated because I have to keep trying to find my cities. I'm sure we'll play India again, my husband enjoys all the boards, and I enjoyed Switzerland, but not a big fan of the India side.

Ticket to ride games are so much fun!

We have almost all of the expansions to ticket to ride. Like all ticket to ride expansions they have a unique twist on the game. This double sided board (same geographical location on both sides) has 2 variants of play. The first side is just like ticket to ride with the main twist being the mountain spots. Some spots have an X on them. When you place a train on any spot with an X you put an additional train for each X in the bottom corner of the board and get 2 points per train there. This makes the game go quicker and adds a bit more strategy. The other board is a team variant and is so much fun! You are not able to communicate with your teammate but you are able to share some info on your teams rack. The expansion also comes with card holders for the team side. A huge pro of this expansion is it’s probably the easiest with kids as they don’t have to learn a new map and locations for each side of the board. And the card holders are now a must for all ticket to ride games. Highly recommend this expansion.

Ein sehr gutes Spiel

Cada expansão com uma pitada de desafio diferente.

Me encantó, muy divertido y estratégico

Il s'agit d'une extension et donc il faut avoir déjà un aventurier du rail avec les trains de base pour pouvoir jouer à cette version. Le plateau de jeu de la Suisse est une variante de haut niveau et donc il faut déjà connaitre certaines bases avant de pouvoir y jouer.

Very fast shipping and neat packaging. Item as described Very satisfied.