When we opened the Nordic Countries edition of Ticket to Ride, we placed it at what we now call the Reykjavik table — the round one in the back corner with the map of Iceland on the wall above it. The first group to sit down looked at the board, looked at each other, and began fighting over the Narvik route within three minutes. Some things are universal.
How to Play
Ticket to Ride is a route-building game for two to five players. Players collect coloured train cards and spend sets of matching cards to claim routes between cities on a map. Each claimed route scores points immediately based on its length — longer routes are worth exponentially more. At the start of the game each player draws destination ticket cards showing two cities; completing the route between them earns bonus points, but failing to complete it costs the same amount. Additional tickets can be drawn during the game. The Nordic Countries edition adds tunnel routes — special segments where you must play matching cards plus any cards revealed from the deck, meaning tunnels cost an unpredictable number of cards — and ferry routes requiring locomotive wild cards. The map covers Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, with dense northern connections that create brutal competition.
Our Experience
The first Reykjavik table game ran four hours. Two players both needed the Stockholm-to-Oslo route and neither would concede it — they spent forty minutes drawing cards and waiting, each hoping the other would run out of patience first. A third player quietly claimed six long routes across Finland and won by eleven points while the Stockholm standoff consumed everyone else's attention. The loser of the standoff — who had been so certain he could outlast his rival — sat in silence for a full minute, then said 'well, that was magnificent' and ordered another coffee. That is the Reykjavik table experience.