Welcome to the first ever Callapidder Game Review! Thanks for stopping by. This week’s game:

Ticket to Ride is my top pick for “Game to replace Monopoly at your family’s game table.” It’s a terrific game for the whole family – perfect for 3-5 players, and kids as young as 6 or 7 can easily understand the mechanics of it (although admittedly, they may not be able to sit still for an entire game). It takes about 5-10 minutes to learn, and the game lasts about 60-90 minutes.

In a nutshell: The game board is a map of the United States, with “train routes” of varying lengths connecting cities. Players receive “destination cards” which provide their goals for the game – each destination card lists two cities that the player must try to connect during the game. For example, a player may need to connect New York and Santa Fe. He’ll do so by claiming routes from city to city until his train cars form an unbroken line between Santa Fe and New York. And the train cars? Each player is given a set of 45 cute little plastic train cars at the beginning of the game that he will set out on the routes as he “claims” them. Claiming routes is simple – collect cards of colored trains, and then trade in sets of those cards in exchange for a route. But watch out – once a route is claimed, it never changes ownership. So if someone grabs that Santa-Fe-to-Oklahoma-City route before you do, you’ll have to find another way around as you work on fulfilling your destination card.

Points are earned both by claiming routes and fulfilling the goals set out by your destination cards.

We play this with C., and he loves the whole train theme. Because the game is a bit long for a young child, he frequently runs around during our turns. But since Ticket to Ride is based primarily on the luck of the draw (of the colored train cards you need to collect), his chances of winning are nearly as good as ours, and with a few strategy-type suggestions from us, he does quite well. But the most fun we’ve had playing this has been with two other adults that we’ve had over for a game night. It was a little more competitive, and moved along more quickly. And of course, neither of our guests decided to run around the table at high-speed during our turns.

So, in summary:

Ticket to Ride

Best for: 3-5 players (the box says 2-5, but it doesn’t play well with 2)
Time required: 60-90 minutes
Ages: 8 & up (although slightly younger kids can grasp the concept, too)
Where to buy: Time Well Spent (you can find it other places, like Amazon or Toys R Us, but Time Well Spent offers it at a much better price and they have great service)

Callapidder recommends it for: get-togethers with friends, family game night

2 Quick Notes:
* It’s not the cheapest game, but it’s well made. The components are both attractive and highly durable.
* The makers of Ticket to Ride, Days of Wonder, have the full instructions and lots of other info about the game on their website, in case you’d like to check it out further. You can find it all right here.