Game: Ticket to Ride

My partner hosts an informal group of board-game players, Gaymerbears, we tend to get together about three times a month. It's one of our best totally domestic activities. People bring whatever games they enjoy. It tends to focus on games more sophisticated than say "Risk", but less complex than turn-based strategy games (such as those created by Avalon Hill.) It is also a great break from human-free video games.

The evening we tried something new, "Ticket to Ride" by Days of Wonder. On a simple map of the United States and southern Canada your goal is build rail lines between cities. Each player has a number of secret tasks to connect certain cities. Points are awarded during the game by building rail track segments. At the end of the game additional points are awarded or subtracted by how well you've met your secret goals.

There are several aspects of this game that I find better than similar games I've played in the past, such as Empire Builder. The rules are rather simple. Unlike most boardgames a player is only allowed to perform only one simple task during their turn. They may collect cards or build track but not both. This leads to much faster gameplay. If you let your mind wander you're suddenly find everyone staring at you waiting. I'm going to look into modifying the rules of some other games and try this "simplification".

By far the best part is that while your most important goal is to join your cities you have many opportunities to screw over your fellow players! You can guess at your opponents target cities and then try to shut them out. You can build some rail tracks and then heard a stream of obscenities from around the table - priceless!