This is a "perfect route" scenario for Ticket to Ride's Eurpe: Big Cities map that will win the game more often than not and possibly earn a score of up to 400 points. It's not going to work every time; sometimes the computer opponent will take a section of track you need, and other times they'll end the game before you were ready. But when it does work, it's very impressive.

1. Select the map Europe - Big Cities

2. Play solo play against one player: Jane Stanbot.

3. Keep *ALL* starting destination cards EXCEPT:

• Any card with "Moskva" on it
  
• Angora - Kharkov
  
• Athina - Wilno
  
• Berlin - Bucuresti
  
• London - Edinburgh
  
• Wien - Stockholm

Build the following track:

• Madrid - Barcelona - Marseille - Zurich - Venezia - Roma - Brindisi - Athina - Smyrna - Constaninople - Angora

AND

• Zurich - Paris - Dieppe - London

AND

• Venezia - Zagrab - Wien - Berlin

Important: When building your track, never have more than ten cards in your hand. The strategy for that is (in order of priority):

• Don't try to save up cards for several different routes at once; build your routes as quickly as possible. Don't build the track in the order listed above, instead, prioritize your builds as follows:
  
• Use locomotives to build ferry routes first. Only use them as wild cards after all your ferry routes are built.
  
• This strategy uses two four-train routes and two three-train routes. If the face-up draw cards offer you the opportunity to build one, take it!
  
• Place color routes before gray routes - you don't want to fill your hand with thirty cards looking for one more orange card.

Important: Don't start drawing Destination Cards until ALL of your track is built.

It's time to start drawing Destination Cards. Just like at the start of the game, when you draw Destination Cards, keep *ALL* destination cards you draw EXCEPT:

• Any card with "Moskva" on it
  
• Angora - Kharkov
  
• Athina - Wilno
  
• Berlin - Bucuresti
  
• London - Edinburgh
  
• Wien - Stockholm

During this phase, Jane Stanbot will often get stuck in a loop where she does nothing but draw Train Cards. This is vital to this strategy, allowing you to spend several turns doing nothing but draw Destination Cards.

The big question is when to stop drawing. This variant of the game has a total of 45 Destination Cards, and 32 of them are keepers. Since Destination Cards you draw but don't keep go back in the deck, every discard increases the chance that you'll get a draw with no keepers.

If you draw a hand with no keepers, always select the smallest point value Destination Card.

You'll generally be pretty safe if you draw until you get about 25 keepers. You can push your luck beyond that, but remember that Destination Cards you discard go back in the deck, increasing your chance of getting negative points if you draw a hand with no keepers. Additionally, Jane Stanbot may have some of those keeper cards so it might not be possible to get all 32 keepers.

Once you've got all the Destination Cards you think you can safely get, start placing track (if you can) or drawing Train Cards. This activity will also break Jane out of her card-drawing loop, so one or the other of you will get below three trains in just a few turns.

And that's it! I'd love to hear your success stories in the comments.

If Jane Stanbot has taken a route that you needed, or you're willing to take the time to wring a few more points out of your game, there are a few places where you can use stations or slightly different routes than those listed above. Stations, of course, are only a valid option if Jane Stanbot has claimed that particular route. You have nine (9) train cars and three (3) stations to use for Advanced Strategy.

When using the Advanced Strategy, be very careful not to go below 3 train cars and end the game, even if you have to wait to place a last section of track until the end of the game and risk Jane Stanbot placing there.

While this is not an exhaustive list of all possible alternate routes, I've made sure that all alternate routes still go through cities with Destination Cards, and that any reachable cities with Destination Cards are listed.

Destination: Edinburgh
Allows use of Paris - Edinburgh Destination Card [+7 points]

• London - Edinburgh (uses 4 train cars) [+10 points]

Destination: Bucuresti
Allows use of Berlin - Bucuresti Destination Card [+8 points]

• Athina - Sofia - Bucuresti (uses 5 train cars) [+6 points]
  
• Smyrna - Constaninople - Bucuresti (uses 5 train cars) [+6 points]
  
• Angora - Constaninople - Bucuresti (uses 5 train cars) [+6 points]
  
• Wein - Budapest - Bucuresti (uses 5 train cars) [+11 points]

Destination: Bucuresti AND Alternate Route: Smyrna - Angora
Allows use of Berlin - Bucuresti Destination Card [+8 points]

• Smyrna - Constaninople - Bucuresti AND Constaninople - Angora (uses 4 train cars) [+8 points]

Alternate Route: Smyrna - Angora

• Smyrna - Constaninople - Angora (uses 1 train car) [+0 points]
  
• Angora Station (saves 3 train cars) [-8 points]

Alternate Route: Paris - Dieppe - London

• Paris - Bruxelles - Dieppe - London (uses 3 train cars) [+3 points]
  
• Paris - Bruxelles - Dieppe AND Bruxelles - Amsterdam - London (uses 4 train cars) [+4 points]
  
  • Note: You must double back to Dieppe because it has a Destination Card.
• Paris - Dieppe & London Station (saves 2 train cars & uses 1 station) [-5 points]

Alternate Route: Zurich - Paris

• Marseille - Paris (uses 1 train car) [+6 points]

Alternate Route: Wein - Berlin

• Berlin Station (saves 3 train cars) [-8 points]

Alternate Route: Zurich - Marseille - Barcelona - Madrid

• Paris - Pamplona - Madrid (saves 1 train car) [0 points]
  
• Paris - Pamplona - Barcelona - Madrid (uses 2 train cars) [+2 points]
  
• Zurich - Marseille - Pamplona - Madrid (uses 1 train car) [+2 points]
  
• Zurich - Marseille - Pamplona - Barcelona - Madrid (uses 2 train cars) [+2 points]
  
• Zurich - Marseille -Barcelona - Madrid Station (saves 2 train cars & uses 1 station) [-6 points]