Ticket to Ride: Europe

Why it's in our library

Every turn comes down to one simple choice, so the table keeps moving while each player quietly works on their own plan to link cities across a map of Europe.

How to play

You are rival railway builders. The goal is to score the most points by claiming train routes between European cities.

To start, each player takes a supply of plastic trains, a few train stations and some train cards. You are also dealt destination tickets: one long ticket and several regular ones. Each ticket names two cities you hope to connect. Keep at least two.

On your turn, do exactly one thing:

• Take train cards, usually two, from the face-up row or from the top of the deck. A face-up locomotive is wild, and taking it uses your whole draw.
• Claim a route by playing cards that match its color and length, then lay your trains along it. Longer routes score more.
• Take new tickets and keep at least one.
• Build a station in a city. It lets you borrow one opponent's route out of that city to finish your tickets. Each station costs more cards than the one before.

Tunnels are a gamble. After you play your cards, three more are turned over from the deck, and any that match mean you pay extra or give up the claim. Ferry routes need locomotives.

When any player is down to two trains or fewer, everyone takes one last turn. Finished tickets add points and unfinished ones take points away. Each station you never used earns a bonus, and the longest continuous line earns a bonus too. The highest score wins.

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