THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Fortunately, the week has been, uneventful.  Just plugging away, doing what I need to do.  Working on storyboard revisions and then working on the scenes I just finished storyboarding. Not the worst thing that could happen.  The show is fun and it’s slowly getting done.  Hope the jobs stays uneventful. It’s a pain when it gets crazy.

FAMILY

Juan and Deborah had a baby shower last weekend.  It was probably the nicest, fanciest, baby shower ever.  In any case, the whole family went and we all had fun.  I think everyone enjoyed the opening of the presents best, mostly because my brother did most of the opening and then he would announce what he thought the present was for, even though he had no idea. The results where quite silly:

BOARD GAMES

(All pictures below I got at Board Game Geek.)

Okay, so in my last three posts I’ve only written about 2 player games (although both Magic: The Gathering and Dreamblade have multiplayer variant rules). At least two of which, are a little complicated (but not that much. Once you learn them, they’re just really fun.) Also, those last three games can be considered direct confrontation games. Direct confrontation games, are games where you directly attack or intrude upon the opposing player(s) in order to gain an advantage.  So I thought I’d write about one that is simple to learn, can be played by 2-5 people, is fun to play with the whole family, and is also an indirect confrontation game. By which I mean, a game where it’s possible to indirectly set back your opponent(s) by making a move in the game even though that is not the purpose of your move.

This week, I’ll be writing about Ticket to Ride: Europe.

2-5 players

Takes 45 minutes or so to play.

What is Ticket to Ride: Europe?

Ticket to Ride: Europe is the second of the Ticket to Ride series of games.  Like all the Ticket to Ride games, Ticket to Ride: Europe is about putting cards down in order to connect train routes from one city to another. By doing so, not only do you get points, but you hope to fulfill the secret Destination Cards you have in your hand. The person with the most points at the end of the game wins.

The other Ticket to Ride games are:  Ticket to Ride, Ticket to Ride: USA 1910, Ticket to Ride: Märklin Edition, Ticket to Ride: Switzerland, Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries, Ticket to Ride: The Card Game, Ticket to Ride: The Dice Expansion

How does it play?

It’s really very simple. On the table, there is a board with a map of Europe with a bunch of train routes all over it and a victory point track around the edge.

At the beginning of the game everyone takes the plastic trains of the color they wish to play and place a victory point marker on the zero space (or in this case, one hundred space) of the victory point track.

Then everyone is given five secret destination cards. If  you manage to complete them, you will get the points on the bottom of the card at the end of the game. The tougher the destination, the more points it’s worth.

The players can choose to keep as many Destination Cards as they think  they can complete, but they must at least keep one card.  If they don’t manage to complete one or more of the secret destinations in their hand by the end of the game, they lose the amount of points on the card or cards the destination is worth.

Everyone is then given a hand of five “Ticket cards”. These cards have pictures of train cars and they are different colors.  There are also Locomotive cards that are “wild” and can count as any color.

Five ticket cards are put on the table face up and the rest are put beside the face up cards as the draw deck.

The turn sequence is very simple. You can do one and only one of three things on your turn:

1. Put down plastic trains to complete a route.
2. Take two Ticket Cards.
3. Take a new destination card.

Putting down trains to complete a route – The board of Europe on the table has little colored rectangles the length of the plastic trains everyone has.  These rectangles connect two cities together.  The number of rectangles connecting the cities together vary. In order to complete a route (a connection from one city to another).  You must pay (discard) the same number of matching color Ticket Cards the route shows, from your hand.  So for example, if there are two black rectangles between Venice and Rome, you must discard two black colored Ticket Cards from your hand.  Once you do, you can take your little trains and put them on top of those two rectangles, there by, claiming that route.

There are also grey colored rectangles  on the board.  These routes can be claimed by paying the number of cards of any one color Ticket card you have. Once you put down trains, you score points depending on the length of the route you claimed.  You do this by moving you victory point marker the amount of spaces the route was worth around the victory point track.

Taking two Ticket Cards – The way you get the right amount of Ticket Cards in your hand to make a route is by taking Ticket Cards on one of your turns.  Remember, you can only do ONE action during your turn, so this means, if you decide to take Tickets and have enough to set down a route, you’ll have to wait till your next turn to put the route down.

If you decide to take Ticket Cards, you have two options, you can either:

1. Take two Ticket Cards from the five face up cards or
2. You can take two Ticket Cards from the face down draw deck

If you decide to take Ticket Cards from the five face up cards, you replace the cards you took by taking two new cards from the draw deck and putting them face up on the table.

Taking new Destination cards – If you have managed to complete all your secret Destinations (or even if you haven’t) you may choose not to put a route or take any Ticket Cards.  Instead, you can decide to pick up three destination cards and you may keep as many of them as you like.

The game ends when one player has two plastic trains or less in their hand. Everyone then adds their Destination Ticket scores to their victory points. If they failed to complete a Destination, the score on that card is subtracted from their victory points.  Everyone then counts to see which person has the longest continuous connection of trains.  The person who has, gets the Longest Route Card and gets an extra ten points.  The winner is the person with the most points.

So that’s it. That’s the game in a nutshell.  There are some minor rules I left out for the sake of brevity.  I just wanted to show the main flow of play.  Yes, even with the minor rules I left out, the game is really that simple.

Why I like it.

Well, there is actually a few reasons.

1. It’s simple, which means, it can be played by just about anyone.
2. It’s easy to teach.
3. It’s tense.
4. It can be very deep.
5. It has indirect confrontation (sort of).

I try to get people to play games with me all the time.  One of the things I’ve discovered is that not everyone has a head for games that require too much thought.  Many of the games I like, some people find complicated.  I don’t understand this since I find ALL games pretty complicated when you sit down with it for the first time.  You just have to be patient and let the game play out once before it starts to click.  Still, not everyone has the patience or the capacity to keep track of too many rules.  I’ve found that Ticket to Ride: Europe is sooo simple that even the people who have problems with most games, don’t have problems with this one. Grandma, Grandpa, six year olds…you name them, they can play it.

Because of this, the game is really easy to teach.  Everything is laid out on the table and the rules explanations take about ten minutes.  Awesome. Wish all games where this simple to teach.

After playing the game quite a few times, the game begins to get more and more tense.  That’s what make the game fun.  If you play the game in a table with people who know how to play, woah, the game becomes real dramatic.  Why? because when you’re handed you Destination Cards and you have to decide which ones to keep, you have to make sure your going to be able to complete them.  It’s very possible in the game that other players may take the routes needed for you to complete your Destinations. If you choose the wrong ones, you may be out of luck. Once the game starts, it’s all about racing to put down the tracks you need to try to complete your routes. It’s odd but the game is really exciting, and all your doing is trying to put plastic trains on the table.

After playing it a while, it’s possible to start coming up with different strategies.  I’ve come up with a few that I haven’t yet tried. Mostly because I tend to play this game with people who are just learning to play.  I’m sure I’ll eventually be able to try them out at some point.

I’ve mentioned above that the game has indirect confrontation (sort of). The “sort of” part is because, when you first start learning to play the game. You will often mess up your opponent’s plans, without trying to. It will just happen because you’re trying to complete your Destinations. Your opponents will then have to try to work around whatever inconvenience you have caused them. However, as you get better at the game, you might begin to do this on purpose.  Seeing where your opponent is putting down routes and guessing where they need to put down routes next, you may put down your own trains down blocking you opponent from being able to complete destinations.  I have yet to play a game that cutthroat but I’m sure I will at some point.

The game is fun. I have yet to play it with anyone who didn’t like it.  I highly recommend it, if your looking for a game to play with the family or “non gamers”.

As I’ve written before in an earlier post, this game, and some of it’s brothers, can be played on X-box live.

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