Ticket to Ride

Alan Moon's Superb Boardgame in Online Form

Ticket to Ride was the winner of the 2004 Spiel des Jahres Award, the single most prestigious award world-wide for boardgames. And Alan Moon, its designer, is one of the most highly regarded designers of contemperary boardgames.

It's an excellent game. Playable (like most Eurogames) in less than an hour, it requires careful planning and a bit of luck to succeed. You collect train cards that allow you to claim railway routes, earning points for doing so (and proportionally more for longer routes, which require more cards); you also have some number of "destination tickets", which earn you extra points if your routes link the two cities listed on the card (and cost you points if you fail to link them).

This online version of the game is, in some ways, preferable to the boardgame--the cities you must link light up to remind you, and there's no chance of the cat scattering the pieces to the winds. And of course, there are always people on the servers with which to play--and the online game supports both the North American and European boards.

In truth, you probably won't want to subscribe to Skotos's games for Ticket to Ride alone--you can play on that game's website for free (but as a free player you aren't rated and can't start new games, only join ones started by others), or subscribe for $18/a year by buying a web card from them. However, Skotos subscribers get unlimited free, unrestricted play of the game, so it's a nice additional benefit if you're interested in their other titles as well (and we don't earn anything if you buy a 'web card' from Days of Wonder, more's the pity).

If you have any interest in quick-play multiplayer online games, however, you should give it a whirl, on one site or the other.