Saturday, April 20, 2024
Pip pip. Tallyho. All that rot!
I spent a VERY short time as a ‘tourist’ in London. Didn’t really actually leave the airport, if I’m going to be honest. So the next best thing has to be the newest version of Alan R. Moon’s classic route building and set collection game, Ticket to Ride: London.
I missed the TTR craze in its heyday. I’ve certainly played it and enjoyed it, but I never delved too deep into the various maps that have been published over the years. I’m most familiar with plain old vanilla TTR. The truth is, that although I think it’s an excellent game, it never really excited me. I respect the design and replayability, it just didn’t strike a chord for me.
Flash forward to the announcement of TTR: London, and for the first time in a while I was pretty intrigued by a game in this series. TTR: London is a stand alone game for two to four players. The neat trick, is that each game only lasts about 10-15 minutes. Instead of piling on new rules and complicated depth, TTR: London strips away a lot of the extra rules that got added on over the years and returns to the simplicity of the original.
Now, don’t get me wrong, there are some new rules. But these rules don’t change the main experience. It feels like almost a streamlined filler game that still scratches the TTR itch.
As in all TTR games, the main action focuses around gaining cards, and building routes (in this case with double-decker buses instead of trains), by discarding sets of cards and claiming connections between locations. The routes in TTR: London are a lot smaller. Most only reach one or two spaces, with the maximum being four spaces long. You’ll get points during the game for completing routes, and end game points for completing Tickets. The Tickets reward you for connecting two different locations on the board. In TTR: London, you’re looking at places like Buckingham Palace, Picadilly Circus, and the British Museum.
One thing that has been added are the different Districts. London is broken into Districts of various sizes, and if you manage to connect all of the locations in a District, you’ll score points equal to its value.
If you are familiar with the TTR series, you’ll jump right in to this game and be playing in no time, but like its predecessors, even new players will find TTR London quite easy to grasp. This new version my actually be a great place for people to start, especially with its super quick playtime.
So I must say that I really liked this game. Maybe it’s because I’m not burned out on TTR, or maybe just cause it’s a heck of a lot of fun. It feels just like a normal TTR game, but compacted into a fast little package. If you have dozens of other TTR maps, you really may not need this one, but then again, it’s always nice to visit new locations. You can’t go wrong with TTR as a filler.
I definitely recommend checking it out.
Cheerio!
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A media copy of Ticket to Ride: London was provided for this article.
TTR has been a family favourite for a long time, especially fun to play with the grandkids, even when they were fairly young.
Some of the later versions did add twists, rules and challenges that made them more complicated and sometimes way too long. So looking forward to trying out this new version, especially if it’s somewhat easier and shorter.
NJ