How to play Ticket to Ride - that train game!
Watch the Video
Read the Rules
The aim of the game
To win, create the longest trains and complete the most routes, by placing your coloured carriage pieces between destinations, while blocking your opponent from doing so.
To set up
- Layout the board
- Give each player a set of 45 coloured train carriages and 3 matching stations and put their score markers on the starting point.
- Shuffle the train cards and deal 4 to each player. Place the remaining deck face down and turn over the top 5 cards face up.
- Place the bonus card and scoring reference cards nearby.
- Shuffle the 6 blue-backed longer-route destination cards and deal 1 to each player, put the rest away. Then shuffle the regular destination cards and deal 3 to each player, placing the remainder face down by the board.
- Each player must pick a minimum of 2 destination tickets to keep and discard any unwanted ones to the box. Don’t show them to your opponents!
- The player who’s visited the most countries on the map begins and turn proceeds clockwise.
To play the game
On your turn, you may perform any 1 of 4 actions:
Option 1 is to draw train cards. This can be a mixture of any 2 standard colour cards from either the face up row, the top of the deck, or both, OR 1 single face up locomotive card, which counts as any colour.
- If the first card you draw from the top of the deck is a locomotive, you can still take a second card.
- If you take a card from the row, replace it immediately, before drawing any others.
- If there are ever 3 face up locomotives, discard all face up cards and draw new ones.
- If the draw pile runs dry, shuffle the discard pile to form a new one.
Option 2 is to claim a single route, by paying the quantity and colour of train cards from your hand, that matches the colour and length of that route. Place one of your trains on each space and score the points according to its length. Locomotives count as any colour.
For example, I could pay 3 blue cards and 1 locomotive to claim this route from Paris to Pamplona.
- Grey routes can be paid for using the correct number of cards of any 1 colour.
- You can claim any 1 open route, in its entirety, it doesn't have to connect to your previous ones.
- Some cities have two of the same length route between them, a single player can not claim both. In 2 or 3 player games, only 1 of these routes can every be claimed.
- Place the cards you played in a discard pile next to the deck.
- Once placed, trains cannot be moved.
Ferries are grey routes that cross water. To claim them, you must use the number of locomotives depicted. For example, claiming this ferry route would require 2 locomotives, plus 4 more cards of the same colour.
Tunnels have special borders, to claim these you must first pay the number and colour of carriages depicted, then turn the top 3 cards from the train pile face up. For each locomotive or card revealed that matches the colour of the route, you must pay an additional card of that colour, or locomotive. If you can’t pay it, return your cards to your hand and don’t claim the route. The 3 cards turned over are discarded.
If you attempt to claim a tunnel using only locomotives, you only have to pay additional cards if a locomotive is turned over from the top of the deck.
Option 3 is to draw 3 new destination tickets from the deck, look at them and keep at least 1, before returning the others to the bottom of the pile.
Once chosen, you must keep tickets until the end of the game.
Tickets will score you a bonus at the end, if you complete a route between the 2 points depicted. The exact route doesn't matter, as long as the cities are linked by a continuous path of trains of your colour.
- If you don’t complete a ticket, its points will be deducted from your score.
- There’s no limit to the number of tickets you can have.
- Keep them hidden from other players.
Option 4 is to build a train station. A station lets you use a single route into or out of the city you place it on that belongs to another player when completing your destination tickets at the game’s end.
- You can build a station in any unoccupied city.
- Each player has just 3 stations to use.
- The first costs 1 card, the second costs 2 cards of the same colour and the third costs 3 of the same colour. Locomotives can be used.
- If you use a station to help towards scoring more than 1 destination card, they must all use the same route into or out of it.
Game end and scoring
Take it in turns either drawing cards, claiming routes, Selecting tickets or building stations until one player has 2 or less trains remaining in their supply at the end of their turn. Each player, including that player, gets one final turn, then scoring begins.
- First, check you’ve scored points for each route you’ve placed.
- Then, reveal your destination tickets, scoring points for the ones you completed, and losing points for the ones you didn’t.
- Next, score 4 points for each station you didn’t place.
- Finally, the player with the longest continuous route of trains scores the express bonus for 10 points. Stations cannot be used to calculate this. In the case of a tie, both players score 10 points.
The player with the most points wins!
In the case of a tie, the player who completed the most tickets wins. If it’s still tied, the player who used the least stations wins and If it’s still a tie, whoever won the express bonus wins and if it’s even possible that that’s still tied…well done.
That’s Ticket to Ride, the modern titan of a train game…Enjoy!
Choo choo!
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