Tuesday 18th April - Ticket to Ride Marklin

TtR Marklin
Originally uploaded by coljen.

Here we are again after cancelling last week. Garry was in Aberdeen and Richard had to work so Ticket to Ride Marklin was put off until this week. Once again Garry had a late call and had to dash off to Aberdeen so he was missing, but Jo had some time and elected to join us. I think we had all played TtR in some form, I had played both vanilla and European flavours. This version looked as though it added some new elements that made it a bit more of a gamers game. With +4 Locos which could only be used on links of 4 or more and passenger tokens which can be picked up to score more points. I think both Richard and Steve had played once before but Jo and myself were first-timers. The initial choice of tickets is interesting too. Do you go for a balanced approach (2 long, 2 short), or all short or all long? I did the 2 and 2 and kept 2 long and 1 short, and I know Richard kept 4 short. The map is well designed with more of the long routes going north/south and a lot of the short routes in the south.

Richard’s strategy soon became apparent, all short routes and lots of passenger tokens to be collected. Hopefully he will comment outlining his thinking (Richard?). I started OK working towards completing my 2 long routes but making sure my short route was still achievable. A couple of single and double links to keep an eye on. Jo worked his way from east to west across the map and Steve started coming down the western edge.

As the game progressed Richard had used his first passenger token collecting 31 points, I had put my first one down in a not too good position and Jo collected the 7 point Berlin token first. Towards the end of the game I had to gamble and take tickets otherwise I had no chance of winning. I took 4 short and one was pretty good, a couple of turns later I took 4 long hoping at least one would be within reach, but no luck all impossible. I had to keep the lowest point one, that was minus 12 points! Jo took tickets at least twice I think and connected at least once every time. Steve was having a pretty tough time of it and kept taking blind picks to try to make his sets.
Overall I think this is a terrific game, the new rules give you a lot more to think about and make it more challenging to play.

Final Scores (Initial points, completed tickets, uncompleted tickets, 10pt bonus for most completed tickets)
Jo 104-70-0-10=184
Richard 111-53-9=155
Colin 102-43-12=133
Steve 84-22-43=64

A short note about the picture this week. I had forgotten my camera so Richard took a pic with his phone. How to get it on to a PC? Steve had a PDA so he connected to Richard’s bluetooth phone and grabbed the pic then downloaded it onto his PC and finally emailed it to me. Phew!! I’ll try not to forget my camera next time.

Happy Gaming!!