Ticket to Ride: Märklin

To set up Ticket to Ride: Märklin, place the game board in the center. Shuffle the train cards and place them face down, then deal five face-up cards next to the deck. Separate the destination tickets into two decks (short and long routes), shuffle each, and place them face down. Shuffle the passenger cards and place them face down. Each player chooses a color and receives 45 train cars, 3 passenger tokens, and a scoring marker placed on the '0' space of the scoring track. Deal each player four train cards and four destination tickets (two long, two short), from which they must keep at least two. Place the passenger tokens on designated cities on the board, and distribute the victory point tokens randomly on cities.

The primary objective in Ticket to Ride: Märklin is to accumulate the highest number of victory points. Points are earned by claiming railway routes between cities, successfully completing destination tickets (connecting specific cities), and collecting passengers along your routes. Points are also awarded for having the longest continuous route at the end of the game. Conversely, any uncompleted destination tickets at the end of the game will result in a deduction of points from your total score.

On your turn, you must perform one of four possible actions. You can draw two train cards from either the face-up display (replacing each drawn card immediately) or the face-down deck. If you draw a face-up locomotive (wild card), it counts as both your draws. Alternatively, you can draw four destination tickets (two long, two short) and must keep at least one. You can also claim a route by playing a set of train cards matching the color and length of an unclaimed route, then placing your trains on it and scoring points. Finally, you can place one of your three passenger tokens on a city at either end of a route you just claimed, or move an existing passenger along your routes to collect victory point tokens from cities.

Points are scored immediately when routes are claimed, based on the length of the route. Completing destination tickets at the end of the game adds points, while uncompleted tickets subtract points. Passengers collected from cities provide immediate victory points. At the end of the game, the player with the longest continuous railway route receives a bonus of 10 points. The player who has collected the most victory point tokens from cities also receives a bonus of 10 points. All points are tallied at the end to determine the winner.

The game concludes when any player's supply of colored train cars drops to two or fewer at the end of their turn. Each remaining player, including the player who triggered the end, gets one final turn. After these final turns, all players reveal their destination tickets and calculate their final scores by adding points from claimed routes, completed destination tickets, and collected passengers, then subtracting points for uncompleted destination tickets. The player with the longest continuous route and the player with the most collected passenger tokens also receive bonus points.