Days of Wonder announces Ticket to Ride: Rails & Sails

Exciting news Ticket to Ride fans because Days of Wonder has just announced a brand new entry in the long-running series: Ticket to Ride: Rails and Sails! Players collect cards of various types (trains and ships) that enable them to claim railway and sea routes on a illustrated double-sided board, featuring the world map on one side and the great lakes of North America on the other.

The new standalone game includes a massive double-sided board - bigger than any other Ticket to Ride board that currently exists. Rails & Sails offers two to five players the chance to take to the seas with the introduction of Ships in addition to the classic Train cards of Ticket to Ride that players know and love. These new Ship routes will enable players to build harbours and chart a course across the oceans of the world. The game also introduces Tour tickets, which must be completed at all costs. Tour tickets list between three and five cities that must be linked, presenting players with a whole new challenge, but rewarding them with many victory points.

"Since our planet is about 70% water, when I started thinking about doing a world map for Ticket to Ride, it just seemed natural to add ships to the game," explained designer Alan R. Moon. "As I started laying the routes, it also became obvious that I would need some way to accommodate the longer ship routes. The double ship cards were the simple answer. To balance these powerful cards, I decided to put all the Wild Cards be in the train deck.

"It was tough to figure out what the optimal mix of ships and trains was in the game. That led to the rules allowing players to choose their own mix of ships and trains at the start. Combining all of these elements created a game that has some fairly diverse strategies and what I hope is a totally refreshing Ticket to Ride experience."

In the box you'll find:

• 1 double-sided Game Board (World / Great Lakes)
• 165 colored Train Cars (33 each in blue, red, green, yellow and black)
• 250 colored Ships (50 in each color)
• 140 Travel Cards (80 Train Cards and 60 Ship Cards)
• 120 Destination Ticket Cards (65 for the World, 55 for the Great Lakes)
• 15 Harbors (3 in each color)
• 5 Scoring Markers

Rails & Sails will be available at GenCon before its official worldwide release in September.