Rowan Tree and Red Thread

As part of my recent splurge on boardgames I got a copy of Ticket to Ride Europe and we had a chance to play it last night with alaimacerc. I was surprised that the play was distinctly different to the original TtR, and I think I like the map as least as much as the original. I'm not convinced the tunnel rule with its additional random element is all that great, but I do like the long tickets being separated from the standard tickets.

As it happened in our game we didn't see the need to use the stations, so I don't know how much impact they'd have in play normally. Our play did seem to split the board down the middle, with me the only player really laying track in the west, and sammywol and alaimacerc fighting it out over the eastern Mediterranean and Eastern Europe. As it turned out the lack of competion in France and Spain didn't help me much. I placed last.

Final scores were sammywol 131, alaimacerc 101, me 97. With an additional +12 to everyone for stations unspent.