I will always have a soft spot in my heart for this game. Early in our relationship, Ryan and I took a trip to Europe together and he bought this game for me on my birthday following our trip. He picked this game since it has most of the places we went to listed on the board. This began our adventure into the world of owning strategy board games!

My first impressions of Ticket to Ride Europe was that it was not overly complicated to learn. I knew how intense strategy board games can be (see my first impressions on 7 wonders) and I love that this one made me want to try more games instead of scare me away. Ryan and I had a blast the first time we played. We started out cautiously by only taking a few route cards each but quickly realized that with only 2 players you can go for more.

One of the first things that I noticed about Ticket to Ride Europe is that the board is really well done, and while the cities are not located exactly where they would be on a real map, it does make you feel like you are really mapping your trip across Europe! They even write the names of each city in the language of that country (i.e. Brussels is Bruxelles). Some people aren’t a fan of this since it can make the cities a bit harder to find on the board but I really like it, I think it adds to the theme of the game.

A complaint on the original ticket to ride is that the routes are too easy to complete. Days of Wonder (the creators) listened to these complaints and added in some underground routes where you have to flip 3 extra cards from the top of the train card deck. For every card that you flip that matches the color you are playing you need to play another card of the same color from your hand. Another addition is the ferries where you need at least one locomotive (wild) to complete this route.

The final new element of the game is the train stations. If someone gets a piece of your route built before you, then you can add you train station in to use their section. This way you can still complete your route. Save your stations if you can though because you get bonus points for every train station you haven’t played at the end. I really like that some routes are harder to complete, you can either risk it and hope for the best when it comes to card flips in the undergrounds, or you can plan ahead and have a card or two extra in your hand.

One of my biggest rating factors for games is replayability, and while I do feel it ranks pretty well on that scale I do think it could be better. There aren’t a ton of long route cards (only 6). This does in a way add another challenge element since after you play it a few times you could become familiar with where the routes run and predict where your fellow players need to get to, but I also feel this gives people who have played a couple times a huge advantage over new players. With that being said you could always switch things up and play without long routes sometimes or you could also, the more expensive option, buy the Europa 1912 expansion which offers more long and short routes.