When the wi-fi goes for a toss, it’s time to dial back a decade and try your hand at 2004’s best board game. Designed by Alan R. Moon for Days of Wonder (a board game publisher), Ticket to Ride is a railway-themed contest where players collect train cards to carve their way through a North American landscape. And like most German-style board games, it’s easy to learn but high on tension, tact and strategy. Players must fight off competitors and secretly connect assigned rail destinations; size matters here—the longer your route, the more points you earn.
Featuring beautiful illustrations, 225 custom-moulded trains, wooden scoring markers and a gigantic map of the United States, the game is a gateway drug to some nerdy goodness. Lying somewhere in between the economic wars and soured friendships of Monopoly, and your childhood train-building set, Ticket to Ride could be a great addition to the gaming cupboard, provided you still have one. Asmodee’s Ticket to Ride and Ticket to Ride Europe are available on Amazon India here.