Ticket to Ride : The Wild West

By Darrick B. Hom
2009

Background
Strap on your six-shooter and go west, young man! Welcome to the Wild West, where
fortunes are made and lost each and every day. Stake your claim in the big cities of San
Francisco and Los Angeles. View breathtaking scenery in Monterey, Yosemite, and Lake
Tahoe. Be careful not to lose your shirt in Reno and Las Vegas. Discover obscure locations
such as Gerlach and Niland. Don’t get stranded in the middle of the desert in Austin and
Needles. Even travel a portion of the famous Route 66 (Kingman, Barstow, San Bernandino).
So hop on board, the train is about to leave!

Assembly
The board is cut into twelve pieces, each measuring approximately 8” by 10”. When
assembled, the board should be 30” by 32”. There are eight sheets of tickets, with nine
tickets per sheet. A ninth sheet included represents the ticket backs. Print the tickets out and
cut them up.

Track Layout
The initial board layout was based on actual railroad routes. Once those were placed, paths
based on actual roads were used to fill in the gaps. Finally, some creative license was used to
solve some remaining logistical issues with the board. All cities are placed where they are
supposed to be, with three exceptions. Due to train lengths, Oakland and Battle Mountain are
a little further east than they should be, and South Lake Tahoe is a little southwest of its
actual location.

Game Rules
The base rules for the original Ticket To Ride apply to this variation. For two-to-three
players, double routes are not permitted (single routes only). For four-to-five players, double
routes are in play.

Since the routes are based on actual layout and terrain, you may find it difficult getting across
the game board (see Notes and Tactics below). You may want to add the Ticket To Ride
Europe variation of station building to the rules to make the game easier.

Tickets
There are 57 standard tickets for this variation with each city used at least once. I have
included six long route tickets (colored blue) for those who wish to use the Ticket To Ride
Europe variation. I have also included nine “crossing the border” tickets for those who wish
to use the Ticket To Ride Switzerland variation. That’s a total of 72 tickets! Use the ones
you want or all of them if you dare.

Notes and Tactics

The primary routes on the game board are San Francisco-Wells (Interstate 80), Los Angeles-
Las Vegas (Interstate 15) and Mount Shasta-Niland (Interstate 5). The Mount Shasta-Niland
route is of most importance as it divides the California coastline from the Nevada desert.
Securing routes along this corridor will allow you to travel across the board more easily.
There is also a trap city in this game. A number of tickets have this city as a destination, but
the number of paths to the destination is limited. If you are not using the Ticket To Ride
Europe variation of station building, then you could easily get caught with a path you cannot
complete. You have been warned.

Acknowledgments
Thanks to Alan R. Moon, for creating such a wonderful game.
Thanks to David Millard, whose United Kingdom board inspired me to create my own board.
Thanks to Ken Meyers, who supplied some of the graphics used in the board and tickets.

Any comments please post on the geek:

http://boardgamegeek.com/game/9209

Or email me at:
seismicity@hotmail.com

I hope you enjoy this variation of Ticket To Ride!

Thanks,
Darrick