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Ticket to Ride: The Dice ExpansionList Price: $20.00
 
from 2 customer reviews
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In this expansion, players still attempt to complete their Destination Tickets and claim routes and block each other on the map. But rather than draw and collect Train cards, they roll five custom Train dice each turn.
Depending on the outcome they can reroll some or all, then use the dice to claim routes on the board; grab Route Tokens for future use; or draw more Destination Tickets.
For board maps that feature Tunnel routes, such as Ticket to Ride Europe, 3 Tunnel dice are also included.
This expansion requires trains, Destination Tickets and a board map from any of the Ticket to Ride series.
The Dice Game Expansion is multi-lingual with rules in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Finnish, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian.
The main trick to this game is to not make up new rules that aren't part of the game. The instructions say to use the original rules for the TTR you are playing for all but the specific instructions of the dice expansion.
For instance, a double route would be claimed the same way in the dice game as the regular game. Some TTR games only allow one track of multiple line routes to be used when a smaller number of players are playing (you don't put trains down on all parts, but they other parts can't be used after you have yours placed), but most of the time, when you claim a multiple track route, you put your trains on one side and someone else claims the other side. Look at the rules of the basic game you are playing for prohibitions against claiming all lanes. Since there are an equal number of single and double routes on each die, it changes the difficulty for getting a double route - multiple routes are easier in the game with cards, giving the players more options and less hurry to claim part, but not here.
Making up a new rules that a player would have to use double the trains to claim a route and/or get double the points for doing so seems like it would be really frustrating.
The dice game is faster than the traditional cards game and has a different strategy to win.
My second-grade kids have enjoyed Ticket to Ride, but got tired of the cards (holding them, sorting them, etc.) so I bought the dice expansion for a change of pace. The rules are compressed into a single page and are not clear in several respects. The biggest problem is that because a player can claim only single routes or double routes (an interesting idea), the scoring system is implicated and there is no guidance on this whatsoever. For example, do double routes score double? That's how we played (train pieces are used to cover both routes) and the scoring became immediately lopsided. The next game -- if there is a next game -- we will score all double routes the same as single routes. It is not enough for any set of expansion rules to state (and I paraphrase), "play is as in the normal game, except..." I have to wonder the extent to which this was play-tested before release.
We probably would have been better off spending our money on the Switzerland expansion board (which we could have had for a few dollars more). A local game store owner who is very familiar with the series advised against our buying this, saying that it "had not been well- received." I now wish I had taken his advice. If you are disparate to play TTR without cards and are willing to adapt the unclear rules to something that seems sensible to you, then you might consider buying this. Otherwise, save your money and your frustration.
