Ticket to Ride Marklin & Germany - A Tale of Route Cards

#boardgames #tabletopgaming #tickettoride
Hey Everyone! After my long awaited hiatus I return to talk about Ticket to Ride Marklin and Germany. I go over both the mechanics and my analysis of the game. This was the most difficult video I've made by far, so I'm hoping you all enjoy it. Let me know what y'all think about the games in the comments :)
Link to APSP Matrix: docs.google.co...
Twitch: / icaruspanda
Twitter: / icaruspanda
instagram: / icaruspanda

[@alepsky]

Great work! I hope you'll get more credit (more views) for your effort.

[@icaruspandas]

thank you so much that means a lot :)

[@jamessherman7797]

Thanks for your video quality and graphics. Enjoyed the comparison! Hate to say it, but Rails and Sails is my favorite of the TTR games I’ve played. I’ve only played Germany once, but got to get back to yet, especially since I love games with Meeples, like Carcassonne.

[@icaruspandas]

Carcassonne is really undderrated in my opinion. Yeah, Rails and Sails actually my family's favorite too, so I'm forced to play it more than I'd like haha. Can't wait to make that video. Thanks for watching and for the kind words :)

[@SalamiAttack_]

Another big banger alert 🚨 LFG!!! We byke bayyybeeeee

[@PJAGB156]

Great video, ive only played the app version so I dont know anything about the passenger mechanics but when playing i always gravitated to long routes but couldnt really put my finger on why i didnt like the short routes, but i realise now its like you say because the long routes have to go across the length of the board they have similar start and end points so its just far easier to get good route synergy with long routes, I think seperating the long and short routes might have worked better on a board without countries, I love europes long route mechanic but i could see having seperate long and short route piles working really well because the board is quite well balanced vertically and horizontally whereas alot of the maps like america, germany, nordic and italy all have their biggest routes going in the same direction

[@icaruspandas]

Thank you!! Yes, this is a great analysis! That's one of the reasons I gravitate away from Germany online, playing the game without passengers seems to make short routes very weak. I also agree with your Europe take, I think Europe's board is actually very well balanced, and I love the route distribution in that game. Thanks for watching :)

[@VELI-Productions]

Another banger 👌

[@icaruspandas]

Thank you brother 😌

[@draheim90]

Thanks to TTR Legacy I recently got into the TTR system after initially dismissing it as a filthy casual luckfest. Been looking into vids and reviews of the various versions/maps to help inform purchasing decisions and it is surprisingly difficult to find quality content despite the game’s popularity and quantity of vids out there. Anyways, your in-depth videos dissecting the maps are fantastic with great insights. Keep it up! Oh and btw would you consider adding a playlist for these TTR vids? It was tougher to find a few of em for some reason.

[@icaruspandas]

Thank you so much that means a lot, comments like this keep me going :) Here is a playlist I just made for the Ticket Videos. Some are definetely higher quality than others haha, I kinda learned video editing through these. kzbin.info/aero/PL75mGL7mScl2585y7JWJbzhL3MXzKZNwC&si=Zs6aZ0j347lmQRsn

[@TBirdASDF]

Next time we have a game day I want to try either of these. The passenger mechanic seems really interesting. Also each one of these videos makes me regret purchasing base set Ticket haha

[@icaruspandas]

The base game is still pretty solid, just has some annoying quirks after being played hundreds of times. We gotta get together soon! New final quests just dropped!

[@TBirdASDF]

​@@icaruspandaswas just thinking about final quests the other day! Legit was wondering whatever happened to it and if you were still working on it

[@icaruspandas]

@@TBirdASDF made an entirely new game, same characters, video on it within the next few months. Just finished the prototype and actually looking for players to play for the video of you're interested!

[@Littlepiemaster]

Damn, he doesn’t miss

[@icaruspandas]

🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡 thank you king

[@icaruspandas]

Or queen or majesty

[@MKFusionProject]

Great review. Just two things: 1- You mentioned using Germany's destinstion tickets on Märklín, but what about using Märklin train cards on Germany? Do you think it would make Germany better? Minus the passenger cards of course. Part of me tells me that the deck is designed for these maps, but it was changed in Germany to make that set work as a base game for Map expansions. 2- Is the short route strat even a thing? Are you going exclusively for short route cards with this strat? I think for the short route strat to work, you should still start the game with at least 1 long route, and then you can spam short tickets which probably take part of that long route. Going full short routes from the start doesn't seem like the best strat.

[@icaruspandas]

Hmmm.... Using Marklin Route Cards in Germany could be interesting, espeically since passengers score so big there having a lower emphasis on the routes could create a cool dynamic. I overall found the German Tickets to just be a bit more balanced / fleshed out though, so I'm not entirely sure how it would stack up. You're absolutely correct. Going full short routes from the start isn't a great strategy, but I really wanted to make work because I wanted the decks to be "equally balanced". I thought being able to pick your length of route was a pretty interesting feature of this game, since in America getting stuck on the East Coast usually spells doom for the player. I had hoped that you'd be able to spam short routes and make up the rest of the points through passengers. You can actually kinda do this, I've had quite a few games going exclusively short routes where I've almost taken the win. Honestly though, that was more to prove a point and looking back at it, wasn't wholistically fair to the game. This is kinda what I was trying to get at around 23:20, going for this strat the whole was kinda silly. Your idea to me seems like the main way to play the game, taking long routes at the start and then seeing how the game progresses from there. Thanks for watching! :)

[@MKFusionProject]

@@icaruspandas Thanks for replying. However I meant using Märklin *colored train cards* deck on Germany, or in other words, use the deck that has the +4 locomotives, not using the Märklín destination tickets/routes. I think this deck is the one meant for the maps, but was simplified in Germany to make it work as a base game. What do you think about using those cards in Germany?

[@icaruspandas]

@@MKFusionProject ohhhhh my bad sorry I misread that. It would definitely be interesting to see how it played out, but off the top of my head I think it might be a good thing they are removed in Germany. In Germany more routes are randomly taken just to pick up the passengers. Being able to take long routes more easily could push that type of play into overdrive which could be a bit insane. That being said it could also be really fun, definitely something to try out!

[@MKFusionProject]

@@icaruspandas let me know how it went when you test it!

[@marcanthonyrodriguez6204]

Zuggum Zug, Bruv 🎉

[@icaruspandas]

Kicked it into high gear