Carpe Diem, Ticket to Ride: Europe and Ingenious — games the writer played during the pandemic

In a roundup of board games the writer played during the pandemic, three titles receive detailed attention: Carpe Diem, Ticket to Ride: Europe, and Ingenious. Carpe Diem (2–4 players, 60 minutes, ages 10+, $47 on Amazon) is a recent design from Stefan Feld. Gameplay centers on grabbing a tile each turn and placing it on an ancient Roman country estate, then taking points and bonuses; at the end of each round players choose their own scoring conditions.

The writer calls it thinky without being rules-heavy, notes the grape and fish meeples as colorful touches, and says it is much more accessible than Feld’s The Castles of Burgundy. Ticket to Ride: Europe (2–5 players, 60 minutes, ages 8+, $44 on Amazon) is described as a classic. The writer says lockdown provided a chance to teach the game to their 8-year-old son, and that the iPad app is great and much faster to play.

For in-person play the writer highlights the tactility of the giant map, the plastic trains, and the presence of three trash-talking opponents, which made the game a blast. Ingenious (1–4 players, 45 minutes, ages 8+, $25 on Amazon) is an abstract by Reiner Knizia that has players placing paired hexagons and scoring based on how many identical colors touch the five open lines radiating away from each pair.

Key Topics

Culture, Carpe Diem, Ingenious, Stefan Feld, Reiner Knizia