Here is why Ticket to Ride cracked my top 5.

Ticket to Ride is very simple, very easy to learn, yet full of strategy and obstacles on every turn.

Ticket To Ride Box

Players collect cards of various types of train cars they then use to claim railway routes in North America.  If you have enough cars of the same color, you can make the corresponding connection.  The longer the routes, the more points you earn (it’s even printed on the game board so there is nothing to remember). Additional points come to those who fulfill Destination Tickets, goal cards that connect distant cities, and to the player who builds the longest continuous route.

That really is as simple as it gets.  You start the game with 3 destination tickets.  Throughout the game, you can draw more train tickets from the five face up or randomly from the face down pile.  Alternately, you can draw more destination tickets.  You do get points for destinations that you finish, but you will lose points for destinations that you don’t.

Some cities only have one way to connect them.  If you need to make that connection but someone else beats you to it, you are out of luck.

It really is a simple, quick, fun game.  I highly recommend it to gamers of all ages and skill levels.