How Do You Play Ticket To Ride Europe | 10 Minute Guide
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Ticket to Ride Europe is the second in a long line of train travel board games designed by Alan R Moon. Travel across Europe claiming train routes between the great cities and gaining points. Get the most points by the end and you win the game.
This is a standalone game that has additional game dynamics from its predecessor Ticket to Ride. It has the addition of Tunnels and Ferries which add more to the game. In this article you’ll learn how to play Ticket to Ride Europe.
Table of Contents
Preparing to play
Each player chooses a scoring marker and places it on the start of the scoring track running around the outside of the board. As players accumulate points the markers give you a good running indication of where everyone stands.
The train card deck is then shuffled and each player dealt 4 cards and the remaining cards are put near the board as a drawer pile. The top 5 cards from the drawer pile are picked and placed face up next to each other.
The European Express Bonus and Summary cards can be placed face up next to the board as a reminder. The European Express is given at the end and grants 10 extra points for the player who hooks up the longest route. Keep that in mind as you play as 10 points is a significant bonus if you can get it.
Now take the Destination cards and separate the long routes from the short ones. Shuffle the long routes and deal 1 route to each player. Now place the long routes back into the box face down and make sure no one sees what they are.
Taking the regular route destinations and shuffling them you can then deal 3 to each player. The remainder of the regular destination cards can be placed face down as another draw pile next to the board.
You are now ready to play.
Playing the game
The objective of the game is to get more points than any other player.
Ticket to Ride Europe begins by each player reviewing their destination cards. Each player must keep two cards but can discard or keep the rest (long or regular) as they wish. Any discarded cards are placed back in the box face down so no one else can see.
Game Turn
The game turn is super simple. The player who has visited the most European countries goes first. Each player can choose one (and only one) action from the following:
| Draw Train Cards | You can draw two train cards or one locomotive card if it is a face up card. There are some special locomotive rules that I will explain later. |
| Claim Route | You can claim a route by using a set of train cards that match the quantity and color of the route. Once the cards are discarded the player can put a plastic train on each space of the route to claim it. |
| Draw Destination Tickets | If the player wants more destinations then they can draw 3 from the top of the destination deck and select at least one to keep. |
| Build a Train Station | A player can build a train station at any city by using train cards. For each station owned the number of train cards needed increases. |
Lets take a look at each card in more depth.
Drawing Train Cards
When drawing train cards the player may pick two from either the face up cards on the table or draw blind from the facedown pile. If the player picks up a train from the cards facing up on the table it must be immediately replaced before they pick the next one.
A player may only pick one card if it is a face up locomotive. If at any time there are three face up locomotives. All five cards are discarded and five new cards are drawn to replace them.
You can have as many cards as you like in your hand. If the draw pile is exhausted then thoroughly reshuffle the discarded cards. They will be in sets so make sure you do a good job.
If there are no cards in the draw pile and no discarded cards then players cannot draw a card, they must choose a different action for the turn.
Claiming routes
A route is indicated by a number of colored or grey spaces between cities. In order to claim a route the player must have enough of the same colored trains to equal the spaces.
You can see below that there are 3 blue spaces and the player must have at least 3 blue trains in their hand.
Note: the locomotive is a wild card and so can go towards any space. In the second image the route is claimed with two blue and one locomotive.
You cannot partly claim a route i.e. put two trains down on a three space route. As shown in the image below. The final image shows the wrong color trains and can’t claim the blue route.
Finally, you can only claim one route per go.
When a route is claimed the score is immediately taken and the players counter is progressed around the edge of the board.
Drawing Destination Tickets
A player can hold any number of destination tickets during the game.
The player will draw three cards (or however many are left in the pile) from the top of the destination pile. They must keep at least one card and can choose to discard one, two or no cards and keep all three.
Each destination ticket has two cities in which the player must have a continuous line of their colored trains connecting in order to claim. Once this is accomplished then they will get the bonus number on the card awarded to them at the end.
If by the end of the game they have not managed to complete the journey between the two cities. Then the number on the card is subtracted from the player’s score.
The point here is to not be left with destination tickets, or as little as possible, at the end of the game.
Don’t let your opponents see your destination tickets until the end. If they see your tickets then they can block your plans and leave you with lots of deductions.
Building Train Stations
The train station is quite an important piece to wield in Ticket to Ride. If you had a destination ticket that required a certain route and your opponent had already claimed it.
Then you can add a station which will count their route towards your destination ticket.
The station can only use one route into or out of the city.
There can only be one station per city. A player can only build one station per turn and three stations per game.
Each station is more costly to build. The first station requires a train card, the second requires two train cards and the third requires three.
These can be any colour but must be the same e.g. they can be 3 red trains or 3 blue trains, they cannot be one blue, one red, and one white.
If a player does not use their stations then each station adds 4 points to their score at the end of the game.
Double Routes
There are some routes between cities with two different colors side by side. These are double routes. A player may only claim one route.
For two and three player games the second route is then closed. Four or more players can use the second route of a double route to be claimed by another player.
The image on the left shows two double routes.
The third green is not a double route as it ends in Essen.
Note: Notice that some routes are not double. If one of the routes ends at a different destination city then it is not double.
An example is the green route between Essen and Frankfurt. The black and red routes both start at Frankfurt and end at Berlin so are double routes.
Ferries
Here we begin to see the new features of Ticket to Ride Europe. Some of the routes on the boards are ferry routes which require a number of locomotives in order to claim.
Each ferry route has a locomotive symbol on one or two of the spaces. Which means you will need one or two locomotives respectively to claim the route.
Tunnels
These are my favorite part of Ticket to Ride Europe and add a real sense of tension as you will soon see. Tunnels can be identified as colored spaces with an outline around them. Whilst there are a number of spaces between cities this only represents part of the route.
When a player wants to claim a tunnel route they must lay the correct number of colored cards for the length of the tunnel.
Now they must turn up three cards from the draw pile.
If any of those cards from the draw pile match the route’s color then the player must find and play that many more train cards as well.
If they can’t then they forfeit that route. Locomotives turned up from the draw pile automatically match the tunnel color. So require the player to find an additional train.
The player may wish to not play more trains if they wish. At the end of the players turn the cards taken from the draw pile are discarded.
If the player chooses to attempt to claim a route using only locomotive cards then only locomotives turned over from the draw pile will be considered a match. However, the player will then need to play another locomotive to then claim the route.
If there are not enough cards in the draw pile to turn over three cards then only the amount left in the pile are used.
If there are no cards in the draw pile due to players hoarding cards then tunnels can be claimed as per normal routes.
End Game
The end of Ticket to Ride Europe is initiated when a player has two or less plastic trains left. The last round begins and will include all players.
Calculating Scores
As you have been claiming routes you should have your score calculated using your counter around the edge of the board. You can recount if mistakes may have been made or it is a particularly nail bitingly close game.
Now the players reveal their destination tickets and for each one completed their counter is progressed by the number on that card. For each failed ticket the counter is subtracted by the points on the card.
| Route Length | Points Scored |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 |
| 3 | 4 |
| 4 | 7 |
| 5 | 15 |
| 6 | 21 |
If the player is using a station to claim the route for multiple destination tickets then it will only count if those destinations all arrive along the same route into the station.
Add 4 points for each unused station.
Now you must find the player with the longest continuous route. To do this count each train along the route only once.
The route can loop and pass through a city multiple times. Stations do not count towards the route, only trains. Also, any opponent’s trains cannot be counted.
Once the longest route is identified then the 10 point bonus card is given to that player. In the event of a tie all players who tie will get 10 points.
Once you have moved all the counters on to their final points the highest score wins. If this is tied then the player with the most destination cards completed wins.
Conclusion
Ticket to Ride Europe is one of my favorite games. It is an easy game to play with enough strategy involved to make it a fun, relaxed game to play.
It is one of my go to games when I have non gaming friends round. It is a great introduction to board gaming and will ensure they enjoy the experience.
If you like Ticket to Ride then you may also be interested in finding out Why Is Go So Hard? Or perhaps find out which game is best Dominion vs Ascension. Either way I wish you many happy hours of board gaming.
