When Ticket to Ride was released in 2004, it became popular the world over. That year, it was nominated for numerous international awards, even winning the prestigious Spiel de Jahres award. Capitalizing on the exposure, the following year designer Alan R. Moon released Ticket to Ride: Europe. By changing the map from the US to that of Europe—and introducing small but meaningful changes—Moon showed how the game’s concept could be expanded in challenging ways while still being familiar to anyone who had played the original.

As with my review of Ticket to Ride: Northern Lights,  I’m going to skip the How to Play section of my usual reviews. If you haven’t played Ticket to Ride before, check out my colleague Kevin Brantley’s great review of Ticket to Ride: Refresh to learn how.

What’s New?

The first thing my TTR-playing friends ask when they see a new version of the game hit the table is, “What’s new?!”

Ticket to Ride: Europe introduces several new elements, both physical (new pieces given to each player) and on the board (new route requirements).

Train Stations

Ticket to Ride: Europe introduces Train Stations. Ever wish you could use another player’s route to get to a city that is blocked off? With Train Stations, you can.

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In Elizabeth Hargrave’s latest game, Sanibel, players take turns walking down the beach and stopping to collect a variety of shells and shark teeth. You’ll score points by dropping these treasures into your bag so they ‘fall’ in alignment with other items already there. Have the most points at the end of the walk, and you win the game.

Setup

To start, unfold and line up the three sections of the board. On the left, place the section with the beach chairs; to the right, place the section with the lighthouse. The section without a special area at either end goes in between these two.

Players then take a token of their chosen color and the corresponding board with a bag printed on it. You’ll place everyone’s tokens in random order in the upper left corner of the central board on the right, just above the beach chairs. Place the Wave token to the far left of the player tokens.

Shuffle the zig-zag-shaped pieces and deal two to each player. These are your Lighthouse tiles and will offer additional scoring opportunities once you reach the Lighthouse midway through the game. Read these carefully, as they may help you determine which shells you want to concentrate on.

Above the shoreline…

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TantrumCon 2026 took place on February 5-8 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The event was held at a downtown Marriott hotel, making use of its cavernous main hall and many side rooms. Two of our contributors, Tom Franklin and Will Hare, attended and have this report for you.

Tom Franklin

Having done craft shows for 16 years, the first night, Thursday evening, felt less like the end of a rousing first day and more like a pre-setup time. It reminded me of weekend shows that allowed vendors to set up their booths the night before the show starts so they’ll be fully ready when the doors open to the public the next day.

A few groups of 3-4 people played games in the Learn to Play room. Through body language and positioning, I got the impression these people came to the convention already knowing one another.

By Friday, vendors had set up and were teaching their games to an interested public. The biggest and best display I saw was from AllPlay Games. There, I spoke with Danique from AllPlay, learning about some of their latest games. Later, I returned to their booth where Damian played several of their small card games with me, including Slambo!, 3 Witches, and French Toast. For a volunteer, he did a great…

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