Ticket to Ride: London First Impressions
Ticket to Ride: London is Ticket to Ride, but tiny!
I mean again, it’s tiny again.
Ticket to Ride: London features the familiar gameplay from the Ticket to Ride game series — collect cards, claim routes, draw tickets — but on a scaled-down map of 1970s London that allows you to complete a game in no more than 15 minutes.
Ticket to Ride: London Gameplay
It’s the same game as always with one change to scoring so I won’t dwell on the ‘how to’ portion too much.
On your turn you either:
- Draw 2 cards (Or take 1 ‘wild’ multicolour Bus)
- Draw 2 Destination Tickets (Must keep at least 1)
- Discard cards to place Buses on a route
You score points for placing routes depending on how many buses are on that route.
At the end of the game, you gain points for completed Destinations and lose points for failed ones in your hand.
You also score for districts which as far as I know is new to this game, I’m not a TTR historian. The board is divided into 5 districts each with 2-4 locations worth 1-5 points.
Any player that connects each district location to each other with their buses scores that many points.
Most points win.
Theme
It’s TTR but in London. It means the Black Cards are Black Cabs and the Yellow cards are, of course, Submarines.
The map contains London spots but I have no idea how accurate everything is in their placement. 🙂
Setup & Rule-book
The setup is quick. It’s just a case of remembering how many of each card players will get at the start of the game.
The rulebook is straightforward. There are very few rules and it’s laid out well so that’s all good.
Components & Artwork
The board and cards are very clear. The way the Destination tickets are laid out you can easily see where they are on the board. The plastic buses are actually quite cool.
The art is OK. It’s nice a clean and the iconography is very clear too. It’s what you want from a game like this.
Ease of Teaching & Accessibility
Teaching is simple. It’s Ticket to Ride, it’s known for being easy to teach and accessible. It’s the definition of a gateway game.
The District scoring is the most complex thing in the game and it’s not really that hard to understand.
Ticket to Ride: London Summary
I’m not a huge Ticket to Ride fan but I do like this one. I’ll put it second overall ahead of TTR Legendary Asia but behind TTR New York. I prefer the Tourist attraction scoring in NY over the Districts in London.
If I’m honest, I do prefer the fantasy-themed Ethnos but that is more comparable to a full-sized Ticket to Ride game.
My final summary for TTR London is the same as in NY. “It’s a game I don’t really like boiled down to a size and timescale I can live with. So I enjoyed it.”
Jesta ThaRogue
A copy of Ticket to Ride: London was provided by Days of Wonder, a big thank you to them for this game.
