Board Game Arena

I recently played a game with an opponent who completed all 18 destinations they took in a two player game. It seems like it is easier on this map to get more destinations than the other maps, but I was floored. I play the game often and have never seen anything like it, even from higher ELO ranked players than this one. Is this just lucky draws or am I missing something? I am a “good” player in ELO ranking so I wondered if there is some strategy that I am missing, maybe used by the better players.

It’s usual for a Switzerland game to be a fight to empty the route deck, sometimes even before many trains have been laid. I often get 20+ routes against players who are more used to USA maps. Every TTR map has its own game play.

newbiegeek wrote: ↑20 January 2025, 00:14 I wondered if there is some strategy that I am missing

I'm no expert on swiss map, but I'll give you my 2 cents:

Without seeing the game I'd say you just let them too much time to draw. Swiss map is known for being easy to fiend for tickets on, but that requires to connect at least 3 countries, all main cities (Zurich, Bern, Geneve, Basel) and many other key cities (Lausanne, St.Gallen, Luzern, etc). However, this requires A LOT of time (turns). So to win that game you could either have closed the game faster or connected the key cities in a more efficient way than them and fiended for tickets harder/faster

If you want to link the game I can have a look at it

On the TTR USA BGA web page there is tab Switzerland on Custom options : https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=tickettoride

A look to TTR Switzerland rules must be made!
- Locomotives count as a simple card, so you can take 2 visible locomotives in one turn.
- Jockers/Locomotives can only be used under tunnel, not in standard route.

See https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Gameh ... erland_map

Official rules : https://cdn.svc.asmodee.net/production- ... L-2017.pdf

Maybe, you can vote for my suggestion 150342: "TTR Switzerland must not be with TTR USA but in another TTR maps group" https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=150342

I had a recent three player game where I completed all 15 tickets I drew. As previously mentioned I made a very efficient path connecting a lot of the main cities and going to all four countries. It might take some experience but once you know some of the key routes to take you can freely draw more tickets and usually have at least one completed or take a very small loss if not and you can't do it. There are also two tickets departing from each country to any of the other three countries so making sure you get to all four or at least three in some way is key for having those tickets done when you draw them. You can always improve upon them later too.

Here's a link to that game, I was actually quite lucky in my last two draws and was able to keep about 30-40 points worth in my last two draws because of having linked all the countries and gone through some of the main cities.
https://boardgamearena.com/archive/repl ... s=87601823;

OP and I have not played against each other so this wasn't the game to which they refer, but I recently played a two player (I normally stick to three player games) where I completed 18 tickets and the other person completed 4. That person just did not draw any tickets. I don't recall if they started with 4 or drew once, but I kept waiting for them to draw and they didn't so I was like well, more for me.... And as a previous poster stated, if you know the routes well, you know which ones connect with a lot of other routes, which you can integrate easily with what you already have, etc. I usually draw more routes long before I've finished any. I think it's actually harder to do that in a two person game because it's very easy to have your route blocked by the other person, whereas the three person game on the double track at least you still have another shot at it. If you are used to any of the USA variations, Switzerland is very different, so it definitely helps to not only be familiar with the routes but also the different rules, the way the country and city route cards work, and how the rainbow choo choos work in this version. I think it would be better to separate Switzerland out into its own game; however, my guess is that they figured that there wouldn't be enough players for it to stand on its own. But it's really not fair that my ELO doesn't reflect my USA play, which I'm not a horrible player but I'm much better at mega. I usually play Arena which is regular USA which I'm just okay at. But my ELO shot way up when Switzerland opened up because I'm much better at that version. I hope they bring Pennsylvania to BGA at some point. That is my favorite map.

ExaltedAngel wrote: ↑23 January 2025, 16:41

If you want to link the game I can have a look at it

This was the game: Ticket to Ride #617184342

After reading the responses here, I think I probably should have been more aggressive in taking destinations and claiming routes to key cities (which cities I will have to learn), and probably trying to end the game faster. At the time I was very surprised by not only my opponents’ 18 completed destinations but also their high score (over 200), which I hadn’t seen before. I am not a great player so and I haven’t played against the best players, but I don’t think I’m horrible at TTR. But perhaps I did play terribly in that game and the other player exploited my weaknesses. I would be interested in what happened in this game for my improvement. I just looked at it myself, but I get confused trying to understand the game from reading the steps or replaying afterward. So if you can look at it and explain what happened, I’d be most grateful!

newbiegeek wrote: ↑11 February 2025, 15:06 This was the game: Ticket to Ride #617184342

I had a look at the game, it all can be summarized in one sentence: you took way too many short tracks. You chose to go from Geneve to Bern with 4+3+1 rather than with 4+4+2. That incidentally costed you to lose access to neuchatel but the point is that should have been your preferencial route anyways, even if you had not neuchatel. Same thing for Luzern-Zurich: you could connect with 3 white + 3 green but instead u took a 1+1+2 route. Then at that point the game was compromised enough that it doesn't really matter what happened later