Ticket to Ride

To set up Ticket to Ride, place the game board in the center of the table. Each player chooses a color and receives 45 train cars and a matching scoring pawn, which is placed on the '0' space of the scoring track. Shuffle the 110 train cards and deal 4 to each player. Place the remaining train cards face-down as a draw pile, then turn the top 5 cards face-up next to it. Shuffle the 30 destination tickets and deal 3 to each player. Players look at their destination tickets and must keep at least one, discarding any unwanted tickets to the bottom of the destination ticket draw pile. The 'Longest Continuous Path' bonus card is placed face-up near the board. The player who has traveled the most by train recently, or a randomly chosen player, goes first.

The objective of Ticket to Ride is to earn the most points by the end of the game. Players earn points by claiming train routes between cities on the map, successfully completing destination tickets (which require connecting specific cities), and by having the longest continuous train route at the end of the game. Points are awarded for the length of claimed routes, and bonus points are given for the longest route and completed destination tickets, while uncompleted destination tickets result in point deductions.

On your turn, you must perform one of three actions: 1) Draw Train Cards: Take two train cards from either the face-up display or the face-down draw pile. If you take a face-up card, immediately replace it with a new card from the draw pile. If you draw a Locomotive (wild card) from the face-up display as your first card, your second card must be drawn from the face-down pile. 2) Claim a Route: Play a set of train cards matching the color and number of spaces of an unclaimed route between two cities. Place your train cars on the route and advance your scoring pawn accordingly. Gray routes can be claimed with any single color of train cards. 3) Draw Destination Tickets: Draw three destination tickets from the top of the destination ticket draw pile. You must keep at least one, discarding any unwanted tickets to the bottom of the pile.

Points are scored in several ways. Immediately after claiming a route, players earn points based on the length of the route, as indicated on the scoring table. At the end of the game, players reveal their destination tickets. For each completed ticket (where the player has a continuous path of their trains connecting the two cities), they add the ticket's point value to their score. For each uncompleted ticket, the ticket's point value is subtracted from their score. Finally, the player with the longest continuous path of trains on the board receives a 10-point bonus. If there's a tie for the longest path, all tied players receive the bonus.

The game ends when one player's supply of colored train cars drops to two or fewer at the end of their turn. Each player, including the player who triggered the end of the game, gets one final turn. After everyone has taken their last turn, players proceed to final scoring. This involves revealing and scoring destination tickets, adding or subtracting their values, and awarding the 10-point bonus for the longest continuous route. The player with the highest total score wins the game. In case of a tie, the player with the most completed destination tickets wins. If still tied, the player with the longest continuous route wins. If still tied, the player who claimed the most routes wins.