Ticket To Ride: Netherlands

Players: 2-5
Age: 8+
Play time: 45′
Independent language: yes
Languages: English
Expansion: Yes
Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 4 - Holland includes a new game board with new rules for use with Ticket to Ride or Ticket to Ride: Europe with players now creating train lines in Holland.

The basics of the TtR game remain the same as always - players collect train cards to claim routes between two cities with the overall goal of completing the tickets they have in their hand - but Ticket to Ride: Netherlands twists this game in two ways. First, almost every route on the game board is a dual route, with two tracks connecting cities. Both routes are in play, regardless of the number of players.

Second, each route - double or single - has a bridge toll that a player must pay when building on that route. On a single route or the first track of a double route, the player pays this toll - which costs 1-4 coins - to the bank; on the second track of a double route, the player pays this toll to the player who built the first track. Players start the game with 30 coins, and if you cannot pay a toll, you must take a loan card to cover the fee, with each loan costing you 5 points at the end of the game.

Besides helping you avoid loans, coins are also important because, at the end of the game, players receive a bonus based on the number of coins they own relative to everyone else. In a five-player game, for example, the player with the most coins gets a bonus of 55 points; the player in second place gets 35 points, and the other players 20, 10 and 0 points. However, if you have taken out a loan, you are not eligible for these bonus points, so players have an incentive to build early and often.

These coin bonuses are balanced by the large number of destination cards with large point values: six of them are worth 29+ points, while another seventeen are worth 17-26 points.