I have heard of a new, modern way of transporting goods. It is said to be called trains and these are huge steam machines that run on two lanes winding through the landscape. I don’t really believe it. Who would build such tracks? I’d rather rely on my proven team. I can always rely on horses and they will take me exactly where I want.
We return to history with the board game Ticket to Ride: Amsterdam, which belongs to the new edition of smaller and faster variants of popular train games. This novelty was also created by Alan R. Moon and its release is still sponsored by Days of Wonder. The game is distributed in Europe by Esdevium Games and is a hot new product introduced at Christmas 2020.
But this time you won’t find any trains here, as the lid of the small box suggests. Inside, players will find a fold-out game plan with an ancient map of the Dutch capital. The squares of each squares are linked by one or more colored squares waiting to be linked. The players themselves catch each set of plastic carts from the bottom of the box and place the pointer in the same color on the starting field with a value of zero. Then it remains to prepare the cards – shuffle the routes and deal two to each (at least one of them must be kept by the player), but it is also necessary to shuffle the carts. Here the individual participants will also receive two copies, but another five random cards will create a joint offer.
Then everything goes exactly as Ticket to Ride players are (as with us as Tickets, please). In a turn, players can choose from several actions, where the main and most common is to draw cards from the menu, two of them. The offer in hand expands so that in the end they can place their carts on the plan for a set of the same color. However, it is always possible to lay only the whole group connecting one square with the neighboring one.
Which places to connect? Players should be clear about this when they look at their route cards. The main purpose of the players‘ whole effort is to fulfill these tasks. And this can only be achieved by the player connecting two places on the card with the help of carts of his color.
It all sounds familiar, but you don’t have to worry that all the difference from the classics would be in graphics and design. Although this aspect of the novelty is really interesting, the trolley figures are particularly interesting, as well as the period graphics and the map of Amsterdam.
The main novelty, however, are the goods cards and the corresponding icons on some connecting parts of the map. These are an attraction that could change players‘ plans when calculating square connections according to task cards. If a player uses the track with the goods icon with his cars, he can take one of the goods cards in the supply. He keeps it in front of him and at the end of the game he gets points according to this collection in addition to everything else.
Players thus have a new temptation in their efforts to accumulate valuable points. There are significantly fewer of them compared to the large Ticket to Ride, so everyone counts. The tasks themselves have values around five points.
But where there is an effort to make a detour with cars, it is necessary to think about problems. Above all, players have a limited supply of their carriages, so if they are not enough somewhere, nothing will help them. The second problem can be task cards. If, as a result of the detour, the player consumes more carts, then he may not be enough to complete all orders. And every such card that he did not fulfill at the end of the game means a direct deduction of its value.
The game ends as soon as it begins. Once one of the players has the last two or fewer cars, the last round takes place and everyone counts points. And such an end will come in fifteen minutes, which is really sooner than you hope.
Ticket to Ride: Amsterdam is a new generation of connecting games. Even easier and faster than the original version. It can be too much for someone. But thanks to the speed of the game, you can hardly resist the urge to play again, although you can’t build plans or use tactics in the game. It’s all about speed and the ability to work best with the limited space of one city. Ticket to Ride: Amsterdam is a great game to make your short free time more enjoyable. It’s perfect for that.
| Designer | Alan R. Moon | |
| Artist | Cyrille Daujean, Julien Delval | |
| Publisher | Days of Wonder, Rebel Sp. z o.o. | |
| Year Published | 2020 | |
| # of Players | 2 - 4 | |
| User Suggested # of Players | Best with 4 players Recommended with 2, 3, 4 players (9 voters) | |
| Playing Time | 15 | |
| Mfg Suggested Ages | 8 and up | |
| User Suggested Ages | 6 and up (5 voters) | |
| Language Dependence | No necessary in-game text (1 voters) | |
| Category | Trains | |
| Mechanic | Hand Management, Network and Route Building, Open Drafting, Set Collection | |
| Family | Cities: Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Components: Map (City Scale), Game: Ticket to Ride (Official) | |
| Primary Name | Ticket to Ride: Amsterdam | |
| Alternate Names | Les Aventuriers du Rail: Amsterdam, Wsiąść do Pociągu: Amsterdam, Zug um Zug: Amsterdam |
Infos courtesy of boardgamegeek.com. More Infos.
