Ticket to Ride - Europe - First Journey (ML)

Climb aboard the D.O.W. Express and set off across Europe by rail with Ticket to Ride - Europe - First Journey. This train board game for kids keeps the spirit of the beloved Ticket to Ride series alive, with shorter routes and simplified rules so young conductors can jump in and enjoy the very first game. Each player draws colored train cards, plays them to claim a route between two European cities, then tries to connect the destinations shown on their ticket cards. There is not a word to read to play: everything runs on colors and shapes, which makes the adventure easy to follow no matter what language is spoken at home.

The board shows Europe at the turn of the century, from Dublin to Moscow and from Madrid to Ankara. Linking one of the western cities to one of the eastern cities with a chain of trains even earns the prized Golden Ticket card, a special bonus that makes any winner proud. The game ends as soon as one player completes six ticket cards, so scoring stays easy to track, turns stay short, and nobody sits around waiting too long for their turn.

Ticket to Ride - Europe - First Journey is for you if you are looking for a first family board game for kids that plays without any fuss. The rules take just a few minutes to explain, games run about half an hour, and even a six year old can plan their own route across the map without constant help from an adult. It is also a fun way to introduce little ones to planning and patience, two habits that come in handy later on with heavier board games.

On BoardGameGeek, this small-box game ranks among the top children's games on the whole site, all while staying refreshingly simple: its complexity rating sits near the very bottom of the scale, meaning there is almost no learning curve. Since no text is required to play, a single copy works just as well in French as it does in English, making it a natural pick for bilingual families or for cousins who do not share the same first language.

The game carries the signature of Alan R. Moon, the designer behind the entire Ticket to Ride series, from the original game all the way to Ticket to Ride: Europe. Once young conductors have mastered First Journey, they can graduate naturally to Ticket to Ride: Europe (ages 8 and up), the more advanced version of the same world, with longer routes and a bit more strategy.

BOX CONTENTS
1 game board (map of Europe)
80 plastic trains
72 train cards
32 destination ticket cards
4 bonus destination ticket cards
1 Golden Ticket card
1 rules sheet

Number of players: 2 to 4
Playing time: 15 to 30 minutes
Age: 6 and up

If you want to protect your cards, you will need:
109 card sleeves in 56 x 87 mm format (72 train cards, 32 destination tickets, 4 bonus destination tickets, and the Golden Ticket card)