How do you know you are a boardgame geek?
How did I find out, I was one?
Well, I am a Tori Amos fan. This passion is shared with millions of people -- not all of them geeks. Why do I mention this? Well, Tori has a song Happy Phantom which contains the following line in the chorus:And if I die today, I'll be a happy phantom.
Now, it is pretty easy:
IF
you are a fan of Tori's and know the words of her songs
AND you receive the board game you have waited for so long
AND even almost a week before the official release date
AND the line And if I die today, I'll be a happy phantom is the first thing which comes to your mind
THEN
you are a board game geek.
... So here is what's happened today. I return from home after a whole long day of work and find a package on the stairs. Sender: from Paris, company name: Days of Wonder (and particularly true for to-day). Ups? What is this? Already March 29th?
YEEEESS!! It IS Ticket to Ride Europe! Today, before Easter! Not on March 29th.
And the first thing that comes to mind:
And if I die today, I'll be a happy phantom
So, here we go for some pics of what's new and my first impressions of the game design. Let me just mention: I have not played it yet, but this is just my excitement going nuts...
Now, from Mr. over-enthusiastic, back to a bit more analytic, please.
Map of Europe
The cities are all written in their local language, e.g. Bruxelles, København, München, Roma, Bucuresti (although neither the Kyrillic-character set is used for cities like Moskva, nor the Greek characters for Athens).
One route is 8 fields long and allows you to score 21 points. Drawback: it is a tunnel...
Tunnels
Tunnels are routes with particular markings and borders around the fields, e.g. from Pamplona to Madrid
The problem with tunnels is that nobody knows how long they really are. If a player attempts to travel a tunnel route he has to play as many waggon cards as there is fields between the two cities (identical to normal game). Then, he draws the top three cards from the stack. For any card with matching color (or a joker) he has to play an additional card from his hand (or a locomotive). Only then can the tunnel be used. If the player fails to play the additional cards, all the other cards and the waggons are returned to his hand (while the three waggon cards from the stack are discarded). The next player continues playing.
I'll spare you with additional exceptions to the tunnel rules
Ferries
Ferries are highlighted as a special grey route field with a train icon on it. They connect two neighboring cities which are separated by the sea.
If a player wants to use a ferry he has to play one train for each train symbol displayed on the route
Waggon cards
As has been mentioned elsewhere, the train cards are about twice the size than in the original game. You can see this in one of the pictures
The cards have been redesigned and I really like the new level of detail.
The game contains 12 cards of each color and 14 locomotives
Double routes may only be used if playing with more than 3 players.
Train stations
The game contains train stations in the colors of the waggons. There is three stations per color (i.e. player).
Train stations lighten the completion of destination tickets
A train station enables a player to use exactly one route which belongs to another player ending (or beginning) in the city where the player placed his station. The choice which route will be used is made at the end of the game.
A player can build a train station in any city he desires, if there is no train station yet. The player needs to play one waggon card of a color of his choice and puts the train station into the city he desires.
They get more expensive: for the second train station the player needs to play two waggon cards of the same color and for the third, three cards.
Unused train stations score an additional 4 points at the end of the game
Destination tickets
Sorted by points and city name ascending:
Athína - Angora (5)
Budapest - Sofia (5)
Frankfurt - København (5)
Sofia - Smyrna (5)
Rostov - Erzurum (5)
Kyiv - Petrograd (6)
Warszawa - Smolensk (6)
Zágráb - Brindisi (6)
Zürich - Brindisi (6)
Zürich - Budapest (6)
Amsterdam - Pamplona (7)
Brest - Marseille (7)
Edinburgh - Paris (7)
London - Berlin (7)
Paris - Zágráb (7)
Barcelona - Bruxelles (8)
Barcelona - München (8)
Berlin - Bucuresti (8)
Brest - Venezia (8)
Kyiv - Sochi (8)
Madrid - Dieppe (8)
Madrid - Zürich (8)
Marseille - Essen (8)
Palermo - Constantinople
Paris - Wien (8)
Roma - Smyrna (8)
Sarajevo - Sevastopol (8)
Smolensk - Rostov (8)
Berlin - Roma (9)
Bruxelles - Danzig (9)
Angora - Kharkov (10)
Essen - Kyiv (10)
London - Wien (10)
Riga - Bucuresti (10)
Venizia - Constantinople (10)
Athína - Wilno (11)
Stockholm - Wien (11)
Amsterdam - Wilno (12)
Berlin - Moskva (12)
Frankfurt - Smolensk (13)
Brest - Petrograd (20)
Lisboa - Danzig (20)
Palermo - Moskva (20)
Cadiz - Stockholm (21)
Edinburgh - Athína (21)
København - Erzurum (21)
I am really looking forward to playing this game for the first time! And if I die today I'll be a happy phantom...
Comments
The song that comes to my mind was: I'm a maniac ;) I'm looking forward to our next visit and I hope we'll find some time to play this game...
Posted by: Shelak | March 24, 2005 4:36 PM