Ticket to Ride Map Collection 3: The Heart of Africa
Ticket to Ride Map Collection 3: The Heart of Africa Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Heart of Africa Map is designed specifically for 2 to 5 players. In 4 and 5 Player games, players can use both tracks of the double-routes. In 2 and 3 Player games, once one of the tracks of a double-route is taken, the other one is no longer available.
This game is an expansion and requires that you use the following game parts from one of the previous versions of Ticket to Ride:
- A reserve of 45 Trains per player and matching Scoring Markers taken from any of the following:
- Ticket to Ride / Ticket to Ride Europe
- 110 Train Car Cards taken from:
- Ticket to Ride / Ticket to Ride Europe / USA 1910 expansion
Destination Tickets
This expansion includes 48 Destination Tickets.
At the start of the game, each player is dealt 4 Destination Tickets, of which he must keep at least 2. During the game, if a player wishes to draw additional Destination Tickets, he draws 4 new Tickets, of which he must keep at least 1.
Destination Tickets not kept, either at game's start or following a draw of new Destination Tickets in mid-game, are discarded to the bottom of Destination Tickets deck, as in a regular Ticket to Ride game.
Terrain Cards
This expansion also introduces 45 new Terrain Cards, divided into 3 different Terrain Types, with 15 identical cards in each set. Each Terrain Type is associated with 3 different Route colors:
- Desert & Savanna cards: Yellow, Orange & Red Routes
- Jungle & Forest cards: Purple, Blue & Green Routes
- Mountain & Cliff cards: White, Grey & Black Routes
At the start of the game, each player receives 1 random Terrain card, in addition to his 4 Destination Tickets and 4 Train Car cards. Another 2 Terrain cards are placed face up, within easy access to the players; the remaining cards form a Terrain deck placed face down next to these two.
Drawing Cards
During the game, anytime a player is allowed to draw a Train Car card, he may choose to draw a Terrain card instead. So when Drawing cards for his turn, a player may draw 2 Train Car cards; or draw 2 Terrain cards; or draw 1 Train Car card and 1 Terrain card. The standard Ticket to Ride rule regarding the picking of Locomotives face up still applies: if a player chooses to pick a Locomotive face up, he may pick no other card this turn.
Terrain cards picked face up are immediately replaced with new ones drawn from the deck, just like with Train Car cards. A player may also choose to draw Terrain cards blindly from the top of the deck.
Unlike Train Car cards, when drawn, Terrain cards are placed face up in front of the player, sorted by Terrain type and slightly offset from each other, to make it clear to others how many Terrain cards of each type each player has.
Claiming Routes
When Claiming a Route, in addition to playing Train car cards a player may also simultaneously play some of the Terrain cards in front of him to double the points value of the Route he's claiming.
- The Terrain card(s) played must match the color of the Route claimed AND
- The player must have in front of him at least as many cards of that Terrain type as any other player.
The number of Terrain card(s) that must be played to double the Route value depends on the length of the Route claimed:
- 1, 2 and 3 space routes: 1 Terrain card of matching color
- 4, 5 and 6 space routes: 2 Terrain cards of matching color
The number of plastic trains placed on the Route claimed remains the same as when its Points value isn't doubled. Terrain Cards are discarded when played; and the discards reshuffled into a new Terrain deck when the deck runs out.
Terrain cards in front of players at game end are worth nothing.
Using Locomotives as Wild Terrain cards
During his turn only, a player may opt to use some of his Locomotives as Wild Terrain cards instead of Wild Train cards. Each Locomotive played this way is worth 1 Terrain card of the player's choice.
All locomotives played as Wild Terrain cards must be discarded. They go on the Train discard pile.
Example (illustration caption): Cape Town - Port Elizabeth. John is short 1 Mountain card to tie his opponent and double his score when claiming the Cape Town - Port Elizabeth Coastal Route. He plays 1 Locomotive from his hand; when added to his 1 Mountain card, this lets him tie his opponent's 2 Mountain cards. John scores 4x2=8 points when laying his 3 trains on the route. John discards his Locomotive.
Madagascar; Other Countries
Madagascar is represented by 2 locations on the map; Tickets to Madagascar can be completed by reaching either of these 2 locations, even if the other location isn't reached.
Multiple routes leading to all other countries are dead-ends and cannot be used to connect cities linked to these separate routes. In other words, separate routes leading into a same country are not connected with each other.
End Game Bonus
A 10 point Globetrotter bonus is awarded to the player(s) who completed the most Tickets by game's end. If several players are tied for that bonus, they both score it. Tickets that were not completed have no effect for the purpose of determining which player(s) gain this bonus.
Game Play Hints
- In 5 player games, the Heart of Africa (center of the map) area can get crowded very quickly. Players beware! - and if you like your games to be less competitive, stick with 4 players or less.
- Some players like to add up the points for the routes they claim at game end, rather than each time a route is claimed. Because the score for some routes may be double the normal, waiting till the end to compute Routes points doesn't work in the Heart of Africa. If you are likely to forget to immediately score some of the routes you claim, we recommend designating a player as the score keeper; have him move all the Score Markers throughout the entire game, or at least prompt the other players to do so when they forget.