How to Play

Ticket to Ride: Märklin

2-5 players 30-60 min 7.4 Board Game Geek Rating

In this German railway-themed strategy game, players build train routes between cities and countries while managing passenger tokens to collect valuable merchandise. The key mechanic involves placing passengers in cities you connect to, then moving them along your rail network to gather diminishing-value tokens. Victory comes through completing destination routes, with bonus points for most tickets fulfilled.

Published 2006

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Place board and tile

Put the board and the Most Completed Tickets tile on the table

Distribute player components

Give each player 45 train cars and 3 passengers of one color and put the matching score marker by the start of the score track

Stack merchandise tokens on cities

On each city in Germany, stack tokens shown by the color of the city's dot, highest numbers on top:

Prepare train cards

Shuffle the train cards, deal each player 4 facedown, deal 5 face-up in a row by the board, and stack the rest facedown by the row

Note deck composition

The deck has 11 each of 8 colors, 14 plain locomotives, 6 "+4" locomotives, and 10 passenger cards

Prepare destination tickets

Shuffle the short destination tickets (blue background) and stack facedown by board; shuffle the long destination tickets (brown background) and stack facedown by board

Draw initial destination tickets

Each player announces a combination of 4 short and long destination tickets and draws them

Keep destination tickets

Each player keeps 2-4 destination tickets and returns others; shuffle returned tickets into their respective decks

Determine first player

The player with the best collection of Märklin trains or the youngest player starts

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Choose one action

On each turn, perform exactly one action: draw train cards, claim a route, draw destination ticket cards, or move a passenger

Mandatory action

You must perform an action; if there are no train cards to draw, you must perform a different action

Select cards

Draw 1 face-up plain locomotive OR draw 2 cards (neither of which is a face-up plain locomotive)

Draw sources

You may draw from the top of the train deck or take a face-up train card and replace it from the deck

Sequential selection

You may see the new face-up card before deciding where to take your second card from

Locomotive refresh

If at any time 3 of the 5 face-up cards are plain locomotives, discard all 5 and deal 5 new cards

Passenger card refresh

If at any time 3 of the 5 face-up cards are passenger cards, discard all 5 and deal 5 new cards

Reshuffle when exhausted

When the deck is exhausted, shuffle the discards thoroughly

Play matching cards

Play a set of train cards matching the color and length (one card per space) of an empty route

Gray routes

For a gray route, use any 1 color

Plain locomotives

You may play any number of plain locomotives in lieu of the same number of cards of the color

+4 locomotives

On a route of 4 or more spaces, you may play "+4" locomotives in lieu of the same number of cards of the color

Double/triple routes

In a double or triple route, claim any individual route; no player may have two routes in a double or triple

2-3 player restriction

With 2 or 3 players, only one route of a double or triple route may be claimed

Place train cars

Fill in the route with your train cars and discard the played cards; you may not claim a route you cannot fill

Score route points

For a route of 1/2/3/4/5/6/7 spaces, score 1/2/4/7/10/15/18 points

Optional passenger placement

You may place a passenger in one of the cities on the route if there is currently no passenger there; passengers may not be placed in unnamed cities outside Germany

Select tickets

Announce a combination of 4 short and long destination tickets and draw them

Keep tickets

Keep 1-4 of them and return unkept cards to the bottoms of their decks

Limited availability

If there are insufficient cards left, draw only what is available

Move along your routes

Move a passenger on the board along any of your connected routes, using each route at most once on this turn

Use opponent routes

You may move along a route with an opponent's train cars by discarding 1 passenger card per such move

Germany restriction

Passengers may not move to an unnamed city outside Germany, either as an intermediate or final stop

Collect merchandise

At each city the passenger moves to (not the start city), take the highest merchandise token

Score immediately

Score merchandise points immediately but keep the tokens for later recounting

Visit occupied cities

Your passenger may visit cities with other passengers

Remove passenger

After completing the moves, remove the passenger from the game

Winning

How to claim victory.

Trigger game end

Play continues until a player has 2 or fewer train cars left; then each player, including that one, takes a final turn

Recount scores

Recount completed route and merchandise scores to correct errors and omissions

Score destination tickets

Add or subtract the points of each held destination ticket according to whether the player completed it or not

Completion requirement

A destination ticket is completed if there is a path of the player's train cars connecting the two cities it shows

Award Most Completed Tickets

Give the Most Completed Tickets tile to the player who completed the most tickets and give them 10 points; if there is a tie, give each tied player 10 points

Determine winner

The player with the most points wins

Break ties

Break a tie in favor of the player who completed the most destination tickets, then in favor of highest merchandise total