10 best Ticket to Ride maps and variants

2 weeks ago 4

Ticket to Ride launched and won the Spiel de Jahres 20 years ago. Along with Catan and Carcassonne, it is widely considered to have helped push the popularity of modern board gaming. The original title is really easy to pick up, just as easy to teach, and it has enough direct competition for routes to keep it interesting.

But, after 20 years, you’re probably a bit sick of trying to get routes into Miami and Las Vegas. Fortunately, since its launch, Ticket to Ride has spawned an absolute ton of map packs and variants, most of which bring new game mechanics as well as alternative maps. Below are the 10 that we feel are the best.

Note that the map collection sets below do require you to have either the original Ticket to Ride or Ticket to Ride: Europe to play them as you need the train cards and trains from one of these games.

1. Ticket to Ride: Rails & Sails

Ticket to Ride is a game all about trains. Except when it isn’t. As the name suggests, Rails & Sails combines trains with boats. First, you can choose from the Great Lakes or the whole world map on the double-sided board. Then, once you’ve picked your destination cards, you split your transportation stock between trains and ships, and you can’t change your mind later. Substantial bonuses and penalties are awarded in this game, and while the original can be considered a bit light, Rails & Sails’ complexity may put some people off. It also lasts longer, with a game taking around 90 minutes.

2. Ticket to Ride: Europe

Ticket to Ride: Europe was one of the first standalone variants of the game and it introduced ferries and tunnels as well as stations. The European map is excellent and the new mechanics do add an extra layer but without over-complicating matters. This is still easy enough for beginners to grasp, although the original title remains the best teaching game of the bunch, and you can always add the Europa 1912 expansion for even more depth.

3. Ticket to Ride Map Collection 7: Japan & Italy

Map Collection 7: Japan & Italy includes a double-sided board. In Japan, certain routes are reserved for the Bullet Train. Once a single player claims the Bullet Train route, all players contribute to the shared project. At the end of the game, points are awarded to players according to how much they contributed. There is also a separate inlay for routes that involve the Tokyo subway system. Italy has regions with bonuses for connecting more regions. There are also ferry routes, which require the use of ferry cards as well as standard train cards.

4. Ticket to Ride Map Collection 5: UK & Pennsylvania

The UK side of the UK & Pennsylvania map pack adds a whole new mechanic of technology. Initially, players won’t be able to build many routes but, as the game progresses and more technology is researched, many options open up. Pennsylvania is similar to the original titles except it incorporates stocks and shares for some light investment action.

5. Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries

Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries is a standalone game that is similar to the original but does add a couple of location-specific mechanics – tunnels and ferries. To use a tunnel, the player flips the top 3 train cards from the deck. If one of these trains matches the color of the tunnel, the player has to pay extra or forego building the route. Ferries require the payment of a set number of wild cards to establish the route.

6. Ticket to Ride Map Collection 6: France & Old West

The France board doesn’t have routes between cities. Instead, players turn cards and the routes could benefit anybody at the table. It ramps up the luck element of the game, which some people will appreciate. The Old West map is the one we prefer here, with players having a starting city. Routes must be built outwards from that starting point rather than anywhere on the board.

7. Ticket to Ride Map Collection 4: Nederland

Nederland is a unique Ticket to Ride map because it incorporates money into the game. When a bridge route is first claimed, the player pays a toll to the bank. If another player claims that route, the first player receives the toll fee. Bonuses are awarded according to how many toll tokens players have at the end of the game.

8. Ticket to Ride: London

Ticket to Ride: London is a standalone variant of the game that is especially popular for its brevity with a single game taking around 20 minutes to complete. In London, players are building bus routes rather than train routes, to complete destination tickets, connect districts, and, of course, get the most points by the end of the game.

9. Ticket to Ride: First Journey

Ticket to Ride: First Journey is almost identical to the original Ticket to Ride, except it scores differently. Rather than adding up routes and calculating the longest contiguous route lengths, the winner of Ticket to Ride: First Journey or Ticket to Ride: First Journey (Europe) is the first player to complete six destination tickets. It’s a simpler system and is designed to keep the attention of younger players.

10. Ticket to Ride

There’s a reason so many variants and expansions of the original have launched, and that’s because Ticket to Ride was and still is a brilliant game. Despite having a collection comprising some of the latest, greatest, and meatiest board games available, we still reach for Ticket to Ride when we want a simple, enjoyable, chilled family game. If you want to get into titles with greater complexity or added mechanics, Ticket to Ride is the best place to start, and if you want to play the map packs you will need one of the base games so you can use the trains and other elements of the game. And, in a lot of cases, if you have Ticket to Ride, you likely won’t need the versions aimed at children, unless they are very young.

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