35 of 35 people found the following review helpful.
An Essential Expansion
By B. J. Martell
Anyone who owns Ticket To Ride : Europe probably already knows that it is one of the best of the Ticket to Ride games, with a map that creates interesting challenges and roadblocks.

The one drawback with Ticket to Ride: Europe is the lack of routes, with only about 45 or so routes (including only 6 ‘long routes’). After 20 or so playings, it becomes fairly easy to tell what long route someone is attempting at any time. In my view this expansion is essential, and to a large extent fixes what is the only drawback of Europe I can find.

Europa 1912 adds another 6 long routes. They are designed in such a way that it is now much more difficult to know which long route someone is attempting, no matter what long route they have. These routes are typically slightly shorter than the existing long routes, and worth 16 or 17 only. Also, all long routes now have a different back – good for finding them to shuffle and deal seperately, but everyone will know if you keep it or not!

Additionally, there are 19 more ‘short’ routes, and these are carefully designed to make those cities and tracks that are underutilised in the original game more important. In my view, with these cards there is a fairly good chance of use (and even of two or three players wanting the track) for any track on the board.

Lastly there is a large set of ‘Big Cities’ routes. As with both the above sets of cards, it is optional to use these cards. On these cards, nine cities are picked (London, Paris, Berlin, Roma, Athina, Wien, Madrid, Moskva, Angora) and a route is introduced between every combination of these cities. Since only a handful of these routes already existed, this brings in a large number of new routes. Some are short (Berlin – Wien is worth 3 points only) while Madrid to Moskva, worth 25, is the longest route in the game, despite not being a ‘long route’. Using this set of cards significantly increases the importance of and the competition for tracks around those 9 cities. In my view this makes for a very different game. My preference is to always play with the other new cards, but to play with the big cities cards only when everyone is up for a cutthroat game.

All up there are about 55 new route cards, a significant expansion on the number there were in the original game.

The last addition is ‘Warehouses’ and ‘Depots’. Descriptions of how this works can be found elsewhere on the web, and although they add a different element to the game, for me they are not the drawcard in this expansion.

All route cards from the original game are reprinted, but there are ways to tell them apart. It’s important to note that some of the original routes will be found in the ‘Big Cities’ pack.

I recommend that everyone who owns Europe buys the Europa 1912 expansion. The extra routes are really worth the money, they make the game more even and less similar from game to game. Additionally, it was very hard for me to find. I suggest you buy now while you can – there is no guarantee with Days of Wonder that there will be a reprint!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
“fixes” an already amazing game
By barfhead
This card expansion addresses the one critical issue my friends and I noticed as we played TTR:Europe to death — the long destinations (and the rest of the routes, in general) are too obvious. By the third or fourth turn most of us had an idea of what the other players were going to do for the rest of the game and it usually degraded to a rush for the 6/8-length routes and volleying for the critical intersection cities pretty rapidly from there on out.

The addition of more long destinations as well as all of the benefits of the 1910 expansion give this game the refresh it needs to perpetuate its replayability much further. It was quite refreshing seeking alternate paths across the map and seeing the hot-spots of the original deck all but disappear. The expansion also contains all of the original cards giving a nice deck refresh. The warehouse addition is fun, but we’re plenty occupied with all of the new routes and it’s not quite as appealing as originally hoped.

The cost is a bit high for a card expansion, that’s the only real reason I docked a star. very fun.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Adds much needed strategic options to game play
By Mohamad El-husseini
As the title of the previous review suggests, this is an essential expansion that changes the game play dynamic fundamentally if you so choose to take advantage of the new rules.

You could play the game using this expansion pack without resorting to using the strategies that it requires, but it is far more compelling and fun to take advantage of the new ways you could approach the game.

Players get a warehouse and 5 depots. At the beginning of the game each player must decide where to place one of their depots (in a city on the map). The game starts, and warehouses are used to store a single card a player draws before his or her turn. The player must then place this card in any of the warehouses (including his or her own) on the board (each player has a warehouse). The player will then draw his or her two cards per usual game rules. Later in the game you may, if connecting to a city occupied by a depot, collect all the cards present in the warehouse that corresponds to the color of that depot. This allows to to collect a substantial number of cards that accumulate in warehouses, and in turn allows you to complete your routs faster. In return you give up one of your four remaining depots. The player with the most depots at the end earns 15 points… but it’s far more rewarding to use the depots to capture additional cards. If this strategy is used correctly, you could complete routs very quickly and get a head start early in the game.

One of the limitations of the European version is the introduction of stations that limit your ability to block people. This reduced the cutthroat approach that made the American version so compelling. This expansion, however, adds new strategic depth, and a nervous edge to game play where players have to decide when to make a move and capture cards.

Great expansion.

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Ticket To Ride 1912 Expansion Picture

Ticket To Ride 1912 Expansion Picture

Ticket To Ride 1912 Expansion Picture

Ticket To Ride 1912 Expansion Image

Ticket To Ride 1912 Expansion Pic

Ticket To Ride 1912 Expansion Picture

Ticket To Ride 1912 Expansion Picture

Ticket To Ride 1912 Expansion Image