Ticket to Ride: London

Ticket to Ride, reduced to fifteen minutes and a double-decker bus.

The City series takes the game that got a generation into board games and strips it back to its bones. No trains, no continent: this is 1970s London, and you are running buses between Piccadilly Circus, Brick Lane and the rest. Claim routes, complete your destination tickets, and score the districts you have connected.

The reason it works is that the short board makes every route contested immediately. In the full game you can usually go around somebody; here you cannot, so the blocking is constant and deliberate. Fifteen minutes a game means you play three, which is a very different experience from playing one long one.

Perfect for: Introducing somebody to Ticket to Ride without asking for an hour of their evening.

2-4 players | 10-15 minutes | Age 8+