Ticket to Ride (TTR) Series featuring TTR: Nordic Countries
Ticket to Ride is a board game series featuring different continents, countries, and cities including Europe, France, and New York. There are somewhere around 30 different options for you to pick from. They’re all similar in design and purpose. Throughout the game, you compete against your opponents to build the most efficient and strategic routes between towns and cities. Your main goal is to complete your ticket destination cards without being blocked by your opponents.
Each edition is easy to learn and once you’ve played one version of TTR, the others are simple to pick up with only slight changes and adjustments. The rulebooks are short and straightforward with clearly explained and illustrated rules. Depending on the number of players, it can take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes to play. The game ends when one of the players has two or less trains left to place on the board.
The Ticket to Ride series is great for families. The low level of complexity and simple strategy is similar in each edition. With most versions, three or four players usually make the game better and increase the level of competition as the board gets more and more crowded. There are plenty of TTR options to consider and depending on your gaming situation, I recommend different versions. For two players, I usually go with Nordic Countries because the game board has fewer tracks and routes to select while still posing a challenge with ferries and tunnels. If you typically have three or four players, I think Germany and Europe are the best options because of the game board designs and the great additions… Germany with meeples and Europe with ferries, train stations and tunnels.
If you are interested in geography and you want to add lighter, family games to your collection, the TTR series is a great investment!
Title: Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries
Designer: Alan R. Moon
Publisher: Days of Wonder
Type: Family
Players: 2 – 3 players
Recommended Age: 8+
Time to Play: 30 – 60 minutes
BGG Ranking: 7.6
My Ranking: 8/10
Game Level: Beginner
Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries is a standalone game in the TTR series. This version is one of the best for two players because of the condensed game board. It also adds in some interesting new components including tunnels and ferries that increase the difficulty level. The main goal is to complete the routes on your ticket destination cards and if you complete the most, you get the globetrotter card for some extra points! But be careful… the game board design promotes more competition and route blocking!
The tunnels and ferries found in Nordic Countries are also found in some other editions of TTR. Europe and Nordic Countries are the only versions that have both! Tunnels are challenging and add a bit of luck to the game. When you decide to put trains down on a tunnel route, the top three cards of the train card deck are drawn. If any of them match the tunnel’s color or are wildcards, you have to provide the same number of cards from your deck that either are wildcards or match the tunnel’s color. If you don’t have the cards to do it, you don’t get to place the trains.
Ferries are slightly easier and make wildcards much more valuable! Ferries require one wild card for every locomotive symbol on the selected route. Typically one or two are required in order to place your trains. If you don’t have the wildcards, you can’t place your trains! There’s usually strong competition for these cards in Nordic Countries.
Nordic Countries is a great edition of TTR because it works better with fewer players and introduces two components that add to the competition and challenge. If you’re new to TTR and you usually play two-player games, I recommend purchasing Nordic Countries.
Caroline’s Library 