The Long Route Plan in Ticket to Ride

Most of this course has been about tickets: choosing them, connecting them, drawing more. There is another way to win. Some strong players treat tickets as a side dish and build their score from the route table instead. This lesson explains when that works, what it costs, and how to beat it when someone else tries it.

The math behind it

The route table rewards length steeply:

Your 45 trains are the one resource that never comes back. Spend them on 2-train routes and they earn about 1 point each. Spend them on 6-train routes and they earn 2.5.

Put rough numbers on two whole games. A railroad of fifteen 3-train routes uses all 45 trains for 60 route points. A railroad of four 6s, three 5s, and a 4 uses 43 trains for 97 route points. That 37-point gap is what a ticket plan has to make up with completed tickets and the longest path bonus.

The ticket value lesson showed tickets pay about one extra point per train on their path. So a ticket plan wins when it completes a lot of overlapping tickets and loses when it leaves even one big ticket unfinished.

The long routes on the USA map

The USA board has only 9 routes of 6 trains: Seattle to Helena, Portland to Salt Lake City, Los Angeles to El Paso, Calgary to Winnipeg, Helena to Duluth, Winnipeg to Sault Ste. Marie, Duluth to Toronto, El Paso to Houston, and New Orleans to Miami. Most run across the West, the North, or the Gulf Coast. Add the 10 routes of 5 trains and that is the whole list of high-efficiency claims.

None of the 6-train routes is a double route, so each one can be claimed exactly once a game.

How the plan runs

Keep few tickets. Two at the start, ideally ones whose paths use long routes. Edge tickets, such as Seattle to Los Angeles or Calgary to Phoenix, work better than ones through the crowded middle.

Draw toward the colors of the long routes you want. The odds lesson showed that collecting a 6-route in one color is slow by blind draws alone, so the face-up row and locomotives matter more than usual. Gray 6, the Winnipeg to Sault Ste. Marie route, is the easiest to fill.

Claim in bursts. Build a big hand, then claim long routes on back-to-back turns. Every 6-route takes 6 trains off your supply at once.

End the game early. This is the real weapon. A player spending trains 5 and 6 at a time runs out much sooner than a player claiming 2s. When you trigger the end, your rivals get one turn. Anyone still building toward a ticket loses its value.

Never draw late tickets. The whole plan depends on having no unfinished goals when the end comes.

When it works

• At 2 and 3 players, when the long routes are less contested and rivals are spread out.
• When your starting tickets are weak or scattered and no good overlap exists.
• When rivals are slow, drawing tickets mid-game or building many short routes.
• When the colors line up, for example when your starting hand and the face-up row both favor the color of a nearby long route.

When it fails

• At 5 players, when someone else is collecting for the same long routes. There are only 9 sixes, and losing two of them breaks the plan.
• Against a fast ticket player whose tickets overlap well, since they finish on time and take the longest path bonus too.
• When you scatter. Long routes far apart score well but earn no bonus and finish no tickets. Where you can, link them into one line.

How to stop it

You will face this plan more often than you choose it. Signs: a rival keeps a huge hand, takes only a few colors, claims a 5 or 6 every time, and never draws tickets.

• Watch their train count from the first long claim. Assume the game will end sooner than usual.
• Finish your tickets earlier. Claim the routes your tickets need before the long, safe ones.
• Skip late ticket draws. They are exactly what this plan punishes.
• Take a long route they need if it is also on your path. Each 6 they lose costs them most of a turn’s worth of planning.
• Claim your own long routes. Every 6 you claim is one they cannot.

A mixed plan is usually best

Pure plans are rare at strong tables. Most winning games blend both: a few overlapping tickets on a spine that uses long routes where it can. The question to ask each turn is the one from the strategy guide: is it time to build, or time to draw? This lesson adds a third: am I the one who should end this game?