Discard a Blue Ticket Card?

[2288sam]

In Ticket to Ride: Europe, players opt whether to keep a blue ticket at the start of the game. These are longer than the other routes, and, when discarded, do not get returned to the supply of tickets from which to draw more, later in the game. When playing OTB, a big part of the strategy is that you get to notice whether or not the other player discards the blue route or not, as it is a large point-value ticket card, and has to be put back into the box. In BGA Ticket to Ride: Europe, I cannot see whether the opponent discarded the blue ticket or not--but that is a significant part of the original game! This may not seem like a huge difference, but it really affects the game in a big way for me. Am I missing something--perhaps there is a way to see it, and I just am missing it? Or is this function of the game not yet included on BGA? If the latter, please fix this!!

[menettm]

Hi 2288sam,
Here are the rules extracted from the TTR Europe PDF rules :

"Take the deck of Destination Tickets and separate the long routes (the six Destination Tickets with a blue background) from the regular routes; Shuffle the long routes, and randomly deal one to each player ➎. Put any remaining long routes back in the game box without letting anyone see them. Now shuffle the regular Destination Tickets - all short routes with a plain background -, deal three to each player ➏, and place the remainder in a draw pile face down, next to the board. You are now ready to begin.
Beginning of the Game
Before taking their first turn, players must choose which Destination Tickets they will keep from among those they were initially dealt. Each player must keep a minimum of two tickets although they may keep more. Put any Destination Tickets you wish to discard back in the game box without letting any of the other players see them. The Tickets that are put away may either be long routes or regular ones. The tickets you decide to keep are held until the end of the game."

As you see, like in BGA, you have blue and others destinations cards in hand, then you have to make a selection.
Others players will not know if you have kept a blue card or not...

[ExaltedAngel]

In Ticket to Ride: Europe, players opt whether to keep a blue ticket at the start of the game. These are longer than the other routes, and, when discarded, do not get returned to the supply of tickets from which to draw more, later in the game. When playing OTB, a big part of the strategy is that you get to notice whether or not the other player discards the blue route or not, as it is a large point-value ticket card, and has to be put back into the box. In BGA Ticket to Ride: Europe, I cannot see whether the opponent discarded the blue ticket or not--but that is a significant part of the original game! This may not seem like a huge difference, but it really affects the game in a big way for me. Am I missing something--perhaps there is a way to see it, and I just am missing it? Or is this function of the game not yet included on BGA? If the latter, please fix this!!

Long tickets cards in the phisical game are blue only on the front. The rear of the cards is all the same and discarded cards at the beginning are removed from the game exactly for this reason: long tickets are not supposed to be drawn randomly from the deck so since you cannot know if the discarded cards are long or short, you have to remove them all from the game to avoid long tickets to be reshuffled in case the deck ends

[2288sam]

Hi 2288sam,
Here are the rules extracted from the TTR Europe PDF rules :

"Take the deck of Destination Tickets and separate the long routes (the six Destination Tickets with a blue background) from the regular routes; Shuffle the long routes, and randomly deal one to each player ➎. Put any remaining long routes back in the game box without letting anyone see them. Now shuffle the regular Destination Tickets - all short routes with a plain background -, deal three to each player ➏, and place the remainder in a draw pile face down, next to the board. You are now ready to begin.
Beginning of the Game
Before taking their first turn, players must choose which Destination Tickets they will keep from among those they were initially dealt. Each player must keep a minimum of two tickets although they may keep more. Put any Destination Tickets you wish to discard back in the game box without letting any of the other players see them. The Tickets that are put away may either be long routes or regular ones. The tickets you decide to keep are held until the end of the game."

As you see, like in BGA, you have blue and others destinations cards in hand, then you have to make a selection.
Others players will not know if you have kept a blue card or not...

@Menettm
"Put any Destination Tickets you wish to discard back in the game box without letting any of the other players see them." This ONLY refers to "letting players see" the actual cities on the route, NOT whether or not you are actually/physically discarding the blue route. Of COURSE players will not ever be allowed to see WHICH blue card you are discarding. That is what the rule you have quoted here is referring to. But in EVERY game of Ticket to Ride Europe played OTB (over the board), it is impossible to NOT notice when someone puts their blue card back into the box. Thus, that is an integral part of the strategy of the game!!

@Exalted Angel
I am aware of how the game works/that blue tickets are not re-shuffled....

[thoun]

I understand exactly the same as menettm :
"Put any Destination Tickets you wish to discard back in the game box without letting any of the other players see them. The Tickets that are put away may either be long routes or regular ones."
So you shouldn't know if a player discards a long route or not.
I checked the french version of the rules too, and it's even clearer you cannot know what type of destination is discarded.

[ExaltedAngel]

@Exalted Angel
I am aware of how the game works/that blue tickets are not re-shuffled....

Doesn't seem so, Idk what game you have been playing, but in TTR Europe all the ticket cards have the same back, therefore it's impossibile to distinguish long tickets from the others when putting them back into the box

[2288sam]

Does this mean that even non-blue tickets are also returned to the box at the start of the game? Are not all future ticket discards in the game returned to the bottom of the draw pile?

[Valerio]

I quote the official rules that can be downloaded from DaysOfWonder site

Beginning of the Game
Before taking their first turn, players must choose which Destination Tickets they will keep from among those they were initially dealt. Each player
must keep a minimum of two tickets although they may keep more. Put any Destination Tickets you wish to discard back in the game box without letting any of the other players see them. The Tickets that are put away may either be long routes or regular ones. The tickets you decide to keep are held until the end of the game

So yes, all the discarded tickets form the first draw are put away in the box, otherwise the other players would know if you have kept the long route or not.

On the other hand if you draw ticketes during the game

A player can use his turn to draw additional Destination Ticket cards. To do so, he draws three new cards from
the top of the Destination Ticket Deck. [,,,] A player drawing Tickets must keep at least one of them, but may choose to keep two, or all three. Any drawn Ticket not kept in hand is placed at the bottom of the Destination Ticket Deck.

[ExaltedAngel]

Does this mean that even non-blue tickets are also returned to the box at the start of the game? Are not all future ticket discards in the game returned to the bottom of the draw pile?

Yes and yes, one doesn't invalidate the other

[Harvey6]

How does the process of choosing and discarding Destination Tickets at the beginning of the game poppy playtime chapter 3 in the mentioned game affect the element of strategy and player secrecy?