Proven Math Strategies for Winning Ticket to Ride

Рет қаралды 19,591

Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 31

@greggsplaylist 29 күн бұрын

Did this strategy two years ago and one bonus is the other players couldn't figure out what I was doing as I was just going for any 6 train tracks.

@dougcorey3830 Ай бұрын

I love when I can work in Seattle to Helena to Duluth to Toronto on the US map. These paths aren't used as much as many other paths on the board, and it really racks up the points!

@glenm99 Ай бұрын

Everyone I play with tries to optimize points per train car rather than points per turn. They are very different ways of looking at the game! Thinking about points per turn will lead you to drawing a lot more destination tickets, and I think in general it's much better. The game is nicely balanced in terms of routes and train length. Suppose you have six train cards. If you can build a single train to nowhere with those, that's 15 points. But if you build a 4 and a 2 which complete a destination ticket, that's 7 + 2 = 9 points, plus 6 points for the ticket (since the tickets all score the length of the shortest path between two cities). Both are worth 15 for 6 trains. The longer train is only better if it's going somewhere to complete a ticket. The additional advantage of the 4 and 2 is that it's often easier than to get 6 all of one colour. Building long trains is not necessarily more efficient in terms of time if you end up with a lot of junk cards in hand. In this example, it takes at least four turns to build a single train of 6, and five turns to go 4+2. Seems better to build the long train. But if you consider the likelihood of getting six cards of one colour in hand, versus just four and a pair, then 4+2 is often much faster. Going for destinations in all four corners feels dubious. Imagine that you've already got routes into three corners, and you're deciding what to do next. Option 1, draw many cards and build trains on what is already a crowded board, hoping to get into a distant destination. Option 2, draw destination tickets and probably hit a ticket or two that you already have connected, or which requires just one additional connection. Your expected points scored per turn will generally be much better in the second case.

@TheRubySpider 23 күн бұрын

To your point of thinking about points per turn, the 4+2 spends an extra turn placing trains than the 6, and therefore is fewer points per turn, assuming you can acquire the necessary cards.

@cottrelr 24 күн бұрын

I usually use one of 2 strategies, depending on the cards I get: 1) East Coast Strategy: Keep all destinations on the eastern side of the board, and drop those that require you to go further west. Focus on connecting as many cities as possible into a tight network. Complete as many routes as possible, preferably 8 or more. Don't worry about the longest route bonus. 2) Coast-to-Coast Strategy: Make one cross-country connection, preferably along 6-train routes, and focus on overlapping high-value (15+ points each) routes. Don't waste turns pulling new destination cards, and instead just build 5- and 6-train routes when your destination cards are complete. Be sure to get the longest route bonus as well.

@davidchidester5463 24 күн бұрын

Draw more route cards at least twice during the game. Avoid needing to go to Miami. Complete at least one transcontinental route. This guarantees a very high scoring game.

@Petch85 Ай бұрын

This is actually something where I don't analyzing and using too much math. Then it comes to gaming especially competitive gaming everyone is trying to optimize how they play. When a game is new, or it is the first time you play the game this can actually be very fun. As long as you play against other people that also are new to the game. But when all the theory crafting is done and a good meta has been found, I find that it makes that game boring. It reduces the game to follow a list of instructions again and again and again and make only small adjustments. And I just do not find that fun. Some games try to change the game every x month (TFT) witch I just find confusing. Others try to add so many game mechanics that it is impossible to get an overview making the game hard to play as a beginner or making the game incredibly easy when the meta is developed (Path of Exile). Some people love this, but I just find it uninteresting, I like games that encourage me to be creative and experiment with different strategies, not games where I should look up the meta/builds before playing. I have lost interest in many games over the years, because I try to "solve" the games instead of just playing them for fun. I know you can try so solve any game, but some games rewords you more from solving them than others. I try my best not to solve the games I play, and just be creative and experiment. But not trying to reverse engineer the game mechanics. Here are two games that I am currently playing that you could try to solve, but I choose not to, to keep them fun to play. Timberborn (slow city builder, where you can change the landskabe), Against the Storm (fast city builder, what forces you to make many and quick decisions). You can adjust the difficulty in both game from you cannot loss to you probably cannot win. Adjust to you liking. 🙂

@Brad-cb2dt Ай бұрын

If you happen play all of your train cars, it’s at least 45 points. Because of that, think of trains of 1-2 as being worth 0 points… because they do not gain you any additional points. With that logic, trains of 3 are worth 1 point, trains of 4 are worth 3 points, trains of 5 are worth 5 points, and trains of 6 are worth 9 points. This illustrates why trains of 6 are incredibly good to take advantage of. Also, if you already have trains laid down spanning east to west, pulling additional routes can be super advantageous with minimal risk. If it’s not what you’re looking for, pick a small one point value route and draw again. You can cancel out a lot of the points you might lose.

@jacemandt Ай бұрын

Side note: The point inside a triangle that minimizes the total distance to the vertices (the one you mention with 120° angles to those vertices) is called the Fermat Point of the triangle. Its total distance minimality was proven by Fermat.

@kevindegryse9750 Ай бұрын

My strategy is very boring, but effective : draw, draw, draw, draw... And once I'm ready, plan for the best route I can imagine, and build. Calculations instead of adaptation 😝

@Wonderwall627 Ай бұрын

My family always likes to make fun of me because of in this game I usually end say "but I could have won by more!"

@BoardGameXpress Ай бұрын

Other important concepts: 1) Player count The double routes are only used with 4 or 5 players. This means that the board is "tighter" at 3 or 5 players, "looser" at 2 or 4 players. So, completing more (or longer) Destination Tickets is much more difficult in 3- or 5-player. With a little experience, it helps to plan the long-view of your initial Destination cities to see how many of the 45 trains you'll likely need to complete the Destinations you currently have (and thus whether you'll want to draw more Destination Tickets). In 2- or 4-player, you can typically use about 40 of your trains in a productive network, in 3- or 5-er, only about 35. 2) "Shortest path" has to be defined by number of connections in addition to number of trains In the Seattle-Toronto-New Orleans example, drawing a Y-shaped network through Kansas City or St Louis may use fewer trains, but it requires more routes, which means more turns taken up claiming routes. A better way to define "short" in Ticket to Ride is "turns needed" (to both get the Train Cards and to claim the routes) divided into the points earned for those claimed routes (which it turn intersects with the "big routes" concept). So, that Y-shaped network through KC will earn 43 VP in 20.5 turns (12.5 to draw, 8 to claim), whereas a direct path from Seattle to Toronto and then a straight shot down from Toronto to New Orleans will earn 58 VP in 21 turns (14 to draw and 7 to claim). [Phoenix can be incorporated into this network relatively directly via Denver.] 3) Prioritize building on "easy" and "desirable" routes first. "Easy" connections are ones that are shorter and colorless. "Desirable" connections are ones that will be popular with more players based on the distribution of the cities in the Destination deck and/or on the locations where players have already built and are likely to use to expand their network. In the Seattle-Toronto-New Orleans example, if building directly across the top from Seattle to Toronto and then straight down to New Orleans via (Pittsburgh-Raleigh-Atlanta), the set of gray 2-routes are far more important to claim early than the northern 6-routes. This is because they are each extremely easy to block, even if your opponent doesn't particularly need the route. The best way to "claim" a long route early to simply horde the cards of that color. If you spend all your draws on yellow-orange-purple and top deck, it'll be extremely difficult for anyone else to take those three Northern routes from you. And if anyone else IS going after them, you can see them coming a mile away and determine whether it is worth spending wild cards to beat them out.

@clayton97330 Ай бұрын

What about strategies to force your opponents into longer routes?

@Willgo373 Ай бұрын

@@clayton97330 Look at what colors your opponents are drawing and where they’re likely to build. You likely won’t be able to block their long route of that color, but if you see them grab a lot of green and they already have LA-El Paso, they’re probably trying to do El Paso-Houston. So playing Houston-New Orleans might block them. Although I don’t really recommend blocking an opponent unless it’s because you also need the route or it’s near the end game and you won’t be able to complete any additional routes yourself. Even in the above scenario, it’s entirely possible they were grabbing green for LA-San Francisco so if you wasted cards attempting to block them, now you just blocked yourself. So I’d only take that route if I also needed Houston/New Orleans.

@robertAGC Ай бұрын

I’ve always done strat 1. It usually works.

@rcorey4344 Ай бұрын

Going to use this to win the game tonight!

@saveversus Ай бұрын

I don't do this at all. I build in the east as much as I can, then collect tickets as either I've already established connections, or I'm a short trip away.

@MrConverse Ай бұрын

3:39, *120° angles. Hope it helps. Good video. Happy Santa Season!

@mariataylor1052 Ай бұрын

I am just about to play ticket to ride, thanks!

@morphles Ай бұрын

I mostly play europe, and its a bit more lenient with stations. One thing your analysis does not reflect is that depending on opponents builds, you might need to severely rush to take some routes or you are mega screwed if say your 'H' center line is blocked. How I play is actually kinda counter to what is mentioned, in that near the end I often gamble, provided your connected network is decent, often times you need just one or potentially none new builds. (again europes stations help there, and sometimes you screw yourself, but imo generally it is quite good, provided you have "wide network" and not just limited to one side). But IMO one of the most important things is - try to get additional routes quite soon to the start of the game, so that you can optimize your connections in this or some other way. Since often people do not take routes until they have some completed, and by that time your optimization options are way limited.

@MathTheWorld Ай бұрын

Thank you for your comments. Yes, it is hard to take into account the opponent builds in such an analysis. That is still a big part of the game. I have done what you suggest (pulling destination cards near the end) for the same reasoning you have listed. I thought this was pretty standard. The suggestion about building a long train instead is one I have used when I don't feel my web is very extensive, or if I feel like I a safe move gives me a better chance for the win. Thanks again for commenting!

@Bigbacon Ай бұрын

Assuming your card luck is good.

@TheHellis Ай бұрын

Once you get a lot pf connections from east to west dont be affraid to pick up more destinations. Sometimes just a few cars can give you 10-15 or even 20 points. Also, unless you need to do something on the last turn, use that turn to pick up another destination. It's a gamble but if you have played on it well most of the times you get free points there.