Ticket To Ride gains 2 more converts

 

Our friends Stephen and Pauline came round this evening for a few drinks, nibbles and of course a game or two. They had never played anything like a eurogame so out came TtR, the definitive gateway game. I showed them a few of the games I thought might be suitable for a first time play, Thebes, Settlers of Catan and of course TtR. We decided to give TtR a try and they liked it I think right from the start, the rules are easy to get to grips with so you can start playing pretty much straight from the off. I explained that in the later stages of the game it might be good to take more tickets because you might already have the connection or part at least. Stephen went a different way, after connecting his initial routes he went for all the 6 train routes, scoring a hefty 15 points a pop.
In the end it was pretty close, Stephen closed out his last 6er to leave him with 1 train and me one route short of making two tickets and a large minus. Pauline had the longest route to get the extra 10 points, so the final scores ended like this.

Final Score
Stephen 89, Colin 83, Pauline 81, Tina 80

After TtR I brought out Reiner Knizia's Spiel des Jahres winner, Keltis. This didn't go down so well, quote from Stephen 'tame'. Plus the fact that I forget a crucial rule that the game ends when the last card is taken from the face down deck....ah well, you can't win em all.

Final Score
Pauline 37, Tina 20, Stephen 18, Colin 14

As the time was getting on now I thought we could finish the evening with a little card filler, Geschenkt (No Thanks!). Rules are easy, plays quick and has a bit to it. I think they quite liked this as well, Pauline was definitely on a roll now, just look at the scores for this one.

Final Scores
Game 1 - Pauline 51, Tina 55, Colin 61, Stephen 74

Game 2 - Pauline 59, Stephen 66, Tina 84, Colin 92

Game 3 - Pauline 49, Tina 65, Colin 66, Stephen 99

Game 3 - Tina 36, Pauline 55, Colin 62, Stephen 87

All in all a good evening I think, well, Pauline and Stephen wanted to know where they could buy TtR and took down some names of other likely games. Hopefully 2 more converts the great world of Eurogaming. Can't wait to play again.

Happy Gaming!!