Ticket to Ride The Heart of Africa Board Game EXPANSION - Train Route Strategy Game, Fun Family Game for Kids & Adults, Ages 8+, 2-5 Players, 30-60 Minute Playtime, Made by Days of Wonder

I love this series of games -- Ticket to Ride. I also have the US version and the Europe version You need one of these to play the African game because you need those game pieces. These are such fun games -- once you understand the rules! We actually modify the rules a bit to make it a little less complicated. Lots of fun and laughs.

We've been playing a lot of TTR lately, so I decided to buy all of the map collections. This on is another great addition that works very well with two players.The Heart of Afria adds terrain cards. You get one terrain card with your for train cards at the beginning of the game, then you can pick them just like you would pick a train card (so you could pick two train cards, two terrain cards, or one of each on your turn). You can spend one matching terrain card to double the points for a route of the same color that is 1-3 long, and two terrain cards to double the points for a route that is 4-6 long. After a few plays it appears there are multiple ways to win (focusing on doubling route points, focusing on tickets, etc.). We were very happy to see this as it is possible that circumstances might be such that you will not be able to double the value of a route every time you want to.Otherwise, it has the same luck and more strategy components than TTR USA. In fact, we rarely play the USA map these days... mostly play this one, India and Switzerland, and are looking forward to giving Asia a try.

I have MANY versions of this game, and this is the best and most played

First off, this is an expansion. You need to have Ticket to Ride US or Europe in order to play this one. Since you are already familiar with those games then this one is pretty much the same. Like all expansion they try to add a little more depth to the game. This one brings with it terrain cards. Similar to the train cards you can pick up you can instead grab a terrain card. These can be used to double the points of a route. It adds more strategy to the game. If you prefer the typical game, the terrain cards can be left in the box.The other issue we had playing are with the routes. The colors of them seem to dominate certain sections of the board. Which means at times you are just looking for a bunch of one color and it can take quite a long time to get that color. If they'd spread the colors out more like previous versions it would ease that card drawing frustation.

My son is a great fan of Ticket to Ride, so we often play together. It's at exactly the right level of gameplay for friendly family entertainment. We like this expansion, but it's not our favorite. The Asian expansion is a better deal. But if you have that, and you're looking for another interesting map, this is a nice addition. It features Sub-Saharan Africa and there are limited routes through the center of the map, so it can be more competitive for a multi-player game. My son and I play it with just the two of us, and we don't usually run into problems with that. It's a good map for a friendly 2-3 player game.The description in the catalog doesn't explain terrain cards very well, but they're actually pretty simple to understand when you read the rules. Basically, if you have enough for a particular route, they enable you to double the score you earn for claiming a route. The terrain cards add another level of choice and strategy which help keeps the game fresh and interesting, but they also enable you to run up the scores if there's a disparity among the players. That unbalances the game unless you're all similar in ability. It also means the 100 point scoring track isn't really long enough, so you have to keep track if you've lapped another another player. You don't need to use the terrain cards, so you can tailor the game to the people playing it, which is a plus.The physical components are beautiful and high quality. We enjoy the map and are learning some African geography too :) I would have preferred if the entire continent was on the map the way it is with the Asian expansion though.In short, this is a nice addition to the game, particularly if you're looking for something to freshen the game because you've played it a lot, but I recommend the Asian expansion before this one.

This is a great board game! It is legit and so much fun to play!

We bought our first Ticket to Ride game for Chrismtas 2011. Since then, we have ordered ALL of the games and additions. My grandson and husband love playing them. The games are made to last..........all of the pieces are sturdy and sealed in zip lock bags for storage. The colors are bright . The cards are thick and coated........not flimsy to split. The games cost a little more than the average games but they are worth every penny. Where else can you learn geography and stratagy and have so much fun? The games last a maximum of 1 hr. Each game has something different to give them a "twist". The box isn't huge - the boards fold twice. A couple of the games have a separate game on each side........so you get 2 games for the price of one and it makes storing them easy. They are planning a Ticket to Ride marathon during spring break. Our grandson was 9 when we started with the first. He has learned so much about world geography. Nana and Papa highly recommend them!!!Amazon makes it easy to order and since joined Amazon Prime...........free shipping. They always arrive ahead of schedule.

We love the original Ticket to Ride and bought this as another option to change it up a little bit here and there. This one is a lot of fun and the terrain cards add another challenging dimension!*Note: This is actually an EXPANSION, and not a stand-alone game. You do need the colored train cards, trains and score markers from the original Ticket to Ride to play.