Overview

I have played the original Ticket to Ride many times in the past. I really like the game; I suggest it often and play it online. Surprisingly enough, I do not actually own a copy of it. I was browsing the dealers at a recent con, with a few bucks to spare on the last day to get a new game. I thought that finally getting my own copy of Ticket to Ride would be a great idea, but when I got to the dealer I purchase from he only had Märklin Edition left. I had no problem trying something new, as I had read online that this was also a great game and someone else in my game group already owns the original. For those that don't know what Märklin Edition stands for, Märklin is a famous manufacturer of model trains.

I brought it home, and after a few gaming sessions and having played it a few times, I was ready to write this review. Ticket to Ride: Märklin Edition is a standalone game, not an expansion, which re-implements the classic Ticket to Ride game. It adds new features to the game, like passengers and merchandise, as well as new cards and it uses a map of Germany. It took us some time to get used to the new mechanics of the game, and to develop a sense of the best strategies to follow, but this is common occurrence with games that expand or re-implement another. This review will be targeted a little more to people that know the original Ticket to Ride or Ticket to Ride: Europe or that have a basic knowledge of the Ticket to Ride basic mechanics of play, but I will try to explain the mechanics as simple as I can for new players.

What you get in the box



The board - map of Germany. Some things that immediately pop at you when you look at it are: some of the train routes are 7 long (worth 18 points), there are a few "triple" routes (3 players can connect the cities), some tracks end in neighboring countries, and cities are bigger dots and color coded in order to place merchandise. The standard scoring track on the outside rim of the board is present, familiar to a lot of Days of Wonder games.

The pieces - 5 standard sets of trains like all the other Ticket to Ride games. Player colors for this game are white, black, purple, red and yellow. All players also have 3 passengers and one score marker. Score markers have been improved since the original game because they made to be stackable for times when 2 players are on the same spot in the scoring track.



The train cards - These are my favorite parts of this version. Because of the partnership with Märklin, every single train card in the deck has a different picture. No two train cards are the same. The wagons are the same colors as the previous versions, and this game also includes the wild locomotives. Additionally, Märklin Edition adds Passenger cards which make it easier for your passengers to travel farther, and +4 Wild cards which serve the same purpose as the classic locomotives, but can only be used to build routes that use 4 trains or more. If one of these new cards is picked face up, you still get the chance to pickup a second card. Cards are also full-sized, not smaller like the original game.

The Merchandise tokens - Merchandise tokens (or chits) are small cardboard circles, color coded and with a printed number. These tokens add to your score the printed value when you pick them up. More detail on these in the set-up section below.

The destination ticket cards - Unlike the original Ticket to Ride, Märklin Edition has 2 separate decks of destination tickets. Brown destination tickets (long) are worth 12-22 points and obviously include long routes. The blue deck tickets are worth only 5-11 points. Anytime you draw destination tickets, you announce what combination of 4 tickets you want to draw, and then do so. Like in the original one you have to keep at least one of the 4 drawn. So you can draw 4 long, 4 short, 2 and 2, 3 and 1 or 1 and 3.

The "most tickets completed" bonus tile - Adds 10 points to whoever completes the most destination tickets by the end of the game. It replaces Longest Road bonus from the original game.

The rulebook insert - It is nicely illustrated and clear to understand. Standard Days of Wonder quality.

All the components were of great quality. The cards are of great stock and the tokens are thick cardboard. The box tray fits all the components perfectly and neatly with some extra room too. The trains are the standard plastic from the previous games. Days of Wonder also provides you with an extra bag with a few extra train pieces in all colors in case you loose some.

Setup



Setup was my favorite part of the original game, because it required close to none. This unfortunately is not the case for Märklin Edition. It does require a bit of extra work. Each player takes all the pieces of their color, and places their score marker near the "1" space on the scoring track. All decks are shuffled individually. Each player is dealt 4 train cards randomly and 5 are placed face up by the train deck. Here is where the differences end...

Merchandise requires setup. The tokens are divided by color, and a stack of tokens go in each and every city on the board. Each color has a value range. Black tokens are the most valuable, and there are only 4 of them. Their point values are 7-6-5-4. Red are next with values 4-3-2, and yellow are 3-2-1. White tokens are only worth 2. Tokens of the same color are placed in stacks that contain only one token of each value and in descending order. For example, a red stack would have a red "4" token on top, followed by a "3" red token under it and finally a "2" at the bottom. Other colors follow in suit. Then these stacks are placed on the cities of the appropriate colors. Black is very valuable and it goes on Berlin. White chips go on the smallest cities, and only have one token.

After all tokens are placed, each player draws 4 destination tickets, select which ones they want to keep and discard the rest. Select first player and start.

Rules and Gameplay

The core of the game plays just like a regular Ticket to Ride game, except with some extra rules for passengers. During your turn you can do any of these 4 actions ONCE:

A. Draw train cards - Draw 2 cards, either from the face up trains or the face down pile in any combination. When a card is taken from the face up ones, replace it immediately with the top card from the face down pile. A standard locomotive can only be taken from the face up cards if it is the only card you draw in the turn. If at any point during the game there are 3 locomotive cards OR 3 passenger cards face up, discard all 5 and draw new ones immediately. If the train card deck ever runs out, shuffle the discard back in.

B. Play train cards to claim a route - Discard enough train cards of the same color to take a route between 2 cities of the same color of the cards discarded. Gain points using the table on the board according to the size of the train played. You may ALSO place down a passenger on one of the two cities just connected (passengers explained below).

C. Draw new destination tickets - draw 4 more tickets in any combination from the blue and/or brown decks. You must keep at least one of them. Obviously destination tickets that compliment each other are the best options.

D. Move a passenger - New to Märklin Edition. Take a passenger you have placed down on the board and move him from city to city, when connected by your trains. You may not double-back through a route you traveled with that passenger. Longer train routes are beneficial here because they allow you to go farther and farther. As your passenger passes a city, collect the TOP merchandise token and add the printed value to your score. You collect the token in the final destination city, but not the starting city. Additionally, you may play passenger cards when moving a passenger. These allow you to "ride" your passenger between two cities connected by another player's trains! You need to play one card for every connection you move through, and there is no limit to the amount of passenger cards you may play. After your passenger has reached his destination city, pick him up and return him to the box. As you might have already guessed, since you only have 3 passenger pieces you can only collect merchandise tokens 3 times per game.



After a player selects one of the above actions as his turn, play continues clockwise. You draw cards and place trains in order to complete the routes between the 2 cities specified in the destination tickets you kept. When ANY player has 0, 1 or 2 trains left in his stock, every player gets one more turn after the current one, and then the game is over. Players then score the destination tickets, adding the score printed on them to their total score on the track if they successfully completed the route, OR subtracting the printed value if they were unable to complete it. Finally, the player with the most number of completed tickets adds the bonus 10 points and the player with the most points wins the game.

Overall Experience

Getting used to the passengers and merchandise took some time. They play a big part of the game, and you need to use them effectively if you want to win besides just completing destination tickets. Because of the passengers and the 2 distinct destination ticket decks, there are actually many ways to win this game. You can either go with very long routes and big merchandise collections, go for many short routes and many passenger cards to use other people's trains to collect merchandise, or a combination of strategies.

Something I noticed is more important in this game than the previous versions is the need to block people out of big long routes. One of the games we played a player was able to collect a 50+ point merchandise total in one single passenger move because we were focusing on our own routes and not trying to disrupt other people.

All things considered, I think this is a great game for any Ticket to Ride fan. The cards are beautiful, the passenger mechanic is challenging to plan for, and the game is still exciting and fun. If you are a classic Ticket to Ride player and maybe the base game is getting a bit stale, this is a great option to refresh the air. For me it was a great purchase since I did not personally own a previous copy. I am sure it will hit the table at many of my group's sessions in the future. I wish the distribution of train cards in the deck was the same as in the original game so I could use the cards with all other versions!