Game Day Lunch: Ticket To Ride + Zombie Fluxx

Our game day at work started with the classic Ticket To Ride. Part of what I am enjoying about these sessions is getting to introduce my co-workers to new games or even new styles of game-play like cooperative games. Ticket To Ride is not new. It has been out for over ten years now. It is not particularly challenging to learn. Board Game Geek members assign it a weight of 1.87 out of 5.0. But it is a well-crafted game with a beautiful board and simple rules, so we started out with that.

Players in Ticket To Ride get one of three choices for their turn. They may draw cards (one card if it’s a visible locomotive, two cards otherwise). They may play cards of an appropriate color to claim a route. Or they may draw new tickets (routes) to try to complete. That’s it! It’s a very simple game that generally moves fast enough to keep people from getting bored.

Still, with five players, our game lasted over an hour simply because of the number of turns. I wish now I had taken a picture of the completed board! Since there were several folks playing that were new to the game nobody was trying to block other people; they were all focused on completing their own routes. The eventual winner managed to draw and complete five tickets! The longest train award went to someone who used all but two of their trains in one continuous line (he didn’t win though). It was a fun game, but I’m not sure it will come back up in the rotation again soon. I didn’t ask, but it didn’t feel like folks were excited to play it again right away, unlike our last session where Takenoko was a big hit. It was requested for the session today but it only supports four players so it went back in the bag.

To finish our our lunch break we tried to squeeze in a quick game of Zombie Fluxx. The Fluxx series of games is designed under the simple premise that the rules (and goals) of the game change as you play. Each Fluxx game starts with the same simple rule: Draw a card, play a card. Cards can be Keepers, Actions, Goals, or Rules. A rule can amend or replace the current rule. For example instead of “Draw 1 Play 1” there might be an amended rule that says “Draw 3” instead. Keepers are cards that go on the table in front of you. A combination of keepers is what ultimately wins you the game! A Goal card sets which combination of cards is needed, and whoever has Keepers that match the current Goal wins instantly. Games can take anywhere from five to forty minutes.

With Zombie Fluxx there is a new card type called Creepers. Creepers are like Keepers in that they go on the table in front of you, but they’re bad. They’re zombies, and who wants zombies camping out on your front lawn?

Our game lasted twenty minutes without resolution (although I got to play a whole lot of cards in my last turn) so while we didn’t see an actual winner, we still had fun.

If you have any suggestions for games for me to take to our next Game Day Lunch, feel free to post a comment. 😎