Naturelich Games

We have finished playing the first four sessions of Ticket to Ride Europe (aka Zug um Zug Europa). The game is wonderful. The increased size of waggon and ticket cards was well received (after a while). The rule changes are easy to grasp for experienced players. I especially liked the introduction of long vs. short routes: each player gets one long destination ticket together with three additional short ones. Each player has to keep at least any two tickets. Well-conditioned as we were by the original Ticket to Ride, we all kept the long route ticket.

After a couple of games, I then tried a different strategy: I kept two to three (somwehat) matching short route tickets. This is especially useful in central Europe where the busy action takes place. You have to be fast to claim your important routes. If you are not, you may still use train stations, but the 10 points for the Europe-express are for another player's score.
Since there are plenty of destinations in Central Europe the likelihood of drawing at least one well-matching ticket when you draw new tickets is high. With this strategy I was able to draw tickets at least twice before the other players had finished their long routes and drew additional tickets. By that time you already have a good understanding of the colors you need to reach the additional destinations (and probably even got a few on your hand). You also know which cities will be particularly difficult to reach (maybe because two long-route players have marked their territories in the vicinity). Maybe you can even claim some of the more important routes where your opponents are active. This will cause even more trouble for them.

But now, enough of this. Here are the results...

Game #1: The final situation

Game #2: The final situation