Ticket To Ride Basic Strategy Guide

This article has some fundamental strategy tips but also a game plan for a couple of deeper strategies to employ. I will also provide some comments on the subsequent ticket to ride games and how they vary from the basic. I will assume we are playing a four player game unless otherwise specified.


I write on the back of around 300 online and face to face games and I hope I can give my readers a bit of a leg up based on my experience. I have said complete strategy to engage the comment of the critics and I look forward to being proved wrong.

Founding principles

Long routes - If one considers each turn as an investment and tries to maximise the value of each turn then long routes provide the biggest return. In the first instance more trains can be used in a long route hence reducing the total number of turns used in building. In the second instance longer routes provide more points per train used. Although the same is true for TTR:E there are significantly less long routes and it is usually not an option you have to take the longer routes. In all variants the 6 train routes are optimal for points scoring.

Choke points - There are several choke points which must be taken as early as possible if they are part of your projected route. Failure to secure these routes will force you to waste valuable turns and trains taking an alternative route. TTR:E is an exception to this rule given you have stations available to you. In fact in some cases it is preferable in TTR:E to build stations.

The three choke points irrespective of game are LA-PHO, NAS-ATL, HOU-NO. In a two player game SEA - POR, DAL - HOU are also vital. Depending on the nature of the game (and the more players their are the more vital they are) you might also consider getting MON-NY, NAS - PIT, TOR-PIT. Needless to say if a route is critical to your success and the alternatives if it is lost are poor you want to get it.

Selecting tickets - Just as the long routes are most valuable, so are the long tickets. Where a long ticket is at your disposal early in the game, take it. Longer missions represent better economy in TTR because of the ability to use long routes to achieve them. TTR:M is a totally different ballgame and their is a significant cost associated with taking long missions and long routes. With this in mind most of the coast to coast routes are like gold. These include NY - SE, NY- LA, POR - NAS, SF - STL, VAN - MON. The exception is LA -MIA which does not pair well with as many other large missions.

In the same vein a horizontal mission that goes across the board is better than a vertical one. All the long routes are coast to coast and a substantial score will involve the two coasts.

Claiming routes - In opposition to the advice about claiming choke points early is the piece that says not to claim routes to early. Often a player will collect one colour and then add wilds to fill out the link then start on another colour. In addition they will build their routes sequentially to adjoining routes. In doing so they often give away the tracks they might want in the future and invite others to claim their critical tracks. IN general it is better to hold cards and play routes in subsequent turns for secrecy reasons.

Choosing cards - Claiming routes as above also allows you to collect from the pile rather than the face up cards. Drawing from the face up cards gives you the colour you want right now, but charges you a premium for wilds. In contrast if you pick from the pile then you often get the cards you will need in the long run and you get wilds as well but at the regular price. The more routes left not played gives you a longer time to get the long run average of cards and the colours you need. Of course you must balance that with picking up colours for the big routes, but the principle is sound.

Watch the cards being taken - With so much demand for the larger routes especially, one can often spot their competition for a route by observing what colours are taken from the face up cards. By spotting your opposition you can prioritise your collections and use those special wilds to get the jump on your opposition. It also allows you to measure how likely you are to get a card you like from the pile. Sometimes there are none of the cards you want in the pile and you need to collect wilds instead.

A single road - It is almost always as easy to build one continuous road than it is many pieces put together resembling a web or disconnected routes. Disconnected routes are always bad because it does not allow you to pick up and complete new missions as easily.

Picking up additional tickets - I always try to pick up my extra tickets earlier rather than later. The more tickets you can see the better you can plan your route to complete them. IN this light I will often pick up ticket early to try and get several across the board missions once I have claimed my initial choke points. The exception is where you have a good initial mission that goes along the perfect route (see below)IN this case you can build the best route anyway and then cash in on the investment later in the game when you know there is time to complete the extra tickets.

Finish quickly - The quicker you finish the game the less likely your opponents are to have completed their plans. Make it a surprise and hear their horror.

Game plans

A couple of broad strategy options that you may want to employ

The perfect route - Given that there are 45 trains in your arsenal how could they be best used? The maximum points from missions using only 45 trains is well in excess of 220. The core of this route is VAN - LA - NY diverting down to ATL/NAS and going through SANTA FE,DEN,CHI,PIT and up to MON. This takes in all the missions above 12 except for those involving Miami.

If you can get a route resembling most or all of those spots then you can almost always pick up tickets and be guaranteed points without additions. The perfect route will be tough to get especially in a large player game but the core down the west coast, through PHO-SAN F - DEN - CHI - PIT - NY and down to ATL-NAS will win allow you top cash in at the end of the game if missions remain.

Where I have a choice of missions I always take missions along that route.

The quick kill - Sometimes your missions suck and you can see people loading up for across the board missions. Your position seems precarious at best. One option is to go for the Quick kill. In this scenario the player achieves her short missions by building many long routes. They try to finish as many long routes as possible no matter where they are on the board. Where possible the player also tries to leave several long routes till last. In this way they surprise the opponents and finish the game before the others have completed their long tickets. Where a player has just picked up new tickets this is especially valuable. You may not score many points from missions but the number of long routes you have claimed has increased your score, decreased the others scores and left them with unfulfilled missions.

Closing comments

These tips have probably wrecked the game for life for you. Over analysis can take all the fun out of it. Still any game that takes 300 plays to lose it's life is a fantastic game in my opinion. Hence my BGG rating is a 9 despite my lack of desire to play it more. New players may dispute it but an old hand will beat a newbie nearly every time despite the luck involved in TTR.

I suspect most additions will be clarifications or fuller explanations of these principles, but please alert me to other i may not have come across. If you are just embarking on your TTR career, enjoy, and for the old hand I hope I have given you some more food for though. Either way TTR is my most played game ever and I think it is a classic that is the perfect introduction to Euro gaming for almost anyone.

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So, I (BGG:ijmorris) decided to respond to this thread 'cause it has the most thumbs ups on it.


I generally play only 5 player games of ticket to ride, because as I have found, to my dismay, any fewer generally involves a whole lot of luck centered around which tickets you are randomly dealt at the very beginning. I have, however, identified what I believe to be the 4 or 5 absolutely primary fundamentals to winning consistently at 5 player TTR.

Let me preface this by saying the one largest misconception above all, I believe, is that you need to complete tickets to win. This is patently false. I regularly win without completing any. Here's why:

1) The single most important thing to do, above all, is to be the player that ends the game. This not only generally means the other players haven't achieved all their objectives, but also, in essence, gives you an extra turn!!

2) I completely agree that playing longer tracks is key. Avoid playing tracks that are shorter than three trains. They score fewer points per train (PpT as I acronym it editor: technically not an acronym) but, more importantly, cause you to have to play more turns to end the game. That is bad. This specifically brings up one point of refutation for many strategies I've seen displayed: you don't need to, and often shouldn't, try and connect your tickets through the shortest route possible. If you do so, you generally score fewer points and take more turns to do so. That is bad.

3) There are actually certain colors that are more important than others, primarily because the longer tickets require them. In order of importance, I see it thus: White, Black, Yellow, Blue, Green, Orange, Purple/Pink & finally Red. When faced with a choice of which card to take, use this as a very basic guide. Taking a card someone else needs is just as important, and sometimes more so, than taking one you may need.

4) Taking new tickets is not necessarily important, as I believe you don't need to complete them to win. However, if you do, wait until as close to the end of the game as possible. If you have built a good, long route that connects a few major cities (LA, NY, MIA, SEA, VAN, PHX & MON being the primary ones), you will likely gather one or two more fully completed tickets at the end. Even more likely near the end because, as others take additional tickets, they likely leave the ones for routes you are playing on!!!

5) Having the longest route is akin to having the VAN-MON 20 point ticket instantly added to your pool. You add ten points to your score but, even more importantly, you keep your competition from having the additional 10 points!!! Usually, this is the player with the second or third-highest score, also...EXACTLY the player you are competing against for victory!

Anyway, just my thoughts
 
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BGG:markmist
Here are some thoughts on strategy in Ticket to Ride, written as overall strategy guide that could be used by beginners.


Ways to score points:

Longest Route – 10 pts

Length of Connections – longer is more points per train

Completing Tickets – 1 point per train segment

Not Completing Tickets – (-1) point per train segment



Selecting Tickets at beginning of game (must keep 2 out of 3):

- Select at least 1 long ticket to complete. (longer than length 12)

- Select at least 1 small ticket (preferably one that links up or is part of the long ticket).

- Take two small tickets if they link with or are part of the long ticket.



The beginning ticket selection is actually very important to determining the winner of a Ticket to Ride game. If you are stuck with a poor ticket draw where none match up, or you got all small tickets – you will be at a disadvantage from the start against skilled players. If you get all small tickets, you are going to want to draw more tickets early in the game to get a long ticket.



Train Card Selection:

- Collect colors of train cards that match the segments that you need in order to complete your destination tickets.

- Select from face-up cards first, only select from pile if no card showing is of any help.

- Take from pile if you have seen very few locomotives among the face-up cards.

- Take from pile if looking for a specific card that you will need in the short term (next few turns). You might get lucky and get a locomotive.

- If there are two locomotives showing, take your first card from the face-up cards showing. If another locomotive comes up the cards are shuffled and you have 5 new choices of cards to select from.

- Collect colors that no one else wants – this will enable you to mass a large amount of one color which might come in handy later.

- Select a locomotive from the face-up cards only if you absolutely need it the “next turn” and are afraid another player will beat you to a location.



Ticket Selection (During the game):

- When selecting destination tickets, make sure that you have enough trains left to complete all of the tickets.

- Also, don’t cut it too close. Keep a reserve of about 5 trains in case you have to make a detour.

- If you have completed all of your connections with only 1 path, select more destination tickets before completing connections with 2 paths (4-5 player games).

- 6 levels of selecting tickets:

1.) Select tickets that already exist within other completed tickets. (Always)

2.) Select tickets that already exist within other partially completed tickets. (Early in the game – Yes, Late in the game – check number of trains you have and the person with the lowest).

3.) Select tickets that link up with current tickets (Early in the game – Most of the time, Late in the game – check number of trains you have and the person with the lowest). Also if going for longest route – Yes.

4.) Select tickets that have longer train segments between cities over ones that have shorter segments. (Early in Game).

5.) If all tickets drawn do not meet any of the above criteria , then select the ticket that you have the best chance of completing.

6.) If no tickets can be completed, take the one with the least points (that will hurt your score the least).



Placing Trains:

- Build connections that only have 1 path as soon as possible (4-5 player game).

- Try to connect key cities (ones that are needed on the most tickets and only have 1 path):

- Focus on completing your longest tickets first.

- Focus on completing connections that require a certain color rather than gray (any color) connections.

- Save Locomotive cards until you absolutely need to play them.

- If another player telegraphs where they are going to place (left a gap that is easy to spot), and you have the cards, go ahead and block it if he has no other easy route to connect. If the location that you are going to block is still useful for you – (like for longest route) – even better.

- If you have two connections to make, which one to make first? - this should be based on where you think the other players are going and also if there is a detour route that you can take, should your connection be taken.



The more familiar that you get with the destination tickets, the better player you will become, because you start to get a feel for which ticket other players are trying to complete. This will likely take many games (30+) to get a grasp of.



Alternate Strategy:

Regardless of tickets, complete as many long routes as you can. If you happen to get a ticket that has a lot of long routes, this strategy will work even better.
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BGG:patrissimo
My group of friends is, frankly, obsessed with Ticket to Ride. We've gone from playing badly to, I think, playing quite well. Here are some of the things I regularly do now that I didn't even think about as a beginner:


* Go to key cities for which I don't currently hold tickets (Example - playing to NY when my tickets only go to Chicago, Pittsburgh, or Nashville. I may even *start* from NY in a 3-player game because its hard to get to. Look at it this way - if I get an NY ticket, I need this connection. If I don't, someone else probably will get the ticket, and I'll be in their way)

* Choose my starting tickets and route shape based on what high-scoring tickets it gives me access to, as well as the more obvious criteria (points, ease of completion). (Example - Denver->Pittsburgh is a great setup for the longer routes. NY -> Atlanta or to Dallas mboth kinda set you up nicely for LA->NYC if no one is grabbing the big bottom routes).

* Study other players routes to determine the composition of the ticket deck to determine when and how many times to draw new tickets. (Example - I start with and (mostly) complete LA -> Miami and NY -> Atlanta. If SF -> Atlanta and LA -> NY look "live", with Boston -> Miami, Montreal -> New Orleans, Toronto -> Miami as secondary considerations, I will draw lots of tickets to find them. If they've been taken, I'll big build sets and try to end fast)

* Draw cards which are crucial to other players routes and I don't really need, but can find a use for. (Example - a player has taken Houston -> NO, and is drawing black/red/green. If one of these colors has been rare, and I can use it for a grey or short route, and it comes up, I will draw it for denial purposes). This strategy can be very frustrating to play against, but it sure slows down opponents.

Some more intermediate things, but perhaps useful to beginners:

* Claim a route as a stalling tactic because face-up cards are being churned, but what I want isn't there yet.
* Time a route claim just before or just after a shuffle, depending on whether I need more of that color, or I want to deny it to others.
* Structure a set of routes in a non-obvious way so as to stay as one continuous route and contest for the bonus.
* Choose my claim order so as to make it difficult to block, and possible to work around if I am blocked.

Edits: Spellchecked; for clarity.