Shrewsbury Boardgames Club
Gary Lloyd
September 2004
UK

Another new game to us was this Alan Moon and Aaron Weissblum game, originally released as Europa Tour. Each player has a rack in front of him split into 10 sections. Into each section, a card will be played showing either a State of the USA or a form of transport (plane or car). The idea is to place cards in such a way as to connect the first and last cards by either adjacent States or between States with a valid form of transport between them. At the start, players place cards one at a time into their racks but, inevitably, there will be invalid connections between the cards. Once the racks have been filled, a player then draws a card (choice of three face up or a blind one) and replaces a card in the rack with the new one, the old one being added to the discards. Eventually, a player is able to make a valid connection across all ten spaces and wins the game.

At first, we were all groaning as our initial set up cards seemed to point to the task ahead being nigh on impossible. Mark K didn't draw a single transport card for his opening rack. However, slowly, things started to fit into place. Mark G thought he'd completed it after about three turns but then realised he'd got something wrong. Eventually, I managed to grab the right card to claim victory. This was a very easy game to explain and play and would be a great introductory game. Working out where all the States are would have an educational benefit for kids and it plays quickly enough that it doesn't really matter that drawing helpful cards at the right time is the key to winning. There is some skill involved in arranging your cards to give yourself options but, eventually, you're still waiting for that one vital card. Good fun.

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