Board Game Arena

With the holidays approaching, I would prefer to play the Nordic Countries version, if possible.. I love it very much!!..

Or even better.... NORTHERN LIGHTS!!!

That's the dream at least!

Woah, I had no idea there was a Northern Lights edition… on top of Nordic! Got me curious now, off to go see what the differences are

Comparison courtesy of ChatGPT. This has me curious to try Northern Lights! (ChatGPT also produced a nice summary table but seems the BBCode didn’t work for the table so I removed it)

Key Differences from ChatGPT - unverified, take it with a grain of salt

1. Number of Players
• Nordic Countries: Designed for 2–3 players.
• Northern Lights: Supports 2–5 players.

2. Bonus / Objective Cards
• Nordic Countries: No bonus-card system.
• Northern Lights: Includes 11 bonus cards; 4 are used each game.

3. Locomotive (Wild) Card Rules
• Nordic Countries: Locomotives mainly for ferries, tunnels, and the long special route.
• Northern Lights: Locomotives are more flexible; can replace any color, and ferry requirements can be substituted with two cards of one color; market does not refresh if 3+ locomotives are face up.

4. Special Route (Murmansk–Lieksa)
• Nordic Countries: Special 9-train route allows substituting any four cards for one of any color.
• Northern Lights: Does not include this exact rule.

5. “+X” Routes & Triple Routes
• Nordic Countries: No “+X” mechanic or triple routes.
• Northern Lights: Has “+X” draw routes; triple routes appear in 5-player games.

6. Map / Geography
• Nordic Countries: Focuses on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland.
• Northern Lights: Includes Nordic region plus some Baltic, Polish, and Russian cities.

7. Components
• Nordic Countries: Components tuned for 2–3 players.
• Northern Lights: 200 trains, 114 train cards, 55 destination tickets, 11 bonus cards, etc.

8. Strategy / Game Feel
• Nordic Countries: More cutthroat and tight for small groups.
• Northern Lights: More variety and flexible scoring due to bonus cards and additional route mechanics.

ChatGPT often gets stuff wrong, and for board games, that “often” turns into “all the time”. Please don’t use it for board games. If you do use it, please don’t post what generates online as truth if you can’t personally verify and vouch that it’s the truth.

Better?
https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/com ... t_to_ride/
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/333137 ... -different
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/305695 ... -countries

Yes, ChatGPT gets things wrong. But 1) I was clear about the source and 2) I never claimed it was "truth" and 3) skimming the linked threads, it seems as if ChatGPT did get quite a few contrasting elements right. By all means, take it with a grain of salt (I've now added said grain to the title so it's super visible).

And kindly skip the lecturing.

I bought Northern Lights a few years ago when on holiday in Sweden.

One fun part is the bonus at the end. Instead of “longest train” or “most routes”- there are 4 random bonuses (I believe from a list of 11)- each providing bonus points at the end.

“Most towns served in the arctic circle” was one very different one I remember.

Haven’t played it for a while- but it would be an amazing addition to BGA

I found Northern Lights a bit of a disappointment tbh, and one of the weaker Ticket to Ride's. It's one of the less balanced TTR's in terms of someone can get handed the game from ticket draw. The end game goals are good, but if you get tickets that all go down the west side with all the free cards you're then given you've basically won the game already. Nordic Countries was much better I think.

So finally Nordic Countries is in BGA but it is still on Alpha mode. Has anyone tried that?

Link please!