Ticket To Ride Map Collection: Volume 3 – Heart Of Africa

Ticket To Ride, by Days of Wonder, is the modern classic gateway game of our generation! Since its introduction into the board game world in 2004, Ticket To Ride has spawned many expansion maps. They’re set in every continent going, featuring real-life cities and locations. Heart of Africa takes place in (you guessed it) Africa!

The core of Heart of Africa remains the same as Alan R. Moon’s base game. You’re still trying to collect sets of same-colour cards to afford matching-colour routes between cities on the map. You start the game with a bunch of ‘tickets’ that state you must link up two cities in southern Africa. If you succeed, you’ll score the ticket’s points. If you fail (by the end of the game), you lose those points, instead. On your turn you can either take two train cards, or play cards from your hand to claim a route, or take more tickets.

Heart of Africa differs in a few ways, though. Some of the central locations in this continent are hard to reach due to the difficult terrain. But every cloud has a silver lining! Another option on your turn is to take a Terrain card. There’s three different types (desert/jungle/mountains). Each applies to certain coloured routes on the map. If you pay in a certain amount of Terrain cards when you complete a route, you score double points! This can prove lucrative! (The catch is you need to own the most of that Terrain card type at the time of paying them in.)

So the question is: do you risk it and hold out for the Terrain cards? If you leave it too long, that route might get snapped up by another player (who claims it for the standard points). In such a case, not only have you missed out on those points, but it also could scupper your long-term plan for routes!

Ticket To Ride: Heart of Africa is yet another superb addition to this popular series of games. Please note that this is an expansion, and not a full game. You’ll need a copy of Ticket To Ride (or Ticket To Ride: Europe) to play this.

Play Count: 2-5 Players
Time: 30-60 minutes
Age: 8+