Pyramid Review
Ticket to Ride: Märklin Edition
Published by Days of Wonder
Designed by Alan R. Moon
Boxed, full-color, two to five players; map board, 240 train cars in five colors, 15 passengers (three per player), five scoring markers, 118 train cards, 46 destination tickets, 74 merchandise tokens, & rule booklet; $39.95
Ticket to Ride: Märklin Edition is the third in Days of Wonder's popular and award-winning series of railroad building games. Märklin, for those not in the know, is one of the biggest names in the model train hobby (in fact, going first depends on being the owner of the most Märklin cars), and they lend images from some of their products to cards in the game.
The object of the game remains to score the highest at the end of the game.
As in previous editions, players take turns collecting train cards, building sections of rail, and selecting destinations. To connect a pair of cities, you have to play as many cards of like color as there are sections of track between the two locations. Locomotives are wild cards that can be substituted for the colored "cars." You get points for each segment of train you complete and for each ticket you finish (tickets show two cities you have to unite with your rail lines).
Unlike those others, there's no reward here for achieving the longest continuous stretch of track; instead, there's a bonus for finishing the most tickets. You're now building on a map of Germany from one nearly unpronounceable burg to the next, . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: April 14, 2006
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