On Ticket to Ride: Legends of the West

We did it! We finished a legacy game. A huge shout out and thank you to Chris and Matt for keeping us on a semi-consistent schedule and getting this game to its conclusion. I thought I’d give my thoughts and recollect on the process!

Background

What’s a Legacy Game? - A legacy game is a board game that gets played over multiple rounds, with the game, rules, pieces or conditions for winning changing each time. The basic premise of the game is usually the same, but new challenges, goals, or pieces to use may be incorporated with each passing round. It’s usually played with the same people each time, and at the end, you have an entirely unique-to-you game board.

What’s “Ticket to Ride”? - Other than a Beatles reference, the Ticket to Ride series is a collection of board games involving trains (and sometimes boats…). The series has over a dozen entries, each with a different spin. The game has players collecting different colored cards in order to pay for new train lines connecting cities across a map. The overall goal is usually to connect specific cities in order to earn points, but some other games have bonuses for the longest train, using the most train cars, etc. We have a few games in this series and particularly like the “Europe” version of the game.

Who did you play with? - Brian and I played with some friends / neighbors / former coworkers of ours: Chris and Matt! They’re the reason we’ve been introduced to the Ticket to Ride series and they’re who we bought the legacy game for. Legacy games themselves tend to be somewhat expensive, since there are a lot of custom stickers, added rules and materials, and limited replayability until it’s finished, so we wanted to play with people who would really appreciate it… And who would make sure we finished.

Gameplay

We broke gameplay up into one or two rounds per game night, spread over four months. Each player got to pick a specific train line / color - Yellow (Erie) for me, Black (New York Central) for Brian, Red (Pennsylvania) for Chris, and Blue (B&O) for Matt. The game started with three puzzle pieces showing the eastern US (the former colonies) and the simple premise of (1) connect cities with your trains, (2) make as much money as possible, and (3) keep in mind that Mama O’Connell, a big bad stretching over the series who we kept calling Mama Odie, is someone we want to stop somehow.

At the end of each round, we tallied our points on a bank slip and stored it in a box that matched our train line, not to be touched or looked at until the overall end of the game after 12 rounds of gameplay. As the overall game progressed, more pieces of the board are added and the map expands, but it’s the player’s choice which part gets added next. It was hard to keep track of who was in the overall lead since points were kept secret, especially as new challenges were added: a circus to grow, stocks to collect, treasure to find… Especially since we would only play every other week at most and every new challenge made us prioritize different things: would we try to connect as many cities and complete as many tickets, or would we try to make as much money through various means, or would we take this round’s gimmick in stride and try to make a fortune that way?

Endgame

So? Who won??? Well, it was kind of an upset in my mind. Whenever I play boardgames with Brian, I expect him to win. It’s one of his many secret talents. So, when we finally finished the final round this past Friday, I was absolutely shocked when Chris won by a rather slim margin (12 points!!). The entire game, Brian seemed to have all of the goals prioritized: he managed to collect the most stocks, he always collected a ton of money, and he completed a decent amount of tickets. It was one round, one single ticket that went uncompleted, that allowed Chris to eke out ahead. In the end, I think this was a good thing, particularly since this was Chris’ Christmas present to begin with.

Final Thoughts

Overall, if you like Ticket to Ride and have a dependable group of people to dedicate a solid chunk of change and good bit of time to, it was a great investment. Each round was an easy 1-3 hours in gameplay when you factor in setup and breakdown. The rules were a little convoluted, but there was clear thought in the overall progression of the game itself and I had a lot of fun.

I rather liked the game as a whole. It was challenging, fulfilling, and each new round brought new intrigue. I liked that the map ended up spanning hundreds of years, cities in Canada, the US and Mexico, and a variety of geographical zones. The map pieces were well themed, came with interesting and refreshing gimmicks, and became motivating factors in continuous playing. The final round even seemed semi-high stakes and really seemed like a grand finale. It even came with optional extra endings in case anyone had ever played before and already knew the ending.

One of the few downsides involved the fact that we only played with four people, not the max of five, so there weren’t as many benefits, challenges, or resources related to the green team. Another downside was the irreversible nature. This is usually a highlight of the legacy games, but if someone gets distracted and say, holepunches a ticket incorrectly or fills in their name twice on their score box or loses their cards or confuses their cards with someone else’s… Some mistakes are easier to fix than others. That being said, that’s not really an issue at all and leads for some good laughs and memories along the way. A final downside was the cost and time commitment. This game isn’t cheap. A solid hundred dollars to buy a game that you’re going to desecrate and over 24 weeks to complete isn’t something everyone has or can do.

I’m happy I completed yet another goal for the year, and I think we’ve already purchased another legacy game to start soon. -G