Ticket To Ride - A Light Fun Game

 

Ticket to Ride is a game for kids and adults.  It is fun but fairly light.  Turns are simple.  You have one action per turn with 3 options:  either choose two cards and add them to your hand, lay some train tracks or get a destination card.   It takes about 2 hours with 5 people.

PROS:

It plays up to 5 people, all ages.

Rules are few so it's easy and quick to teach and learn.

It combines a little luck with some strategy.  Strategy options include: (1) go for the longest track to get the bonus points; (2) Build lots of tracks fast to block others and to go out before others can complete their destination cards; (3) Just build long track chunks for lots of points along the way; (4) Complete lots of destination cards.

CONS:

It can blog down if your color cards aren't coming up.

Can become frustrating when others block your route, but that's part of the strategy.

The orange and red cards are a little hard to tell which is which so I wrote "red" on my red ones.

If you played this, share your thoughts about it in the comments.  

A Place For All My Books Is Fun & Challenging

 

A Place For All My Books is a fairly light game that is easy to teach but yet challenging.  Each player starts in their apartment and tries to complete little projects that involve resorting their books.  Each action they take, read a book, sort, gather, rest, admire gets allows them to charge up their "social battery" to get enough energy to go to town to get more books and other neat stuff that gives end game points.  Every trip to town brings the game closer to the end.  There are also three major accomplishment projects that all players race to finish first for more points.  Each completed little project is two points and each book in the apartment is worth one point.

So far I have taught 5 people to play this game and all have liked it.  A few even wanted to play it again right away.  This game can be for gamers as well as casual board gamers.  It's theme of being a book nerd is very well done, and the mechanics are fairly simple.  Yet, there is strategy involved such as how can I complete more projects and a time to make my admire action most efficient?  Should I go to town now or wait a bit longer to get more social battery energy?  Should I make that last trip to town to get more books or neat stuff to end the game, or just stay home and do more little projects?  Which project should I do next?  Should I focus on the major accomplishments, or just my little projects?  Can I manage both somehow?  Is the neat stuff card showing worth the cost, or should I just pick one from off the pile sight unseen for less?

This game also has a solo mode that I enjoyed playing.  It's a good way to learn the game and there are 5 levels that each get a bit more difficult.  

I highly recommend this game.  I like the artwork, the ease of learning, the quick set up and the challenge in this game.  I also like the opportunity to collect board games for lots of points and get cats to help get extra end game points as well.

So, who wants to come play this with me?  If you have played it, what did you think of it?  

  

Today Is Parma Pink Day

In honor of Parma Pink day, I am wearing my bright pink shirt and making Ambrosia salad using strawberry Jello instead of the usual pistachio.  What an adventurer I am!  Ha!  I mixed in a whole tub of cool whip, a bunch of marshallows, crushed pineapple and even some cherries.  It's very pink--success.  Am considering adding some almonds to help cut down on the super sweetness.  What do you think?  Add them--yes?  No?

"Through the Desert" Is a Short, Fun, Strategic Game

For those who like games to be done in less than an hour that are easy to learn and play, Through the Desert would be a good one for you.  It plays up to 5 players, is a quick setup, easy to teach, easy to play.  All you have to do is take turns placing two camels on the board wherever you wish as long as they are next to your other camel of that color.  The object of the game is to get the most points by (1) having the longest caravan in a color; (2) Acquiring watering hole points; (3) by sealing off a territory from other players; and (4) getting 5 pts. for putting a different color camel next to a palm tree.  The game ends as soon as all the camels of one color have been placed on the board.

Here are a few tips for winning that I have picked up by playing the game:

1.    Have your caravans break off in different directions to avoid getting blocked in.

2.    Try to block out other players.

3.    Try to get at least one camel next to every tree.

4.    Try to get a few territories blocked off.

5.    Try to get the longest caravan for several colors.

Believe me, this game is harder than it looks!

So Excited!

I always get a thrill when I get a bargain on a new game by winning the auction on Ebay for it!  My latest game acquisition is Great Western Trail and it is on the heavy side.  It's always fun to punch out the pieces and get it set up for the first time.  This is one I heard good things about and appealed to me when watching the reviews of it on YouTube, so I took the plunge and bought it.  It took me two days to get everything punched out, set up and get through the rules.  There's a lot to it but think it will be a great game once me and my friends learn it.  There seems to be lots of ways to get points and lots of options along the way. I am excited to learn how to play it and be able to teach it to others soon!

If you know how to play this, please give me some tips in the comments.  Also, if you would like to play this with me, let me know!