Rules for Ticket to Ride Germany

Hey there! So you’re interested in learning how to play Ticket to Ride Germany? Well, you’ve come to the right place. I’m here to guide you through the rules and get you on your way to becoming a master of this exciting game.

First things first, let’s talk about the goal of the game. In Ticket to Ride Germany, your aim is to connect cities by laying down train cards and building routes on the map. You’ll earn points for each successful connection, and the player with the most points at the end of the game will be declared the winner.

Now, let’s dive into the nitty-gritty details. The game consists of a board depicting the map of Germany, along with a deck of train cards and destination tickets. Destination tickets are special cards that show two cities and the number of points you’ll earn if you connect them. These tickets will be your guide as you plan and strategize your routes.

On your turn, you’ll have a few options. First, you can draw train cards from the deck, adding them to your hand. These cards come in different colors, representing different types of train cars. You’ll need these cards to claim routes on the map.

Speaking of routes, that’s your next option. You can spend your train cards to claim a route between two cities. The number of cards required will depend on the length and color of the route. Once you’ve claimed a route, it’s yours to keep and earn points from.

Remember those destination tickets I mentioned earlier? Well, you can also spend your turn drawing new destination tickets. Be careful though, because you’ll need to complete all the routes on a ticket in order to earn the points listed. If you don’t manage to complete a ticket, those points will be deducted from your score.

As you build your routes, keep in mind that other players will be trying to do the same. You may find yourself in competition for certain routes, which adds an element of strategy and excitement to the game. It’s all about planning ahead, making smart decisions, and adapting to the changing landscape.

The game will continue until one player is down to two or fewer train cars in their supply. At that point, each player will have one final turn, and then it’s time to tally up the points. In addition to the points earned from completed routes, you’ll also score bonus points if you connect specific cities or create the longest continuous route. So don’t forget to keep an eye out for those opportunities!

Well, that’s the basic rundown of how to play Ticket to Ride Germany. It’s a game of strategy, planning, and a little bit of luck. But most importantly, it’s a whole lot of fun. I hope this guide has been helpful, and I wish you the best of luck on your journey across Germany! Happy gaming!

• To play the game, you’ll need:
• 1 board map of Germany
• 225 Colored Train Cars
• 110 Train Car Cards
• 89 Destination Ticket Cards
• 1 Bonus Card
• 60 Passenger Meeples
• 1 Cloth Bag
• 5 Scoring Markers
• 1 Rules Booklet

Setting Up the Game

First, put the board map in the middle of the table. Then, take the 60 Passenger Meeples and put them in the bag. Shake the bag and randomly place the Passengers on the board using the diagram as your guide.

Each player gets a set of 45 Colored Train Cars and a matching Scoring Marker.

Put your Scoring Marker next to the Scoring Track that runs along the border of the map. Throughout the game, whenever you score points, you’ll move your marker forward on the track.

Okay, here’s what you need to do:

First, we shuffle the Train Car cards and hand out 4 cards to each player.

Then, we place the rest of the deck near the board and flip over the top 5 cards.

Next, we put the Globetrotter Bonus Card next to the board.

Now, we divide the Destination Tickets into two decks: Short Tickets with blue backs and Long Tickets with brown backs. We shuffle both decks. At the start of the game, each player draws four Tickets.

When it comes to drawing Tickets, players can choose any combination of Short and Long Tickets. But they have to announce their choice before drawing.

After that, each player looks at their Destination Tickets and decides which ones they want to keep. They must keep at least two, but they can choose to keep three or all four if they want.

So, here’s how it goes: when we have any Unwanted Tickets, we just put them back in their corresponding decks. Easy peasy, right? Then we take those two decks and give them a good shuffle. Once they’re all shuffled up, we place them next to the board. Now here’s the really fun part – you get to keep your Destination Tickets a secret. No peeking until the end of the game!

Alright, now that we’ve got everything sorted, we’re ready to start. Let the good times roll!

Let’s Play the Game

The goal of this game is to get as many points as possible. You can earn points by doing the following:

• Building a Route on the map;
• Creating a continuous path between two cities (or a city and one of Germany’s neighboring countries) from your Destination Ticket(s);
• Completing the most Destination Tickets;
• Collecting the most Passenger Meeples in each color.

But be careful! If you don’t complete your Destination Tickets by the end of the game, points will be deducted from your total score.

How to Play

When we play this game, the oldest player gets to go first. After that, we take turns in a clockwise direction around the table until the game is over. Each player gets one turn at a time. During my turn, I can choose to do one of three things:

1. Draw Train Car Cards:

I have the option to draw two Train Car cards. There are two ways I can do this. I can either take one of the cards that are face up on the table, or I can draw blindly from the top of the deck. If I choose a face up card, I have to immediately turn over a new card from the deck to replace it. Then, I can draw my second card. But be careful, there are special rules for Locomotives!

2. Claim a Route & Collect Passenger Meeples:

Instead of drawing cards, I can decide to claim a route on the game board. To do this, I need to play a set of Train Car cards that match the color and length of the route I want to claim. Once I’ve played the cards, I can place one of my colored trains on each space of that route. And don’t forget to collect your Passenger Meeples!

3. Get Destination Tickets:

Finally, I have the option to get Destination Tickets. These tickets give me specific routes that I need to connect. If I successfully connect those routes, I’ll earn bonus points at the end of the game. But be careful, if I don’t complete a route, I’ll lose points!

Now that you know how to play, let’s start the game and have some fun! Remember, the ultimate goal is to score the most points by connecting routes and completing your Destination Tickets. Good luck!

To record my score, I move my Scoring Marker along the Scoring Track on the board, according to the number of spaces. After that, I get a Passenger Meeple from both spots surrounding the route I just claimed.

I Draw Destination Tickets

I draw four Destination Tickets from the top of the decks. I have to keep at least one of them, but I can choose to keep two, three, or all four. If I decide to return any cards, I place them at the bottom of their corresponding deck.

Drawing Train Car Cards

There are eight types of regular Train Car cards and Locomotive cards. Each type of Train Car card corresponds to different routes between cities on the board. The colors of the cards are Purple, Blue, Orange, White, Green, Yellow, Black, and Red.

Hey there! Let me tell you about how the card system works in this game. You can have as many cards as you want in your hand at any time. Once we run out of cards in the deck, we shuffle the discarded ones to make a new draw pile.

Now, here’s something interesting. In the rare case where there are no cards left in the deck and no discards either (because everyone’s keeping their cards), you won’t be able to draw Train Car cards on your turn. Instead, you’ll have the option to either claim a route or draw Destination Ticket cards.

Let’s talk about Locomotives.

Locomotives are pretty cool. They’re special cards that have multiple colors and can be used as wild cards. This means they can be part of any set of cards when you want to claim a route. Now, if you happen to see a face-up Locomotive card during a card draw, you can only pick that card and nothing else for that turn. So be on the lookout!

If you turn over a Locomotive as your first card draw during your turn, or if you have a face-up Locomotive but choose not to pick it as your first card, you cannot select it as your second card.

If three out of the five face-up cards at any time are Locomotives, all five cards are discarded and replaced with five new ones.

Note: If you happen to draw a Locomotive from the top of the deck without looking, it still counts as one card, and you can still draw a second card that turn.

Claiming Routes & Collecting Passenger Meeples

Claiming Routes

A route is a continuous path of colored spaces (sometimes gray spaces) that connects two adjacent cities on the map or one of Germany’s neighboring countries.

To claim a route, you need to play a set of cards that matches the number of spaces in the route. The cards must all have the same color as the route, along with any Locomotive cards if needed. Most routes require a specific color.

For example, if you want to claim a Blue route, you must use blue-colored Train Car cards. However, some routes, like Gray ones, can be claimed using cards of any one color.

Once you have the right cards, you can claim the route by placing one of your plastic trains in each space of the route. After claiming the route, all the cards used are discarded. You can choose any open route on the board to claim.

Remember, you’re not obligated to connect to any of your previously claimed routes. And on your turn, you can only claim one route at most.

When it comes to city connections in games, there’s something called Double or Triple Routes. It’s pretty cool, but there’s a catch – you can only claim one of these routes at a time.

But wait, there’s more: In games with 2 or 3 players, you can only claim one of the Double or Triple Routes that connect two cities. Once you’ve claimed one of these routes, the other routes that are part of the Double or Triple Route are off-limits to other players. They’re locked up tight!

Getting Passengers for My Routes

When I manage to claim a route, I can pick one Passenger Meeple from each of the two cities or country spaces that my newly connected route goes through. If there happen to be more than one Passenger in a city, it’s up to me to decide which one I want to take.

If there aren’t any Passengers in a city, I won’t get one from there. All the collected Passengers go into a shared pool of figures that everyone around the table can see.

Scoring Your Routes

Whenever you claim a route in the game, you automatically earn points based on the length of that route. To determine how many points you receive, consult the Route Scoring Table below.

Drawing Destination Ticket Cards

Hey there! Want to know how you can get more Destination Ticket Cards? Well, I’ve got you covered!

When it’s your turn, you have the option to draw more Destination Ticket Cards. It’s pretty simple, really!

Just grab four new cards from the top of either of the two Destination Ticket Decks. You can choose any combination of the two types of Tickets. But before you start drawing, make sure to announce which combination of Tickets you’re going for.

Now, here’s an important thing to remember. If there are less than four Destination Tickets left in the decks, you’ll only be able to draw the available cards. So keep that in mind!

Remember, you must keep at least one of the cards you draw. But hey, if you’re feeling lucky, you can keep two, three, or even all four of them if you want!

Any cards that you decide not to keep should be returned to the bottom of their corresponding deck. Keep things fair and square!

Take a look at this. See, even though Freiburg and Saarbrucken are both connected to France (Frankreich), they aren’t considered connected to each other. Pretty interesting, huh?

When you play Ticket to Ride, you will receive Destination Tickets that show two cities on the map and a designated number of points. If you manage to build a continuous network of routes between those two cities, you will earn the points indicated on the Destination Ticket at the end of the game.

However, if you fail to connect the two cities, you will lose the indicated points. Some Destination Tickets may even mention one of Germany’s neighboring countries instead of specific cities.

The routes leading to these neighboring countries are dead ends and do not count as part of any other route. Different routes that lead to the same neighboring country are considered separate and not connected.

Destination Tickets are kept hidden from other players until the final scoring. You can collect as many Destination Ticket cards as you want throughout the game.

End of the Game

Hey there! Let me explain something super important in this game. So, when a player’s colored plastic trains dwindle down to 0, 1, or 2 at the end of their turn, everyone, including that player, gets one last chance to take a turn. After that, the game is over, and we can calculate our final scores.

Let’s Score!

By now, we should have already added up the points from completing different routes. Just to be sure, you might want to double-check each player’s route points.

Next, it’s time for a big reveal! We need to look at everyone’s Destination Tickets. You’ll add or subtract points based on whether you successfully connected the cities or countries on your ticket.

When I play Ticket to Ride, the player who completes the most Destination Tickets gets a special bonus called the Globetrotter Bonus Card. This adds 15 points to their score. If there’s a tie for the most completed tickets, all the players who tied get the 15 bonus points.

Now, the tickets that you didn’t complete don’t count towards this bonus. They don’t have any effect on who gets the bonus.

But wait, there’s more! You also get points for the Passengers you collect during the game. For each color that you have the most Passengers in, you score 20 points. And for each color that you have the second most Passengers in, you score 10 points.

If there’s a tie for the most Passengers in a color, all the tied players score 20 points. None of them get points for the second most Passengers in that color. And if one player has the most Passengers in a color, but two or more players tie for the second most, all the tied players score 10 points.

In the game, the winner is the player who has scored the highest number of points.

If there is a tie for the highest score between two or more players, the player (among those tied) who has completed the most Destination Tickets will be declared the winner.

In the rare event that the players are still tied after comparing Destination Tickets, the player with the most Passenger Meeples will be crowned the victor. If the players are still tied even after considering these factors, they will both share the victory.