Saturday, January 28, 2017

Top 10 Expansions We Own: #7

I as well as numerous others have referred to it as the next Monopoly.  30 years from now, while others will fade away, this game shall stand the test of time.  As we look at number 7 in our top 10 expansions list, we’ve chosen the 1910 expansion of Ticket To Ride.  A good way to describe this expansion would be, there’s little going on in this small box, except everything is bigger and better.  Little time has passed in the timeline of the original Ticket To Ride game, except many new routes have been built, the new mega game, big cities, and a new reward!  All packed into one small box to complete what should have been included in the original game.  The bottom line is it was released into an expansion, and it’s time to show you why we chose this expansion over the others we own for Ticket To Ride.

What’s that?  Full size playing cards?!  You mean we don’t have to hold those dinky little base cards with our fingers anymore?  Sarcasm aside, the fact that the base game cards were considerably smaller from the beginning did not bother me too much.  Mostly because that was the only thing that existed at the time so we had no other choice.  However, after playing with full size cards, you’ll never want to handle the small cards again.  I can thumb through my cards at a normal, faster pace and sort much quicker without the worry of dropping anything.  The texture on these cards are an embossed linen texture so they are much less slippery than the base game cards.  We love the larger playing card sizes and this is only one of the advantages to owning this expansion for your base game.

We also have 35 new Destination tickets! You can always use more routes in Ticket To Ride, and this small box packs a lot more of these cards for more strategic plays. It’s important to note that you still get all of the original routes included in this expansion as you had in the base game too so you wouldn’t have to worry about combining tiny cards with larger cards. Days of Wonder already had this in mind for this expansion. You can distinguish the new destination cards from the old ones by because the year 1910 is printed in the upper right hand corner of the card. Some of the cards are labeled with Big Cities just above the point value. Use all tickets that feature at least one Big City. The big cities are Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and Seattle. There are 35 of these tickets in all. 15 from the original set, and 20 new ones, including one from the Mystery Train expansion. Essentially at the beginning of the game, you shuffle all the Big City cards together, and deal 4 out to each player; and each person must keep at least two (or more if they feel brave). During the game, whenever you draw tickets, you draw 4 and keep at least 1.

In the original game of Ticket To Ride, you have one bonus of 10 additional points awarded to the player who completes the longest route.  That is still the case with the 1910 expansion with one new bonus card known as the Globetrotter Card.  This 15 point bonus card is for the player who completes the most routes by the end of the game.  You can also play The Mega Game by having both bonus cards in play.  You shuffle all 69 tickets together and deal 5 out to each player at the beginning of the game.  Whenever you choose to draw tickets, you draw 4 and keep at least 1.  As always, the discarded cards go back to the bottom of the ticket draw pile.

The decision to choose 1910 was not exactly an easy choice to make for us, as we thoroughly enjoy the United Kingdom & Pennsylvania expansion. The UK/Pennsylvania expansion provides two new maps, multiple new mechanics, with excellent potential for highly increasing points on your routes. That is also a great expansion that we would highly recommend, but it still remains to be a close second spot for our TTR games. One of the main reasons we chose 1910 is because it is so small it could easily be transported to game nights and it exponentially increase the enjoyment of the original Ticket To Ride the way it was meant to be played. You cannot play 1910 without the base game of Ticket To Ride since 1910 is only cards. Plenty of newcomers are still waiting to play these games. Only two weeks prior to me writing this post, I had spoken to a co-worker who owns Ticket To Ride, but he had not opened it yet and had never played it prior to owning it. This example tells me how many people are still just getting into tabletop games like Ticket To Ride and how the 1910 expansion absolutely has to be on your list if you are to purchase the base game of Ticket To Ride. In the past when we’ve taught Ticket To Ride as a gateway game, as well as going forward, we will not under any circumstances, play the base game with anyone without using the 1910 expansion. If you own the base game of Ticket To Ride, you absolutely must own the 1910 expansion! At only 20.00 extra dollars, you will not regret what you are combining with the original game. 1910 adds what the base game needs.

Ticket To Ride - 1910
Overall Meeple Rating: 8/10


New additions:
1) Full Size Playing Cards
2) 35 New Destination Tickets
3) Globetrotter Bonus Card
4) Big Cities & Mega Game option

Have any thoughts or questions?  Leave a comment below.

No comments:

Post a Comment