Each player has secret cards that tell them two locations they need to connect with continuous train routes they've claimed.
When you get enough cards of the right colors, you use them to claim a train route on the board. That gives players more strategic levers to work in their attempts to win. Instead of buying these cards, though, you get to just take them: you can either take face-up ones from a small selection, or take a chance and pick random ones off the top of the deck. Like Monopoly, it revolves around collecting sets of colored cards and trying to control parts of the board. Ticket to Ride has been a big seller for both family and hobby play. Here's another one you might have heard of, and that deserves its reputation. What's that flower shop on the corner worth to you compared to your fellow players, and what's the most ruthless way to leverage the difference? If someone has a space you really want, what kind of offer can you make? Could you swap with a third player to get what you really need? Making the shrewdest deals will carve you out a victory. There are no rules governing what you can trade, only your own sharp wits and calculations.
Players will be swapping cash, vacant lots and types of shops to try and make the most money over several rounds. But the vacant lots you own won't always match up with the businesses you want to run, so you'll have to strike deals with other players.Ĭue the heart of the game: trading where anything goes. As traders, your goal is to build a network of profitable shops on the grid-like board. It’s a little more involved than the other suggestions on the list when it comes to strategy because it's so open, but it's actually a surprisingly simple game to play. If that’s you, then Chinatown should prove a treat, because it's nothing but negotiations. If you like the sound of this, Sushi Go Party is the same game with dozens of variations of the sets to swap in and out so you can mix it up more.įor many, negotiating over property is one of the most fun parts of Monopoly. It cranks up the tension as you wait to see what cards remain when they come back to you again. It's a super-quick game of memory and bluffing as you try and build a high scoring set while denying important cards to other players. Maki, meanwhile, scores depending on how many you have compared to other players. Wasabi can multiply the score of a card placed on top of it! It's about risk and reward – each time you take one card, you're hoping that more to match it will come around… but should you try to collect the sets worth the most points, because won't everyone else want those ones too, meaning no one gets to actually make a set? No, better to go for something low point and safe… except will that mean someone else actually does get the high-scoring set and beat? Maybe you should take the first one… Tempura and Sashimi, for instance, score in sets of two or three only. Your aim is to collect matching sets of cute sushi cards, with different sets scoring in different ways. Then you do it again, and again, with fewer cards to choose from each time, until the hands are empty. This means everyone is dealt a hand of cards, and from those you pick one to keep, and pass the rest to the adjacent player, with another player passing you their hand. But instead of auctions or purchases, it has a neat twist: you draft them. Like Monopoly, Sushi Go is a game where collecting sets of matching cards yields you growing rewards the more you get.