Ticket to Ride Map Collection 7: Japan + Italy

You can zoom across the country on a Bullet Train or take the Tokyo subway, and the board includes zoomed-in Kyushu and Tokyo sections. Bullet Train routes are claimed with cards but scored differently: a white Bullet Train miniature goes on the route and your marker advances on a Bullet Train track. Once claimed, any player may use the route to complete tickets, while the players who contributed most earn a bonus and a player who builds none is penalized. Italy adds Ferry routes, where spaces with a wave symbol take Locomotive cards or the Ferry cards that come with the box, and a Regions bonus: the booklet counts 17 named Regions and pays points for how many you link in one network. Sardegna, Sicilia and Puglia count double if all their cities are connected.

Both booklets say the expansion is designed for two to five players, and the publisher lists eight years and up and thirty to sixty minutes. Neither map is playable on its own: Japan needs 20 trains per player and Italy needs 45, with matching scoring markers, plus Train Car cards from Ticket to Ride or Ticket to Ride Europe. The box contents list Japan's 54 Destination Tickets, 16 white Bullet Train miniatures and 7 Progression Markers, and Italy's 56 Destination Tickets and 10 Ferry Cards. Each Japan player is dealt four tickets and keeps at least two. On Italy, each player is dealt five and keeps at least three, and some tickets name a neighboring country or Monaco instead of a city. On the publisher's page, Alan R. Moon calls Italy big, very big.

An adult buying for a household that already owns Ticket to Ride or Ticket to Ride Europe and likes the idea of Japanese high-speed rail or Italian regions. It also suits groups of up to five, since both maps support that count.

Map Collection 2: India + Switzerland, from the same Map Collection line, offers a map for up to four players and a map for two or three, with Tunnel routes on the Swiss one.

Image: Ravensburger · source

Ravensburger Railway Station 60-Piece Children's Puzzle

Ravensburger · Budget

A 60-piece children's jigsaw puzzle from Ravensburger on a railway station theme, recommended by the publisher for age 4 and up.

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Image: Robotime (ROKR) · source

ROKR Prime Steam Express 3D Wooden Puzzle (MC501)

Robotime (ROKR) · Budget

A 308-piece wooden construction kit that builds into a 1:80 scale model of a steam locomotive with a detachable tender, finished at about 12 inches long.

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Image: Days of Wonder · source

Ticket to Ride

Days of Wonder · Mid-range

A cross-country train adventure in which players collect and play matching train cards to claim railway routes connecting cities across North America.

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