Ticket to Ride

You are claiming train routes across a map of North America, using plastic train cars in your colour to connect cities. Destination tickets in your hand name two far-apart cities; connect them and the ticket scores, fail and it counts against you. When one player runs down to two trains or fewer, everyone takes a final turn, with a bonus for the longest continuous route. On your turn you do one thing: draw two train cards, spend a matching set to claim a route, or take new destination tickets. Longer routes score far more per card, but someone else may grab them first. This is the original US map and the game we hand to people who have played Monopoly and nothing else. The rules take five minutes and a game is under an hour. Fine at two, best at four or five. A strong first purchase for a home.