Ticket to Ride
I love Ticket to Ride! It is one of my "go to" games when wanting to play a board game with people that haven't played before. The rules are easy to learn, and all players in the game can feel like they are making progress towards their goals throughout the game (even if in actuality there are losing pretty badly). New players wouldn't even realize they are losing, really, and still have a sense of accomplishment at the end of the game regardless! The board is attractive, the pieces have a nice tactile sense, and the game overall has a theme that feels really integrated and natural rather than slapped on and made-up. Both young and old alike can play very successfully,...
Wife and I play Ticket to Ride on our iPhone's and love it! Haven't tried the original board game yet. We do, however, have Ticket to Ride Europe which is cool to bring out round friends.
Europe added the train station which allows you to make a connection if the rails are blocked. Kind of nice but people can get upset after interpreting the rules creative ways.
I finally played Ticket to Ride Europe a couple of weeks ago. The addition of the train station definitely added a new dynamic. I took over in the middle of the game for a friend, and the train station almost allowed me to salvage a strategy that had gone horribly wrong early :)
The other thing that I loved about the Europe version is that it helped me learn some locations of cities and territories I should have known from middle or high school, but wasn't paying attention at the time.
jdodson "The train stations are an interesting mechanic and can allow you to salvage a bad game. I like USA's simplicity and such as Europe seems to have more routes but more constrained. At least that's how it seems when I play Europe. Fun, but after playing many more games I think I like USA."
We all love U-S-A! It's my favorite chant that busts out at the Olympics :)
But seriously, the United States board is pretty good and doesn't need to be added to. My philosophy in games is the less rules the better.
I agree. Simplicity is better.