iheart Presents: Ticket to Ride: Centuries

Journey, if you will with me, through time and space...

The UK, through the eras 

"The parlors of London are abuzz with talk of time machines, the end of the world, and flowers from a distant future. Moving through time as one moves through space sounds novel, even sounds fun, but you can think of more mercenary uses for this fabled technology than witnessing humanity’s decline and having a front-row seat for the sun’s dissipation. The times may change, but people don’t. And where there are people, there will be items they just can’t live without. Using Time Gates to travel through the Modern Era (1895), the Technological Era (1995), and the Tranquil Era (2095), and trains to traverse the British Isles, you will give the people what they want - and make a hefty profit while you’re at it. But will your delivery service be efficient enough to beat out your competitors? Find out in Ticket to Ride: Centuries!"
     --Excerpt from the Ticket to Ride: Centuries rule book

What is Ticket to Ride: Centuries?
It's a player-designed map expansion for the popular board game, Ticket to Ride and is conceptually based upon H.G. Wells' time travel tale written in 1898, The Time Machine. Ticket to Ride: Centuries was created by futurewolfie and Farmer Lenny (founders of the board game blog iSlaytheDragon) in 2011 as a submission for the Days of Wonder $10,000 Map Design Challenge. While they didn't win, they did successfully craft a beautiful expansion that builds upon the original game with familiar mechanics, like open-ended tickets, and introduces a fresh and interesting new game mechanic, Time Gates.

Unfamiliar with the Ticket to Ride franchise?
Where have you been?! Revolving around competing with your friends to build the biggest and best train routes across various lands, Ticket to Ride is great for gamers of all ages and skill level. To learn more about Ticket to Ride, click the button below.

My Take
Centuries is a sharp-looking and professionally-designed print and play game. The work on both the board and the cards is absolutely stunning - I was simply blown away by the quality. The board is clean and maximizes its limited space well. The cards are also well-crafted with clear references for the route's endpoints.

Just 1 of the 68 unique Destination Ticket cards

Ridiculously good looks aside, the game is incredibly fun and unique. Trying to bottle the essence of time travel in a game can be quite tricky, but I think that futurewolfie and Farmer Lenny have managed to capture it well. While you might think that trying to track whether your route connects across the eras might be a bit challenging, I found it relatively easy to do so. Since the cities are replicated across the 3 different eras, there are less cities to keep track of compared to other Ticket to Ride games. If you enjoy Ticket to Ride and are looking for a new map to challenge you and your friends, Centuries is definitely worth a look. All aboard!

Necessary Materials

• Standard printer paper (Letter size or equivalent: 8.5" x 11")
• A copy of Ticket to Ride or Ticket to Ride: Europe. You will need train cards and colored train tokens for each player.
• Don't own Ticket to Ride? A cheaper way to get the necessary train cards is to pick up a copy of the Ticket to Ride card expansion, USA 1910. You'll still need to find some small bits to represent train tokens on the game board, but you'll have all the train cards that you need.

Important Links

	Download Ticket to Ride: Centuries Rules
	Download Ticket to Ride: Centuries Game Board
	Download Ticket to Ride: Centuries Cards
	Download Ticket to Ride: Centuries Time Gates

Ticket to Ride: Centuries is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-
Non Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.