Fi's Mum's First Impressions of Ticket to Ride: Germany

I've invited my mum to write a guest blog for The Game Shelf...She wanted to call it "Thoughts from the Menopausal Meeple" - let me know if you think this sounds like a catchy name?

I really appreciate that she's happy to play games with us when she visits and it was great to introduce her to something new. So, here are Gill's (un-edited) thoughts on Ticket to Ride: Germany after her first play!

So here I am staying at Fi and Amy’s for a few days, earning my keep by helping build Ikea furniture, cleaning, cooking meals and offering general home-styling advice.

After a particularly exhausting day in Brighton (yes I was allowed a leisure day) flexing my credit card and enjoying a deckchair siesta, I experienced first-hand the ‘delights’ of travelling by Southern Rail – delays due to a broken down train/trespassers. I returned back to base but no rest for good old mum though – I was promptly dispatched with a massive gin and tonic to prepare tea. Hot, sweaty and tired I was just ready to put my feet up when the words I had been dreading came ... “Let’s play a board game!”

Now, I am not a player of board games, I am a large gin and tonic with Coronation Street type of girl. However any family gathering with Fiona and Amy will obviously involve a board game or two. I have zero patience or understanding of rules etc but will lose at Blokus and Codenames, pretending I’m not bothered until it’s the 4^th time of playing and I’ve still come last, and then I throw my teddy out of the cot and sulk in a corner.

Ticket to Ride Germany was proposed (another large G&T was offered as a bribe) and as it was pointed out that one Christmas in the dim and distant past I did actually win Ticket to Ride Europe (everyone either felt sorry for me or was more drunk than me). I therefore relented and agreed to give it a go.

Ok, the downside – as a non-game player I NEVER understand rules I cannot think ahead and I never have a strategy – I see Fiona and Amy making moves and decisions and cannot for the life of me see why.  With the German version I struggled with the complicated place names and couldn’t find them half of the time even with the cards showing me the location of the routes – this could, I admit, be gin-related and cannot be blamed on the makers of the game.

On the upside I got to collect men J. The more men I collected the more points I got and I seemed to be good at collecting men (unlike men in real life which I don’t collect very many of at all L) in fact I collected more men than Fi and Amy and this helped boost my otherwise appalling points score. I thought I had completed more routes than I had but somehow had missed middle sections of the routes so ended up with minus points (again don’t be put off by my experience as it could also be gin-related or a problem with the German language).

Ok so I lost again – I came last again - but the game wasn’t complicated and I did quite enjoy it - I enjoyed it more than the Europe version with tunnels etc which just blew my mind. If Fi and Amy suggest the game again I will give it a go but maybe with less gin.