Ticket to Ride: Nederland

The Game

Before I wrote this blog post, I counted. I currently own 9 copies of games and expansions in the Ticket to Ride series. I had not planned to buy Nederland. Allen came across it being on sale at a deep discount. He asked whether I wanted to get a copy, and I couldn't resist. Nederland is an expansion, and you can only play it if you have the base game or Ticket to Ride Europe.  

One unique element of Nederland is how it entices (or pressures) players to claim routes early. There is a toll mechanism in the game. Everyone starts with some money. Whenever you build tracks, you must pay a toll. Most connections between two cities have two routes. If you are first to claim one of them, you pay the toll to the bank. If later another player claims the other route, they must pay the toll fee to you. This means if you are early, you get a rebate. Managing your cash and getting these rebates are important because at game end, you compare how much money you have left, and you score points based on ranking. Everyone gets points except for the last player. The player with the most leftover cash gets 55 points! 

The point values of the tickets in the game are higher than the typical Ticket to Ride game. Normally the point value of a ticket is simply the shortest distance between the two cities. On the Netherlands map this is not the case. Ticket values can go up to 34 points! So far I only know the Japan map also diverges from this convention. 

The Play

It was only when I sat down to play that I realised it is easy to get blocked off on the Netherlands map. We did a four-player game. If it were a 5-player game, the blocking would be worse. So claiming routes early is important not only because you hope to get the rebate, it can be crucial to ensure you don't get cut off. In our game, Shee Yun was completely cut off from a city she needed to go to and she lost points for one of her tickets. 

There are loan cards in the game (top right in this photo above). When you want to claim a route but you can't afford to pay the toll, you must take a loan card. Loans cannot be repaid in this game. Each costs you 5 points at game end. Also you are disqualified from the bonus for leftover cash.

When you decide to draw new tickets, you draw five and you must keep at least one. If you have built a decent network, it is worthwhile making a gamble on drawing new tickets. Since you get to draw five, chances are you'll get something that works for you. It is not risk-free, but the potential reward is tempting. Tickets are high valued. This aspect of having the urge to draw more tickets reminds me of the Switzerland map. It's wonderful when you get lucky and draw a ticket which you have already completed. 

These were my tickets at the end of the game, all completed. 

In our particular game, most of us chose routes nearer to the sea. It might be because most of the main cities were nearer to the sea. The half of the board nearer to the sea was pretty packed. The inland half not so much. We didn't have anyone taking loans. It was partly because many of us claimed the second route of a pair of routes, which meant money changed hands among players instead of going to the bank. However I suspect loans are not too common anyway. Still something you have to watch out for, but if you are careful enough it should not happen easily. 

The Thoughts

Ticket to Ride: Nederland is exciting! There is a heightened sense of urgency to claim routes early because you want those rebates and there is that fear of getting blocked off. Drawing tickets is also exciting. That lucky draw feeling is strong here. If you like the Ticket to Ride series, this is worth a try. The numbers in the game are big, and I'm not sure whether I am being tricked by this to think of the game as being more thrilling than it actually is. I get this feeling that I am making big bets. The stakes are high. Thus the adrenalin rush. When comparing leftover cash, the point difference between first and last place is 55 points. That is huge compared to the 10-point longest route bonus in basic Ticket to Ride. The tickets also have high point values, more than other variants. The points from the routes still remain the same as other games, so this aspect becomes less important. Go draw tickets! That's where the excitement lies!