2012.01.13
Riding the Legendary Rails of Asia
This week I had a chance to play the Legendary Asia map for Ticket to Ride for the first time. I wound up squarely in last place, partly due to bad luck on card draws, and partly due to a few mistakes. Had I had better luck I would have finished third.
One of the more interesting aspects of this map are the mountain routes which require you to sacrifice additional rail cars from your supply for some additional points. Assuming you don’t get too ambitious with your route planning, I would now consider this to be very advantageous in almost every way. It’s not obvious at first until you consider some of the details.
First, each car you sacrifice in this manner is worth 2 points. The “break-even” point is a route of length 5 (where each car is worth 2 points). Shorter routes all give you less bang for your buck, and this map only has a very small number of routes that are 5 or longer. The other, more important effect is that it brings on the end of the game faster, and gives you a better chance to catch your opponents short.
To give a specific example, there are some routes of length 2 which require a 2 car sacrifice. You only need to play 2 cards to claim the route, and you will get 6 points as well as be 4 cars closer to triggering the end of the game.
Now that I understand this aspect of the map better, I’ll definitely not make some of the same mistakes next time. As for the luck, well, let’s just say I had better draw locomotives a little more often if I want to claim a few ferry routes…
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