Welcome to our overview of Days of Wonder’s Ticket to Ride: Europe 15th Anniversary.  If you want to know what we think of this game – read our review here.

The Game – Ticket to Ride: Europe 15th Anniversary

In Ticket to Ride: Europe 15th Anniversary, you play train enthusiasts trying to build out your network of train routes that span Europe. You are competing with the other players to have the most points and longest routes. This Europe edition also has a ton of physical pieces more than any other Ticket to Ride game. So are you ready to take that train trip across Europe? Read on to learn how to play this enjoyable game.

Game Components

Ticket to Ride Europe: 15th Anniversary Edition is a special edition of the game, so the components are unique.

• 1 Rulebook – which explains all the rules and how to integrate the three expansions into the game.
• 1 Board – a large map of Europe with train, ferry, and tunnel routes
• 5 Train tins – Each player gets a train tin, and each container has 48 train markers. Each is a 3D representation of a different train type.
• 15 Colored Train Stations – 3 per color
• 5 scoring markers – one in each train color
• 1 European Express bonus card
• 1 Big Cities Reference Card (for use in the Big Cities of Europe expansion)
• 110 Train cards
• 108 Destination Ticket Cards – 46 ticket cards from Ticket to Ride: Europe, 55 ticket cards from Europa 1912, 6 cards from Orient Express, and 1 ticket from Ticket to Ride with Max

Game Play

Ticket to Ride: Europe 15th Anniversary is a game where you and the other players take turns claiming routes between two adjacent cities as you try to complete your destination tickets and build out the longest route on the board.

Setup

To set up this impressive-looking game, first put out the massive board in the middle of the table. You will need a reasonably large table as the game board is about a third larger than traditional Ticket to Ride: Europe. Each player gets a train tin with 48 train pieces. There are a few extras, so make sure everyone removes three each and only has 45. They then place their scoring marker on the start of the scoring track that borders the game.

Shuffle the train cards and deal out four cards to each player. Place the remaining train cards at the side of the board. Turn the first five train cards face up and place them by the side of the board. This group of cards is your train display. If the train display shows three of the five as locomotives at any point in the game, discard them all and put five more cards out face up.

Place the European Express Bonus card face next to the board. This card is just a reminder that the player with the longest continuous route at the end of the game gets an additional 10 points.

Take the Destination tickets with the Europe logo and separate the six long tickets from the 40 tickets. Shuffle the long tickets and give one to each player and return the others to the box.

Finally, shuffle the 40 regular destination tickets and deal 3 to each player, placing the remainder next to the board.

Before starting, each player must decide which Destination tickets they want to keep (at least one) and discard the remaining back into the box so that the other players can’t see what they are. The tickets each player decides to keep are kept secret until the end of the game.

Turns

This game is all about getting new routes between cities down on the board. To accomplish this, the players choose one action to take from four possible actions each turn:

• Draw Train Cards
• Claim a Route
• Draw Destination Tickets
• Build a Train Station

Draw Train Cards

The player draws two train cards from the deck or two cards from the train display. If you choose a locomotive card from the train display you may only choose that one card. If a player chooses a train display card, it is immediately replaced with one from the deck. If the deck of train cards ever runs out, the players can no longer do this action. This is rare and happens when a player or players decides to horde cards as there is no limit to the number of cards a player can have in their hand.

Locamotives

These are unique cards in Ticket to Ride: Europe 15th Anniversary. They act as wild cards and can represent any of the eight route colors. Suppose a player selects a locomotive from the train display. In that case, a player can only choose one card instead of two, if however, they draw two facedown cards, and the first happens to be a locomotive, they can select a second card.

Claim a Route

With this action, a player can take ownership over a route. They play the quantity and color of train cards from their hand into the discard pile. The color must match the route color, and gray can represent any color so long as the cards played are all of the same color. They place one of their train markers in each route segment, scoring the number of points from the route length table (see below for the scoring). Players can create a route anywhere on the board, and it does not need to connect to a previous route. Players must claim the route entirely. The player can not claim a part of a route.

Double Route

A few of the routes on the board are double routes. These are where two routes are running directly between two cities. A single player can not claim both routes, and, in two and three-player games, once a player claims one route of the two, no other player can claim the second route.

Ferry Route

In Ticket to Ride: Europe, not only are there train routes but there are also ferry routes!

Any route with locomotive icons in their segments denotes ferry routes. This route pattern means a player must use the shown number of locomotives to complete the route along with the correct number of cards to complete the route.

Tunnel Route

A player must play the specified train cards with any locomotives to complete a tunnel route as usual. However, they must also draw three additional cards from the train deck, and for each card drawn that matches the color of the route, a player must play an additional train card from their hand to complete the tunnel route.

For example, if a tunnel were three segments long and red, a player would need to play three red train cards with any locomotives they want as wildcards. Then draw the following three cards from the train deck, and for each red card drawn, the player will need to discard one additional red train card from their hand.

If they can not complete the route because they don’t have enough cards in their hand of the specified color, they can take all their cards back, and their turn ends.

If a player draws a locomotive as one of the three cards, it counts towards the color needed for the route.

Draw Destination Ticket Cards

With this action, a player can draw three destination ticket cards and must keep at least one. They may keep more. If there aren’t any more destination ticket cards, the players can not take this action.

If a player does not keep a destination ticket card, it goes to the bottom of the Train Destination ticket deck.

Tickets drawn but not discarded immediately must be kept until the end of the game. Any cards the player holds in their hand are routes they need to complete. If they can do that, they get to add those points. If not, the players must deduct those from their final score.

Build a Train Station

A player can build a train station in a city that doesn’t already have one as an action. To play their first train station, a player must play one train card from their hand, for their second, two train cards, and third, three train cards.
Train stations allow a player to use one and only one route created by another player leading from that city. Train stations help complete Destination tickets. If the city is on multiple destination tickets, the player must use the same route on all tickets.
At the end of the game, a player will add 4 points to their final score for each station they do not use.

Scoring

As players complete routes, they score points according to the following:

• 1 route length = 1 point
• 2 route length = 2 points
• 3 route length = 4 points
• 4 route length = 7 points
• 6 route length = 15 points
• 8 route length = 21 points

At the end of the game, players reveal all their destination ticket cards, and for each completed route, the players add those points to their current total. Then for each route not completed, the players deduct those points from their score.

They score four additional points for every train station that the player has not added to the board. Finally, the player with the longest continuous route, not including routes owned by the train station, will get an additional 10 points. A player can only count each train car once regardless of how many loops and paths through the same city the route takes.

The player with the most points wins the game. If there is a tie, the player with the most completed destination tickets wins.

*pictures courtesy of Days of Wonder