I played Small World, and I thought it was okay. But just okay. Carcassonne was huge for me, though. I LOVE it. This is sort of like Carcassonne mixed with Through the Desert. With the 3 expansions already available, you have a LOT more flexibility and diversity, to keep things fresh. It's so hard to say which is better. I LOVE Carcassonne. So darn much. But there's something so special about TtR... Looking at it this way, you get Carcassonne with no expansions for $10. TtR, for the same price, gets you the main game plus 3 additional expansions that add a TON to the game.
LOL. Y'all keep fighting the good fight, then. Once again, the asynch community's "small, but vocal" tag is well-earned. And as long as I'm serving as the voice of bad news, I'll add that I also wouldn't wake up and check every day for an iPhone version of either Small World or TtR. Again, DoW execs are on record as saying they have no interest in this. They want their games displayed on the big screen -- and rightfully so. Hell, if they had any interest in getting SW out on the iPhone, it would have happened by now; there's been plenty of time. "Never say never," I guess ... but that's the best you can hope for.
Thanks so much for the reply, I have gotten the feeling the Carcassonne really is something special so Im going to try it without a doubt, maybe I'll just bite the bullet and try them all, I do love bored games and this does seem like a great medium for them. Thanks again.
I would rank them as follows: 1. Carcassone 1A. Ticket to Ride 3. Small World They are all very polished games. Just depends on your preference of game type. Carcassone and Ticket to Ride are two of the best Ipad games released to date.
I gave in and picked this up. Aside from the talking menus that will ... not ... shut ... up ... and not liking the way the chat works, it's as great as everyone says it is. I wish the chat had a window/log you could go back to if you miss something.
Game Impressions While I've only played 1 tutorial game as well as watch the video tutorial, I like what I've seen so far. My simplified summation: Reiner Knizia's Through the Desert with secret missions and the oasis replaced by cities. (this doesn't really hold up under any sort of scrutiny, just my gut assessment) I love the game's simplicity, and that is not to say that the AI will be a push over, but the core game mechanics are pretty dang simple and straight forward. In the original TtR the user is presented with a map of the US showing all sorts of multi colored little connectors of 1-6 spaces joining all of the major US cities together. At the start of the game each player is handed a couple of tickets which are secret bonus point mission objectives the player is obligating themselves to complete before the game ends. Each turn a player can do one of the following: 1) Draw 2 more train cars 2) Claim a section of track (if the section has yet to be claimed by another player, the player has a sufficient number of cards of the same color as that section of track, and still has enough pieces to cover the 1-6 spaces in that section, they can play the cards and claim it). This is the one way the player makes points during the game with longer track sections being worth progressively far greater points than short ones. 3) Draw a set of new tickets (again, the player's secret mission objectives). Each player only has enough pieces to claim a total of 45 spaces worth of track and what's worse, if any other player gets down to two or less pieces, every player will then only get one last turn before the game ends. Once the game ends is where the BIG points are won or lost. Each player now reveals their tickets and is rewarded for the tickets that they did complete (have a continuous connecting track between the two cities no matter how indirect it might be) as well as penalized for the tickets they didn't complete (the game lets you take on as many tickets as you want, but will not take lightly to a player biting off far more than they can chew). There is also an end of game bonus to whomever made the longest continuous track (I'm looking at you, Through the Desert, Carcassonne, and Settlers of Catan). I guess some of the more advanced tactics get into not only trying to connect your mission objectives, but every so often claiming a piece of track that has nothing to do with where you need to go (either to block an opponent from making their objectives or simply to try and leave your opponents guessing what your secret route objectives really are). Each of the game's three expansions introduce new rules (1910) or new maps and rules (Europe, Switzerland).
If my last post wasn't long and rambly enough... I have one whine so far as a Solo player. While I appreciate that the game includes a local Solo Hall of Fame, I really wish (and maybe the will in Game Center but I doubt it) they had unique Hall of Fames for each number of players (maybe even further by each expansion, but that might be pushing it) as I really doubt the winning score of a 5 player game could ever compete with the winning scores of a 2 player game.
TTR is rather different that desert. Strategies are also different .... you will find out For once I got a board game first ;-)
I really love the game but: The AI is way to weak! I won all my games up to now ... So please: Better AI and a difficult setting option!
No, just the different US Maps ... ok, I will try that. But nevertheless: It would be good to choose between better and weaker AI player ... and to have some stronger player ...
I agree. I hate random AI since most games are very easy especially on the US map (and especially with less than 4 players). But Europe ... so far it has been fun as the map is more difficult by nature
I have been hooked on this the last two nights. I now have all the rest of the expansions. I am still quite confused on the stations. Can anyone please explain the stations. The AI had a route between two cities that I also wanted. So I claimed the stations at both ends but I could STILL not lay down my route. Now, as Dukester said, is this rule ONLY for 4-players? Then I had no idea at the end if it added, subtracted or did nothing pointwise with the station. Also, the rules say if you don't use the station, you get 4 points. So is there actually an advantage to claiming a station and NOT using it? The in-game instructions on stations is rather weak. I can also use some help in understanding tunnels. Right now when I attempt the tunnel I just do whatever the game tells me. I either don't get the tunnel or I discard the card it tells me. But I don't quite get it. I realize it has something to do with matching colors to what you placed down, but I am not quite sure how it all works. I have read the in-game instructions on this many times and I'm just not understanding it. I am definitely finding the game challenging. 2-Player USA is pretty easy, but still fun. Adding 3-player spices things up and the Europe and Switzerland maps seem to add even more challenge. I noticed a very minor bug. When you complete two tickets at one time the board grays out to highlight the route you completed. Then the board gets bright again and shows you the second route (should have remained grayed out). The bigger bug is that the in-game volume option is not controlling the voices. Ehhh...they just need an on/off checkbox.
Stations are not very intuitive. Here's a few tips: 1. You don't need to claim both ends of a route with stations; just one will do; 2. Stations have nothing to do with laying down your own tracks. You are using the other guy's tracks. I'd suggest downloading the actual rulebook; it's a small PDF, and it's easier to soak this sort of stuff in when you're offline and not trying to play a game. http://bit.ly/l6G9FR The rules for stations are on page 6.
Tunnels are easier. They just add an element of uncertainty by using a simple three-card draw. 1. When you claim a tunnel route, the next three cards are drawn off the top of the deck; 2. For any cards which match your route color and/or are locomotives, you need to match them with cards still in your hand; 3. You can match with either the original route color and/or locomotives. 4. If you can't match, all of your cards are returned, the route remains unclaimed, and your turn ends. Essentially, you will have missed a turn. The rulebook (link above) has an illustrate example; it's on page 5.
Yea I don't quite get Stations either. I'm gonna have to play with it more to figure it out. But yes you get +12 points (4points each) for each station not used at end of game. I understand how to build them but still figuring out how exactly it makes the connection. I thought I tried it one game but it failed to give me the destination ticket even though I was using another player's route. Here's is section from PDF rulebook (thanks for the link TheDukester) Also it mentions this in the Calculating Scores section of the PDF rules
Stations, to be frank, are poorly implemented. Actually, they pretty much suck. It's quite possible DoW rushed the Europe game into production after the money started rolling in from TtR's initial success. The station rules feel tacked-on and poorly thought-out. I generally ignore them, as do many players I know. I plan on finishing with those 12 bonus points, because I just act like I don't have stations at all. I'll only use them when it's getting desperate and the game might be ending on the next turn. There's a very good reason that there's like 37 different varieties of TtR, and only one has ever included stations. And that reason is suckfulness.
Well I have never seen an A.I. play a station so perhaps that's a hint like you say. Then again the AIs are not all that intelligent either so...hmm.
