Our (homeschool) family LOVES this game! We play it a few times a week. With 2 people playing, it takes around 35-45 minutes. With more people, add more time--when we play with 5 people, it takes about 90 minutes. (Our first time playing each side took about 2 - 2.5 hours--but now we know where each destination is and normally play takes around a hour for 4 people). Our children play this version (Rails and Sails) with no problems--they are only 7 and 9 years old...our 5 year old needs our assistance yet. (However they play alot of critical/strategic/logic type of games). Our children prefer ' The World' side of the board, as routes loop around to the east and west; and the 'route' cards seem to be of higher point value, so they can really score massive points on this side. The high score is 466 points, which our 9 year old scored! On 'The Great Lakes' side, the high score is only 172 points--scored by mom. With that being stated, I wish the scoring pawns were cube shaped, with a zero on one side (for 0-99 point value, then a 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 on other sides for keeping higher scores much easier (I made one with a die, see pic). We regularly score over 200 points with "The World" version. As with the pawns that came with the game, I wrote "@ 100" (representing 100-199 points) on one side of the pawn and simply flip it over when needed. The nice challenging aspect to this version is the rails (trains) AND sails (ships). It gives you more options for playing routes. In these versions, you can only play one section of your route at a time (each turn), which I like because other players can't hoard all the cards and then suddenly go down and claim an ENTIRE route all in one go, taking your route more easily...However, in these versions, with 2-3 players playing, all double routes are consided single routes only (the double route is obsolete). Double routes can only be used as 'double routes' in 4-5 player games. That rule makes it quite challenging sometimes and you may end up needing to reroute (sometimes multiple times) to complete your route(s). A negative for me is that only up to 5 people can play; I wish 6 could, as we are a family of 6; or three couples could play together. I understand why though--it's to hard to get your route(s) with more people playing. The board is HUGE, it measures 21" x 38 1/8". The box measures 11 5/8" x 11 5/8" x 4" and weighs 4.6 #s. The game does have around some 730 pieces/(regular sized) cards, so take caution with little ones getting into it. (The train and ship pieces are of lighter weight than the 'USA' version, but we have not had an issue with it). When our game first arrived, I took some time to organize everything into labeled baggies...it makes clean up and set up a breeze (see pics); I got the idea from the 'USA' & 'Europe' versions we rented from our local library. Personally, I think that playing the 'USA' version first is unnessisary. The rules for these versions are written nicely and if needed, you could always watch a YouTube video on how to play the game to help understand it better and more quickly. (We also enjoy the 'Rails & Sails' version better than the 'U.S.A.' and 'Europe' versions--it seems to be a bit more challenging). All in all, this version (Rails & Sails) of 'Ticket To Ride' is one of our top 3 go-to family games we play, along with 'Carcassonne' and 'Settlers of Catan'. It's an expensive game, but it's of high quality and like 2 games in 1. (A deciding factor for me to purchase was that on ' The Great Lakes' side, we live very close to the 'Wausau' route--which we all thought was cool; and my children recognize all the other nearby routes, as they've been to them!). However, the price has gone up $15 from when I purchased it a month ago (February 2018) for $65. Update (May 2018): FYI: As we play ALOT, the game board edges were starting to peel from unfolding/folding the game board with each game of play. I taped all the edges with some scotch tape to help keep it nice; the tape has also helped with keeping the large game board more flat. Update (September 2018): New high scores: +537 points on "The World" side; +205 points on "The Great Lakes" side. (Both scores by former 9 year old who's now 10). So yes, a better scoring pawn would be nice.
