Ticket to Ride Switzerland is a 2-3 player expansion to Days of Wonder's
Ticket to Ride game.
Players: 2-3
Playing Time: 30-60 minutes
The Components
Ticket to Ride Switzerland comes with just what you need to play the new game: a map and a set of 46 destination cards. They're both exactly to the standards of the earlier games in this series, with the additional comment that the boards have gotten nicer looking beginning with the release of Ticket to Ride Marklin thanks to good use of additional color.
The box is a bit annoying, because there's no good space for the cards once you've opened them, but that's a minor issue. I'd probably do best to get rid of the insert in my main Ticket to Ride box, then just store everything for both games there.
Do note that to play this expansion you must have either Ticket to Ride or Ticket to Ride Europe. That's because you'll need the train cards, train markers, and score markers from one of those sets.
At just $25, as opposed to $40 for Ticket to Ride or $45 for Ticket to Ride Europe, this expansion is also a great deal. Thus, with (as usual) good components, nice color, and a good price, it gets a top rating of "5" out of "5" for Style.
The Gameplay
Ticket to Ride Switzerland plays just like the original Ticket to Ride with the following differences.
Gameplay Variations: There are a few small changes to the core gameplay:
- The game is limited to 2 or 3 players; correspondingly, the "double" routes on the board may be used in games with 3 players, but not with 2.
- Each player only uses 40 of their 45 trains.
- Locomotives may only be used on the special tunnel routes, described below; correspondingly locomotives may be picked up from the face-up draw piles while only using up one of your two draws.
Map Variations: The map itself provides most of the ways in which Switzerland varies from other Ticket to Ride games. It feels tighter and more cramped than the other boards; there's also a central corridor from Zurich to Wassen that feels more critical than most corridors in the other games.
Switzerland also uses two variant rules: tunnels and countries.
Tunnels. These were introduced in Ticket to Ride Europe and work identically here. There are certain routes that are marked as tunnel routes. These may take more cards than expected to complete.
When you build these routes you lay down the cards that you're playing, then you flip three cards up from the draw pile. If any of these match the cards required for your route (because they're the appropriate color or else a locomotive), then you must either play that number of additional cards to complete the route, or else withdraw your cards, forfeiting your turn.
As noted, locomotive cards are also only usable on tunnels.
Countries. There are now two types of end points for routes: cities and countries. The latter, which were introduced in Ticket to Ride Marklin, work just like cities, except there can be multiple, far apart routes that all lead to the same country. For example, you can get to France from both northwest and southwest Switzerland.
However Switzerland expands upon the idea of countries by introducing special destination cards related to them. There are now city-to-country cards which allow you to connect to any country: the further away it is, the more points you get. Likewise there are country-to-country cards which allow you to connect from one country to any of the other three foreign countries on the map, again with value increasing based on distance.
In both cases, if you fail to connect the central location to any country, you lose the minimum number of points, and if you succeed you get the value of your best connection only.
Relationships to Other Games
Ticket to Ride Switzerland is the sixth release for Ticket to Ride. Previous releases included three standalone games, a small card expansion, and a computer game.
Switzerland is both the first expansion which offers a new map without requiring the purchase of a whole new game and the first expansion for only two or three players.
(Another 2-3 player game, Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries is currently only being released in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland, but will presumably make its way to the rest of the world next year if Switzerland does well.)
The Switzerland map previously appeared in the Ticket to Ride Computer Game released in 2006, but this is the first time its appeared in print.
The Game Design
Generally, Switzerland is another Ticket to Ride game. The totally new map and the slightly variant gameplay will provide variety which will be welcomed if your original Ticket to Ride game is getting stale.
I felt like the gameplay differences also made a notable difference in how you draw destinations. There's now a lot less penalty for drawing additional destinations, because you'll often get a city-to-country or a country-to-country destination cards that has a cheap penalty if you can't make it. Further there's a very viable strategy in building connections to all four countries, then drawing to get a complete set of all four country-to-country destination cards. I've always been fond of a destination-heavy strategy in Ticket to Ride, so it's fun to see an expansion where it's even more viable than usual.
The fact that this is a game for just 2-3 players isn't a huge selling point in itself. Because of the use of double routes, all of the Ticket to Ride games work well with any player number, and I'd be just as likely to play USA or Europe two player as Switzerland.
However, Switzerland is a tight game for either number of players. In the other games, 2- or 4-player games are a bit looser and less stressful while 3- or 5-player games can require more brinkmanship. So, if you like the really tight games and often play 2-player, that might be a reason to get Switzerland.
Overall, Ticket to Ride Switzerland is just as good as any other Ticket to Ride game, and that means it's a lot of fun to play, has great tension, and allows good strategy for a short game. I've given it a slightly lower rating than previous games, because it's no longer fresh and innovative, but it still earns an above average "4" out of "5" for Substance.
Conclusion
Ticket to Ride Switzerland offers some varied gameplay for Ticket to Ride if your old maps are getting stale, but is only usable by 2 or 3 players.
Review Summary