How can we remember to score points for claimed routes?

Question

When we play Ticket to Ride we sometimes forget to score the points and move the score markers. You know; you're playing not only to get points, but to enjoy the game. And when someone realises they forgot to score a route, we need to recalculate all the routes from the beginning, and that's not very fun.

What are the best ways to not forget that you need to score? Maybe there's a specific way to mark what you're going to do, like scoring first and only then paying for the route? But when playing games with tunnels I fear we could forget to "unscore" such points if we couldn't complete the route.

I hope we're not the only forgetful players out there, and someone already came up with a solution to this. We've played ten games so far and are still having this issue.

Answer 1

We usually just don't bother to score any points at all until the end of the game. Then, you go over all the claimed routes and score them, as well as scores for tickets to determine the winner.

Answer 2

We keep score during the game but almost always are off by a few points at the end. It's not always from forgetfulness - it's also possible to bump the score markers. Even when counting at the end it's easy to miss a route or count one twice. So at the end of game, here's what we do:

1. We count one player at a time. For each player:
2. One player will examine each route and call out the score for the route. To minimize chance of error, the longest continuous string of routes is traced first and fingers are sometimes used to mark a section that was skipped because it was not part of the longest string of routes.
3. A separate person moves the score marker, keeping their eyes only on the score track.
4. If the score is very far off from the accumulated game score or if there is any doubt whatsoever, we count again.
5. If the second count is different from 1st count, we count a 3rd time.

This may seem laborious but it usually takes about a minute per player. We find that most errors occur when there are many different side branches. A player with a string of 30 or more cars with no branches is easier to count accurately the first time.

Answer 3

I keep track on a piece of paper. Doing this lets you go back anytime during the game to see if a claim was not scored. At the end of the game, if the game scores are close, I'll go back through and double check or re-score the claims.

Something like this:

Plr1        Plr2      Plr3
2    2      4    4      4    4
4    6                  1    5
1    7                  2    7
4    11

Answer 4

I have written an app for that: Ticket To Ride Score Calculator app for Android.

The app allows you to scan your Ticket To Ride game board using your phone's camera to calculate the game scores automatically.

With this app you can simply take a picture of the game board using your phone's camera and it will automatically recognize player trains and calculate the scores for you.

You can find additional information about the app here and a video overview here.

Support for iOS devices is coming soon.

Answer 5

In at least 2 of the maps, scoring after the end of the game will not work.

On the Great Britain map, you get bonus points during play : From the moment you have purchased the «Boiler Lagging» card, you score 1 extra point for each route that you claim.

Also, from the moment you have purchased the «Steam Turbines» card, you score 2 extra points for each Ferry route that you claim. When combined with «Boiler Lagging», you score 3 points for each Ferry route that you claim.

From the rules: «Some players like to add up the points for the routes they claim at game end, rather than each time a route is claimed. Because the score for some routes may be affected by technologies such as the Boiler Lagging or the Steam Turbines, waiting until the end to compute Routes points doesn’t work in this expansion.»

Reference : Rules for Ticket To Ride United Kingdom : https://ncdn0.daysofwonder.com/tickettoride/en/img/tt-mc5_uk_rules_2015.pdf

Something similar occurs in TTR - Africa.

From the rules : «When Claiming a Route, in addition to playing Train car cards, a player may also simultaneously play some of the Terrain cards in front of him to double the points value of the Route he’s claiming.»

At the end of the game you will have no way of knowing which Terrain Card doubled the point value of any route.

Reference : Rules for Ticket To Ride The Heart Of Africa : https://ncdn0.daysofwonder.com/tickettoride/en/img/tt_africa_rules_2015.pdf

A solution The only way that I have found to not forget to score as you play is to use the «Talking Feather» (or some other unique objet) used by many native American Indian tribes. One can use, for example, the letter-holder from Scrabble, which reminds me of a rail. Whoever has the object plays. In order to start your turn, you must receive the object from the previous player. That action reminds everyone to score the route that has been claimed before the player starts.

Answer 6

I have played the game for many years now and find that it is most enjoyable if you totally forget to count during the game and do the scoring at the end. It is critical also to not make mistakes when you do all the scoring. I have always looked for a mobile app to count my scores with. Unfortunately there was no app out there that considered the bonus scores for all the different Ticket to Ride variants.

So I went ahead and created my own app. I share with you all the link, it is an android app, Time to Count.

Please feel free to comment it, since I am always looking for ideas to improve it.

And hopefully this app is what you were looking for to avoid mistakes at the time to count.

You can check out the webpage at https://timetocount.com If you are on an android phone you can download the app from the Google Play Store.