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Free Ride

42.00€

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Meeple on Board Rating

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Board Game Geek Reviews


  1. 6.5 out of 10

    As many people have stated, this game is tragically unplayable without using dice or other markers to indicate the route destinations. An incredibly poor oversight by the publisher. Aside from that, focusing on the gameplay itself, Free Ride is a solid light game. Easy to teach and turns flow quickly. Decisions about whether to use someone else's route (and pay them) are interesting, but I wish there was a bit more.

  2. 10 out of 10

    Version revisitée des aventuriers du rails. Et c’est clairement mieux et plus stratégique ! Bravo Friedmann !!!

  3. 8 out of 10

    I am not a huge fan of most route builders but this one was fun! I like that there is still a lot of predictive building, but that it's not as negative an experience as in other interruptive route play. We played at 2 and there were not enough route ownership markers, which led to a bit of a rules goof, but I think addressing that (or playing at a higher player count) would resolve most of my complaints. It would probably play better at 4 in general. My main complaint is that due to the black and white art and sometimes unfamiliar city names (I am very bad at geography), sometimes it can take a bit for players to read the routes.

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Around the end of the 19th century, a growing network of railway lines was built in Europe, allowing people to travel to the major cities to visit beautiful structures influenced by Art Nouveau and Historicism.

In Free Ride, you are one of several people in charge of building railway lines, connecting the cities in Europe, and carrying passengers to those cities. The game board shows 45 cities connected by a network of potential routes, and all railway lines built will be one of three types: lines owned by you, lines owned by fellow players, and state-owned lines. When you travel along railway lines, you pay nothing to travel on your lines and state-owned lines. To travel on a fellow player’s line, however, you must pay them 1 coin, which converts their line to state-owned. From then on, traveling on that line is free for all players. As coins are limited, you should carefully balance the building of your lines with the conversion of fellow players’ lines to state-owned lines.

Where do you want to build? At the start of play, each player drafts part of a travel route. Multiple travel routes are available for choosing, and each travel route consists of three cards. When you choose a route, you take either the first and second cards or the second and third cards as your starting and ending point (in that order). Return the unchosen card of that route to the box.

Once the third deck is empty, you can either withdraw from the game with uncompleted routes (returning those cards to the box) or keep taking turns until you finish all your routes, at which point you immediately gain 1 coin and withdraw. In either situation, you earn 1 coin (and do nothing else) on each subsequent turn. Once all players have withdrawn, you tally your score, earning 3 points for each coin, 5 points for the first card you have of a city, and 2 points for each other card you have of a city. (Each of the 45 cities appears once in each of the three decks.) Whoever has the most points wins.

Free Ride also offers a difficult solo challenge!

Ages

10+
Players

Solo, 2 Players, 3 Players, 4 Players, 5 Players
Play Time

50m – 90m
Designer

Friedemann Friese
Mechanics

Connections, Contracts, Movement Points, Network and Route Building, Solo / Solitaire Game, Victory Points as a Resource, Pick-up and Deliver
Theme

Trains, Transportation, Travel
Publisher

2F-Spiele, Rio Grande Games
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