kinda wild that we are expected to not block each other in arena games

[Jontia]

I suppose if you're someone who was brought into the hobby by Wingspan or Cascadia or whatever, you tend to think all games should be played like that.

Both Cascadia and Wingspan include the exact same sort of blocking as Ticket to Ride. You look at the shared resources available birds/food or tiles/animals and you make the best turn, which can be taking something your opponent wants, rather than something just good for you.

That might be because there's nothing for you at the moment. And both games offer opportunities for the missed resource to be replaced. But to say these moves don't exist is just naive.

[JohnnyCyclops]

Once again...

If on my turn, I have two options:

1. Finish a 5 point ticket

2. Stop you from completing a 20+ point ticket.

Why the heck would I do the first one?

But how do you know what tickets they are holding? Unless you’ve flipped through the whole deck and memorised them all, or written them down. And then… that’s a bit dull.

I have no clue how many routes there are or where they all go, but I guess some people obsess about them. And there goes the fun if it’s all about the win.

I played a “blocker” in my last casual game and won’t be coming back any time soon. I’m fine with blocking and attacking in games from chess and backgammon on down. I viewed TTS as “build a few railways, run a few trains” not a knife fight.

But I don’t have the knowledge (the full list of tickets / routes) to be able to play back in a blocking style. Unlike say backgammon or Azul where the information required to block/attack is right there visible in the game state. And I don’t need the tedium of learning a deck of route cards.

I suppose the issue drops away with higher player count, say four. Similar is true of Azul which at two is brutal and adversarial but at four is a lot gentler. I do like two player Azul. I don’t like two player TTS.

But, there are 1000+ games on BGA so something for everyone and I don’t mind skipping TTS.

[Strode]

I suppose if you're someone who was brought into the hobby by Wingspan or Cascadia or whatever, you tend to think all games should be played like that.

Both Cascadia and Wingspan include the exact same sort of blocking as Ticket to Ride. You look at the shared resources available birds/food or tiles/animals and you make the best turn, which can be taking something your opponent wants, rather than something just good for you.

That might be because there's nothing for you at the moment. And both games offer opportunities for the missed resource to be replaced. But to say these moves don't exist is just naive.

I never said such opportunities don't exist at all, but games like Wingspan and Cascadia are less confrontational than most of the older Euros. Just having individual player boards contribute to it.

There has definitely been a shift in Euros over the past 15 years or so towards less "mean" games.

[Suoivax]

Once again...

If on my turn, I have two options:

1. Finish a 5 point ticket

2. Stop you from completing a 20+ point ticket.

Why the heck would I do the first one?

But how do you know what tickets they are holding? Unless you’ve flipped through the whole deck and memorised them all, or written them down. And then… that’s a bit dull.

I have no clue how many routes there are or where they all go, but I guess some people obsess about them. And there goes the fun if it’s all about the win.

I played a “blocker” in my last casual game and won’t be coming back any time soon. I’m fine with blocking and attacking in games from chess and backgammon on down. I viewed TTS as “build a few railways, run a few trains” not a knife fight.

But I don’t have the knowledge (the full list of tickets / routes) to be able to play back in a blocking style. Unlike say backgammon or Azul where the information required to block/attack is right there visible in the game state. And I don’t need the tedium of learning a deck of route cards.

I suppose the issue drops away with higher player count, say four. Similar is true of Azul which at two is brutal and adversarial but at four is a lot gentler. I do like two player Azul. I don’t like two player TTS.

But, there are 1000+ games on BGA so something for everyone and I don’t mind skipping TTS.

I dont know all the tickets either, but if you have a track from New York to somewherein the middle, and a line from L.A. approching that spot, I don't need to know the tickets to determine blocking would be to my benifit. Heck, just for the longest train bonus.

I assume you don't keep score? It's just for fun, right?

[JohnnyCyclops]

I checked back. I played 19 games in late 2023 when I joined BGA, won 8 including a few in Arena. From memory, I played to get my lines down and tickets completed. Then, my final game, I met with a player who played (in my view and with limited experience) a highly negative game and I realised that’s a style of play (hence threads like this) that is all about the win and not about the play. And so I stopped playing TTS because in my mind it’s a gentle train/route building game.

Thanks for confirming you’ve not memorised all the route cards.

I’m not against combative games. I already said I enjoy two player Azul, which other might view a a gentle wall tiling game. And I enjoy backgammon which is built around blocking.

[Ceaseless]

Once again...

If on my turn, I have two options:

1. Finish a 5 point ticket

2. Stop you from completing a 20+ point ticket.

Why the heck would I do the first one?

But how do you know what tickets they are holding? Unless you’ve flipped through the whole deck and memorised them all, or written them down. And then… that’s a bit dull.

I have no clue how many routes there are or where they all go, but I guess some people obsess about them. And there goes the fun if it’s all about the win.

I played a “blocker” in my last casual game and won’t be coming back any time soon. I’m fine with blocking and attacking in games from chess and backgammon on down. I viewed TTS as “build a few railways, run a few trains” not a knife fight.

But I don’t have the knowledge (the full list of tickets / routes) to be able to play back in a blocking style. Unlike say backgammon or Azul where the information required to block/attack is right there visible in the game state. And I don’t need the tedium of learning a deck of route cards.

I suppose the issue drops away with higher player count, say four. Similar is true of Azul which at two is brutal and adversarial but at four is a lot gentler. I do like two player Azul. I don’t like two player TTS.

But, there are 1000+ games on BGA so something for everyone and I don’t mind skipping TTS.

Aside from the obvious "they're coming at it from both ends at absurdly big distances, maybe I should cut that off" I'd like to point out that there are only 4 20+ point tickets and given their size they tend to stand out. You don't need to manually try memorizing all of the tickets, you get a visual for the more important ones as you play the game just through experience.

[Loin du Froid]

I have nothing against blocking in this game, I often block myself when necessary and I get blocked on the other side.
This game is not about development, it is not a place where you need to build and build and hope that your opponents will not hinder you, especially if you are playing in arena mode.
This is a game about scoring points and whoever scores the most will be the winner.
Somewhere earlier in this topic, Angel mentioned that strong players block only when necessary. they understand when it is necessary to do so because they have a lot of experience in the game and can assume what combination the opponent has and based on this they can decide whether it makes sense to block or not.
I recently started playing Carcassonne and realized that players there also block very often.
Yes, it's annoying, it's very annoying and you lose games because of it. They take your castle away, they take your road away or they take your field away, but on the other hand, you can learn from it, you can understand the patterns that other players play and based on that, do the same and improve your skills.It is similarly in TTR, just practice and learn from your mistakes.

[keybounce]

Blocking is absolutely a normal part of the game. It is why there are limited number of track options between two towns.

It isn't just "I can complete 5 points for me or cost you 20". In a 2 person game, that is absolutely valid. If you are complaining about someone blocking you in a two person game, what do you think when someone blocks you in tic-tac-toe?

In a 4 person game? If one person seems to be in the lead, then trying to hurt them may be of value.

Yes, i've had a 20 pointer clobbered by someone making a connection that I needed. How did they know? Probably because I had routes on both east and west side, and was joining them in the middle. I waited one turn too long before I started connecting.

It's a trade off. You want to get as many train tickets as possible before you start putting things down, to save wildcards. And yet, if you wait too long, routes get taken. This is part of the skill of playing.

[DivergentRalph]

I agree for two player blocking is a part of the game.

However, I don't often play two player as it becomes a weird game: always a tonne of random picks, then connecting your routes using the most 4, 5, and 6 tracks possible and trying to get longest train.

It's an entirely different game from 4 or 5 player, or games where expansion is used. I much prefer 4 player, idk about you guys. It seems to create the games TTR was supposed to be (picking from the 5 face up cards, connecting destinations with shortest/shorter paths etc.)

4 player, especially with expansion, does involve more luck (regarding the destinations you draw). However there's less blocking because if someone blocks you, the other 2 people not involved get ahead etc.

So play 4 player casual if can't take being blocked. I don't care about being blocked I just like it more anyway.

[fiscused]

I don't know if they've ever done a poll on player count, but everyone I know likes 4p the best for Ticket, except on the maps made for max 3p.