Ticket to Ride expansions

Ticket to Ride is a quick to play game with easy to understand rules, so it’s often one of the games people add to their board game collection. If you feel like you’ve exhausted every challenge the core game has to offer, check out these Ticket to Ride expansions which put a new twist on a familiar formula.

Ticket to Ride has a well-deserved place on our guide to the best family board games, while the child-friendly variant Ticket to Ride: First Journey sits proudly on our list of the best kids board games. If you want more inspiration for new games, check out our guide to the absolute best board games – there’s bound to be something in there for you.

To play with any of these expansions you will need a copy of Ticket to Ride or Ticket to Ride: Europe.

Here are all the Ticket to Ride expansions:

Ticket to Ride: USA 1910

A simple way to shake up a classic

USA 1910 is a card expansion for the original Ticket to Ride. It adds three new game modes: one using 35 new Destination Tickets, one using those tickets and the full set from the base game, and one which only uses Destination Tickets connecting to large cities. It’s a cheap way to add extra life to your beloved base game!

Ticket to Ride: Europa 1912

Warehouses and Depots add goodies for fast players to grab

Europa 1912 is a card expansion for Ticket to Ride: Europe that adds 55 new Destination Tickets, plus rules and pieces for Warehouses & Depots. Each player builds a Depot in one city, and accumulates Train Car Cards in their Warehouse. If another player builds a route to a Depot they’ll snatch Train Car Cards from its owner’s Warehouse, giving them a sudden speed boost!

Ticket to Ride: The Heart of Africa

Risk and reward with tricky routes and points-doubling Terrain Cards

Heart of Africa adds a dense 2-5 player map. Almost every city on the Heart of Africa map is connected to multiple routes of the same color, making progress a real challenge as you’re suddenly locked out of routes by your opponents’ cards. Expect your train line to be a real snarl!

This expansion also adds Terrain Cards, an alternate deck you can choose to draw from instead of grabbing Train Car Cards. Taking these cards will slow down your-route building efforts, but they can be spent to double the points you receive a route – provided you have at least as many cards of that type as every other player.

Ticket to Ride: Nederland

Spend you Bridge Toll Tokens carefully

Nederland adds a new 2-5 player map covered with waterways and bridges. The first player to claim a route on any of the double-track bridges pays a price in Bridge Toll Tokens to the bank. The second player to claim the bridge instead pays their tokens to the first player who claimed the route. You’ll earn bonus points for holding onto Bridge Toll Tokens until the end of the game.

This is a great expansion for players who like to get into each other’s heads. A route that might be less useful for your plans could yield big rewards if you know another player wants to use it too. Just don’t get stuck without enough the Toll Tokens to finish a vital route.

Ticket to Ride: United Kingdom

The birth of the Steam Age

United Kingdom adds both the 2-4 player United Kingdom map and the 2-5 player Pennsylvania map. The United Kingdom map overhauls the game substantially, as it starts with the birth of the steam age and only the most rudimentary trains, capable only of short routes. You’ll purchase new Tech Cards throughout the game, gradually unlocking extra routes and new strategies.

Pennsylvania is a simpler expansion, adding a full-sized map plus Stock Share Cards that represent your holdings in different railroad companies. Completing your route lets you claim a share in one of the companies that operates that route: at the end of the game, players receive points for their shareholdings, with bigger rewards for the biggest shareholders.

Ticket to Ride: France

Massive maps for 2-6 players

The France expansion pack adds two enormous 2-6 player maps, one of France and another of the Old West. The France map is particularly sneaky: most of the routes on the map don’t have colored tracks. Whenever you draw cards, you’ll lay down colored track on the board. That might be to set up a route for yourself, or just to mess with your opponents’ plans…

The Old West removes the ability to freely claim routes anywhere on the map. You pick a starting city, and build out from there, adding new cities to your rail network as you connect to them. Claiming a route into a city someone else controls gives them the points for the route, but you may need to make that sacrifice in order to finish your Destination Tickets.

Ticket to Ride: Poland

A dense map with international connections

Poland offers a dense, 2-4 player map, with an interesting twist. Poland connects to many other countries at its borders, and there are points to be won not just for connecting neighbouring countries with Polish cities, but also for creating international connections too.

Ticket to Ride: Japan & Italy

Cooperate to build the bullet train, or compete to claim regions of Italy

Japan and Italy offers two large maps for two to five players. In Japan, some routes form part of the collective Bullet Train project. Once a section of the Bullet Train route has been built, anyone can use it to complete their Destination Tickets. You could leave the hard work to other players – but whoever puts the most into the Bullet Train will get a hefty reward at the end of the game.

Italy has many long routes, including difficult Ferry routes which either require Locomotive Wild Cards or slow-to-acquire Ferry Cards. While you need to plan for claiming those vital long routes, there are also bonus points for connecting together the different Regions of Italy, which can have a massive impact on the final score.

Ticket to Ride: Asia

A massive Team Mode, and a challenging 2-5 player map.

The Asia expansion has two, very different maps. Team Asia adds a mode for two to three teams of two players each. Working together means sharing. Each time a player draws new Train Car Cards, one will go into a shared team supply. Teammates will also share information about some of their Destination tickets.

Legendary Asia is a 2-5 player map, set in the long-ago days of the Silk Road. It features difficult Mountain routes, which will cause you to discard some of your plastic Train Cars whenever you complete such a perilous crossing.

Ticket to Ride: India

Two compact maps for low player counts and tough competition

India comes with two, tightly-packed maps, the 2-4 player India map and even denser 2-3 player Switzerland map. India offers special bonuses for completing ‘Grand Tours’ by connecting the two cities on a Destination Ticket through two totally different routes. The more Destination Tickets you can do this for, the bigger the benefit you’ll get at the end of the game.

The Switzerland map uses the Countries mechanic also seen in Poland, where Destination Tickets may require you to connect a city with another country, or connect countries internationally. Tricky Tunnel Routes underneath the Swiss alps may look short, but you have to play additional Train Car Cards due to finish the route.

If none of those expansions sound like they’re different enough to interest you, why not check out our guides to the best strategy board games, or the best board games for adults?

Source: Wargamer