When comparing Ticket to Ride vs Pandemic, the Slant community recommends Pandemic for most people. In the question“What are the best board games?” Pandemic is ranked 1st while Ticket to Ride is ranked 4th. The most important reason people chose Pandemic is:
When it was first released, Pandemic's co-op gameplay was a pretty unique aspect to boardgames and made for a different and fun experience where either all players won or lost as a team. As the board gaming hobby has grown over the years, fully co-operative games have become an entire genre, and yet Pandemic remains one of the defining examples of the style. With a base game that is consistently difficult--even for veteran players--and an engaging and interesting theme to draw players in, this is a game where working together to achieve victory is almost an art form.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Easy to learn
The core mechanics of the game are pretty simple to learn in under 15 minutes.
Each player is given a destination ticket with the route they are tasked to build. Each turn they simply decide whether to draw a train card that represents the train cars, claim a section of a route using one of their train cards, or get another destination ticket to begin a new route. Whoever builds the longest route wins.
Pro No direct conflict
Most players will be solely focused on building their own train routes, and as such, there is no direct conflict against opponents. This makes it a good game not only for beginners, but also players who do not like the cutthroat tactics of games like Monopoly. It also makes for a good game for couples to play as there will be no arguments or moves that may slight another player.
Pro Great presentation
The board, train pieces, and cards all come together to create a pleasing and functional experience. The game board is a colorful, thick cardboard map of North America. It's large enough so the game board never feels crowded with game pieces. There are also 225 custom-molded train car game pieces of various solid colors. The game cards themselves are nicely illustrated and feature pictures of trains that take front and center - they contain no text overlay.
Pro A great gateway game
Thanks to its intuitive nature and easy to grasp rules, Ticket to Ride is great for newcomers to the game or those unfamiliar with board games in general, or even kids. It is widely considered to be an excellent gateway game.
Pro Satisfying to build routes, regardless of winning
Even if you don't win the game, it's often satisfying to watch your train routes slowly get bigger as you connect cities. There are also bonus points you can achieve for connecting especially long or tricky routes, which you gives you additional goals to work towards aside from the main victory.
Pro Tense gameplay each turn
Each turn, you will have to decide whether you want to draw another train card or connect more routes on the board. Since you can only choose one of these options, this is a highly important decision that may have you on the edge of your seat. By drawing more cards, you'll have more trains to place later, but you may be leaving an empty route open up for your opponent to steal.
Pro High detail design
Both the game board and playing cards have a very distinct style. The game board has an almost faded background of the landscape featuring mountains, rivers, and forests with the routes intertwining around the map in colorful patterns. This strong contrast really gives the board an intricate appearance. The game cards come in a variety of colors and all feature hand drawn artwork of all sorts of train parts - engines, locomotives, coal carts, storage carts, and more.
Pro Great expansions
Ticket to Ride offers numerous expansion packs that build on the base game in fun new ways. For starters, there's all new maps for places such as Europe, Asia, India, Africa, and more. This means you can play the game you enjoy on an a fresh board with new routes to learn. Each expansion also adds its fair share of new gameplay elements (such as tunnels, boats, and train stations) and has new train cards.
Pro One of the first games to implement full co-op gameplay, Pandemic remains one of the defining examples of the genre
When it was first released, Pandemic's co-op gameplay was a pretty unique aspect to boardgames and made for a different and fun experience where either all players won or lost as a team. As the board gaming hobby has grown over the years, fully co-operative games have become an entire genre, and yet Pandemic remains one of the defining examples of the style. With a base game that is consistently difficult--even for veteran players--and an engaging and interesting theme to draw players in, this is a game where working together to achieve victory is almost an art form.
Pro Lots of replayability thanks to each playthrough being unique
With multiple player roles (Pilot, Scientist, Doctor, etc) to choose from and the card draw that infects areas at random, each playthrough is an entirely different experience. Pandemic also has multiple expansions adding more player roles and even a traitor mechanic which can turn the game from fully co-op to 1 vs many, adding an additional challenge for the good guys to overcome.
Pro Easy to learn but still provides a challenge
Learning the rules doesn't take long at all, and within a few rounds, most players will be able to pick up what's going on. Even though the general game flow and rules are quick to understand, there is still plenty of nuances to gameplay, little tricks you'll be learning along the way, and plenty of different roles to choose from which allow room for in-depth strategies.
Pro Creates a sense of urgency thanks to the Infection Deck
One of Pandemic's greatest mechanisms is the way the Infection Deck is managed. Each turn players reveal a number of city cards from this deck equal to the current infection level (2-4), this determines where new infections will appear. Players also draw 2 cards each turn from the Player Deck, which has a variable number of Epidemic Cards mixed in based on the difficulty level.
The brilliance of the infection deck is how it interacts with Epidemic cards; when one is drawn from the player deck the Infection Deck's discard pile is shuffled, and then placed on top of the current Infection Deck, making it more likely that cities that have previously had outbreaks will have them again.
This creates a very real sense of urgency as the first draw after an Epidemic Card can often result in outbreaks and a rapidly accelerating spread of diseases.
Pro The different editions/expansions stay true to the Pandemic experience yet offer something fresh each time
For example, in Pandemic Iberia, your movement is much more limited therefore you have to invest in building railways and the diseases cannot be cured, only researched. They will continue to infect even after being researched. Each expansion is easy to pick up and play as it offers something new while keeping the base game familiar.
Cons
Con Very basic
The "North American" Ticket to Ride (original game) is fun but has very low complexity. Regular players will tire quickly from this lack of depth. The variants like Europe or India bring some new maps and more gameplay elements, which is sorely needed after the first few games.
Con Very luck-based
The original destination ticket and the cards you draw during game play are random. This can make some routes easier or harder to connect, and it boils down to literally just being the luck of the draw.
Con Sometimes blocking routes for opponents hurts you instead
When preventing an opponent from completing their train route, you have to use your own trains to block them. This means less trains to complete your own route. It seems like this design is self-defeating at times.
Con Expensive
The game generally retails for $50, which is quite high for a cardboard board game.
Con Can suffer from Alpha-gamer / quarterbacking issues
Due to the nature of co-op games like Pandemic, a strong willed or loud player can end up dictating everyone else's turns for them, especially in situations where there are clearly better decisions to be made. This can lead some people to feel like they aren't actually 'playing' so much as being told what to do.
Con Won't appeal to competitive PvP players
Everyone works together in Pandemic, so there is no dominating or crushing your opponents in this game. This may not appeal to some competitive gamers who would prefer to play games that allow them to best other players.
Con Difficult
Pandemic is a pretty difficult game, there will be a lot of losses compared to wins. Though when there is a win it does feel righteously earned.