2008.01.17
Swiss Express
Last weekend Jason and I played Ticket to Ride: Switzerland. I’ve only played a few games, but this last game really made me appreciate just how well-balanced the game is when playing with 2 players.
The tension started early for me. I tried to avoid tipping my hand for a while, but Jason kept monopolizing all of the white wagon cards, and my planned rail network included several white routes. I responded by monopolizing all of the locomotives, since I had a few longer tunnels in my plan. This stalemate continued for about 10 turns, and then in frustration, I opted to move. It was earlier than I wanted, but I was hoping to push Jason off balance and plug up a few of the routes near Zurich. I succeeded, and then we were both embroiled in a rather ugly struggle for routes through the West. Both of us played cards we had been saving for other routes, and neither of us got the routes we really wanted.
This turned out to be a mere prelude for the rest of the game. There was a lot of tension, a few ticket draws, and we both played it right down to the last turn (and our last train cars).
Unlike our previous games, this time there was a definite feeling of time pressure. Neither of us drew many tickets, and it turned it we didn’t have the turns to waste with the way we were both playing. The final scores reflected this, with each of us scoring less than 120 points.
In the end, I eked out a victory by only 2 points. The longest route saved me. And had Jason opted to draw tickets on his final turn (as I would have done in his situation), he would have won.
The narrow victory just underscores what I’ve discovered so far. Two player games are a lot more tense using the Switzerland board than they are with the other variants of Ticket to Ride. In the end, Ticket to Ride is all about the agony of indecision. When there’s only two players, Switzerland does it better than the others.
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