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Tag Archives: Ticket to Ride

Ticket to Ride

I’m late. It’s almost time to play this week’s game and here I am just getting around to telling you about last week’s game. Last week we played a couple of games of Ticket to Ride. I think this is one of the best family games on the market. We played using the 1910 expansion which adds extra routes and an extra bonus point card for the player who completes the most destination tickets. I would highly suggest you get this expansion if you own Ticket to Ride. Besides the extra cards, it also comes with a complete set of train cards that are larger and easier to handle.

We played two games. In both games Owen was playing on a completely different level than the rest of us. He kicked our butts and took names in the process. In the first game he ended with 150 points. Mike came in second with 110 points. Ben and I tied for third place with 100 points each. Ben won the tiebreaker, so he came in third place. Never mind about my placement.

Mike had mentioned earlier to us that he has been playing a lot of Ticket to Ride on his PC or iPad (I forget which.) This seemed to actually hurt him because he had become so used to the program marking his destinations and displaying completed ones so he could focus on the uncompleted ones. This caused him to miss a couple of destinations that he thought he had completed, but really hadn’t.

In the last game Own did even better with a final score of 170. I barely grabbed second place with 133 points. Ben was right behind me with 130 points. Mike had a dismal 72 points. I had made several stupid mistakes during this game and I realized that even if I had played the game perfectly, I still wouldn’t have come close to Owen’s score. Well done Owen.

Chaos Steve

Ticket to Ride & Amun-Re

Playing Catch Up

No there isn’t really a game called Catch Up. Ok, maybe there is such a game, be even if there is, we didn’t play it. What I mean here is that I’ve neglected to post the previous gaming sessions. I’ll rectify that now.

Two Sessions Ago

We played a game. I forget the name of it, but I’m pretty sure I won it.

The Previous Session

We play two games of Ticket to Ride using the 1910 expansion. We loved the new cards the expansion added and we loved the new size of all the cards the expansion added. We played the mega game using all of the cards. Mike came in dead last both times and is considering banning the game. I won both games, and Mike has banned the game. (He’ll forget he did this and we’ll still play again in the future.)

Back to the Current Session

Last night we played Amun-Re, yet another game by Knizia. The object of the game is to claim provinces along the Nile, build pyramids, and score points. But be careful, you also have to make sacrifices to Amun Re or risk his displeasure. The game is separated into 2 game parts: the old and new kingdoms. Each of the two parts has 3 rounds. Each round has 5 or 6 phases.

During the first half of the game, we were all getting a feel for the game and how to score points. Everyone else did much better than me during this part of the game. Meaning I was dead last…and pretty far behind the third place Pharaoh.

During the second half of the game, everyone had a much better idea of what was going on. Many more pyramids were built and players vied for the possible point producing Power cards. Owen, who had been hording Power cards, ended up winning with Mike coming in second, Ben in third and you-know-who in last place. It seems to me that the point scoring Power cards can be the make or break of the game. If you get them early, you can create a strategy to take advantage of them. If you get them late, or not at all…well, you come in last place.

Chaos Steve

Ticket to Ride, Ingenious, & Kachina

On Monday night, Ben was King of the Games. Owen was gone on a trip through the tornado infested land of Mississippi, so it was just the three of us. Without Owen our gaming equilibrium was thrown off causing all kinds of strange things to happen; such as Ben being crowned King of the Games.

Our first game of the night was the Ticket to Ride card game. Mike and I could not stop Ben from continually placing many cards in his on-the-track card pile. (These are the cards you use to complete your destinations at the end of the game.) At the end of the game, both Mike and I had trouble completing all of our destinations. That meant negative points for us. Ben on the other hand completed all of his destinations; even the extra ones he had taken. He trounced Mike and I who were battling to not be in last place. It was close, but I was not last.

Next we played Ingenious, a tile placement game where your score at the end of the game is your lowest score within all your colors. Let me explain. The board is made up of hexes. The pieces are two joined hexes and each hex of the playing piece contains a different color. (Each color also has its own symbol, but we’ll just talk colors for now.) The idea is to score points by placing a piece such that the colors on it lie next to already-placed pieces with the same color. In our game, Ben once again was able to score vast amounts of points in all colors, nearly completing his entire score card. This time I failed to beat Mike and ended up in last place.

kachina
The last game of the night was Kachina, another tile placement game. This time Alex, Mike’s son, joined us too. Oh, what an awful game I played. I was in last place the entire game–usually way behind everyone else. Ben and Alex vied for first place most of the game. Mike got the biggest score of the night, nine points, which I gave him because of my previous tile placement. As the game drew to an end, Mike and I were scurrying to not be beaten by a nine-year old! Oh, the shame. Ben eventually won. Mike ended up tying the nine-year old and I came in last…behind the nine-year old. Well at least I was beaten by the best.

Chaos Steve