I understand that Tom has chosen to blur out the expansion maps due to an overabundance of caution for spoilers, which I respect, but I also choose to believe its because these maps contain graphic pornography unsuitable for KZfaq

I can't believe they got the real Thomas the Tank Engine for this review!

Haha, Tom looks so silly and goofy, he looks like a silly goose in a silly costume

Even with that preamble I was not prepared to see how quickly Tom ran out of blue....

I understand that there are icons and rules text on the west of the game board, but I just love the idea that some people are like "what could the rest of this map like" and then be astonished later "*gasp*, it's the US!"

Throughout most of this review I thought to myself "Of course the legacy elements aren't hugely impactful, this game is aimed at more casual gamers who like Ticket To Ride. They don't want big changes all the time". And then I remembered I played through all of My City with my mom, who may have gotten a little overwhelmed by Cockroach Poker once, but who was just as excited and invested in all the big reveals, twists and changes that My City brought. So maybe Legacy of the West shouldn't have played it safe.

Haha Tom looks so silly and goofy. He looks like a silly goose in a silly costume

Man, Tom looks so serious and professional. He looks like a serious boardgame gentleman in thematically appropriate attire.

Never thought I'd see someone wearing trainface in 2024; truly shameful :(

This is solely my opinion as someone who finished the entire campaign with my family, parents and brother, who after several years of me trying to get them into modern board games, dove feet first last fall into games. And just for added context, we played the game over the 2023 American holidays with the promo bonus big city markers. Ticket to Ride Legacy was a good experience for us, we had a good time mainly just sitting around the table and playing the game. Even though there were parts of the game we unlocked we weren’t thrilled about and wanted to play with again, it was mainly about the shared experience. Seeing the game through to the end gives you the experience in my eyes of as each game progresses, ‘oh, well, shoot. Person x made this change to the board and now I’ve got to adapt to that. Ok.’ There seem to be a number of people at least on BGG that didn’t read the contents of the game or simply didn’t know what to do due to missing components (the latter happened on our end). But even with the snafu we had a good time. I would like to see Days of Wonder and/or any companies that make a game with a legacy component, where the things they add can be crucial to the enjoyment of the game, have a better overall QC process or at least mention how they are going to make sure people see everything correctly. There must be a way to say ‘hey, you should have unlocked components 1,2345,etc at the end of game 1’.

Haha, Tom looks so silly and goofy, he looks like a silly goose in a silly costume!

My group is having a blast with this game! We can't get enough of it. I'm not looking forward to it being over. So much fun and it's not because of that hit of happy chemicals when we open new boxes. Just a fun experience.

Aww, Tom looks so handsome and cool. He looks like a dashing swan in a handsome costume.

I got this game for Christmas last year. Played through a few rounds, and got totally addicted! I’ve been playing ticket to ride for many years, but felt fatigued due to the similar mechanics of the games, and way too many expansions. This game felt for me like a breath of fresh air, and even got me interested to try other legacy games! After watching the Shut Up & Sit Down review of pandemic legacy, I got a good deal of all three games. My board game group is currently halfway through season one, and we are having a really good time!

Yes, the story part was "meh", but the gameplay is pure fun. We are currently playing through the campaign for the second time. Never finished My City and I rated Pandemic Legacy as a 7, so I guess TTR is my type of legacy (rated at 9) :D

I wasn’t ready. He prepared me, yet I still wasn’t ready. I’m sorry, Tom, you silly goose.

"I can't remember what happened in Florida" is our state motto

As a citizen of the United States, I'd like to thank you for not remembering what happens in Florida.

Haha, Tom looks so silly and goofy... He looks like a silly goose in his silly costume.

I love you guys, but I have to respectfully disagree. We are 2 games from the end and we really enjoyed it! I think the gimmicks are way more fun and exciting than Tom suggests. I was always excited to open each new area. If you played My City, this is a great next Legacy game to play. I loved My City, but Ticket to Ride was way better imo.

What this game is is the perfect legacy game to play with my parents, they've been absolutely loving it and wouldn't really be able to manage something that fundamentally changed the game every session. And because they've been loving it so much, I've also been loving it a lot more than I would have liked it if I played with my gamer friends. The shame to me is that it's so large and pricey for something that should be aimed more at older families than maybe hobbiest gamers. I, as a hobbiest gamer, was willing to spring it as a family christmas present, but I think a lot of the audience that would love this game won't experience it because of that.

haha tom looks so silly and goofy... he looks like a silly goose in his costume

One of the challenges with making a Legacy game is in balancing the twists and changes to the gameplay with the players' love of the base game's mechanics and style. Although my play group thoroughly loved Pandemic Legacy Season 1, by the time we got deep into Season 0 we felt like we were playing a wholly different game. It was neat, but we all felt that it wasn't "Pandemic" anymore. This is a difficult needle for designers and publishers to thread, and I don't envy them!

My wife loves Ticket to Ride and loves the legacy version. There are just enough differences per playround to keep her occupied and not too many to make her confused. I think its not a game for a group who plays more complicated titles, but more for the wives/ family of those groups. We have a monthly 'Baby update session' with one of my friends where a TTR Legacy session is part of the evening. I would never be able to get my wife to play Pandemic Legacy, but Ticket to Ride Legacy, she is always ready for to have a go (and wins as well).

Emily's mic holding is infectious

Ticket to Ride Legacy is designed for people who like Original Ticket to Ride. They stay with easy and safe unlocks so those people are less overwhelmed. I feel it does this well. However it is Very Pricey and I find those who have gone past the original Ticket to Ride may get bored quickly with this one. I'm having to push through the last two games because I'm ready for it to be done but the more junior gamers are loving it.

Ticket to Ride legacy was an instant purchase for me and has proved to be very popular with my family. We love the little expansions and have been genuinely excited every time we open a box to see what additions the designers came up with. My family has made it's own narrative about the progress of the railways and on game nights this is the game that my kids usually vote for first. Pandemic legacy never really caught our imagination (full disclosure: not a big fan of the original game either) but we are loving my island (never played my city) also. For context my favourite game is Arkham Horror LCG. I usually agree with SU&SD observations about games I have played and so trust their opinions about games I have not. This time, however, I just don't come to the same conclusion as they do. That's okay.... just thought I'd voice my own opinion on this one.

I'm not gonna lie, revealing that one of the boxes is 'Haunted Wastes' makes me MORE interested in playing this game, not less, and I had next to no interest in this game to begin with.

Even though I know no one will read them, I wanted to share a few points I had as someone who loved the entire campaign. (Warning: some non-major spoilers) Though I'm not sure how much this would change your mind, I believe you stopped right when I started to get concerned that the games were getting a little too bloated. At that point, some of the game's components began to fold away, allowing new ones to take focused. The game becomes once again tight at the very end, making for an incredibly fun game arc. Also, a few of the last boxes forced us to concentrate on the same area on the board, so we were still fighting there despite the board being larger. I like trains. I'm not one of those people who has the whole model train set and such but I get some enjoyment out of seeing a train cross the tracks. Lots of the different reveals were very exciting to me because I like different ways they incorporated TRAINS. Won't go into spoilers but the every time I thought there weren't going to be more interesting train things they could do there was even more really cool train things. Also, you remember what Florida added you just don't remember it was in the Florida box. Postcards! Not going into detail as this is spoilers (revealed early on but spoilers) so I get why you didn't mention this but postcards are great and are another part of the game that really tied me to the theme. Although this was released in 2023, this game was mostly designed right after pandemic legacy season 2 and got delayed due to covid. Not a long time in the real world but a long time in the legacy game world. Having it be a huge evolution forward is hard for a game designed before some of the legacy games it was compared to in this video. Finally, and probably the most important part: I could play the first scenario of this game 12 times and still enjoy it a lot the 12th time. This wasn't a game where I was hoping the next box would breathe life into the experience. I was already a fan of the base ticket to ride. All of the changes that they made from the very start of the campaign made the game smoother and more dynamic. Is it better with the loot boxes and doodads? Most definitely. However the finished game you can play forever has most of those elements stripped out and I still really enjoy it. My, useless not professional gamer opinion, is, if you like the original Ticket to Ride or any of the map packs, this is the best ever version of the core rules (that you can play forever) with an extra legacy campaign that takes it to the next level. If you never liked ticket to ride, it's probably not worth the investment.

Haha, Tom looks like a silly goose!

When Tom mentioned trying out any of the other legacy games recommended by SUSD, I went to check and you know, it would be nice to have a legacy games playlist on the YT channel! For now, off to the website I go!

Full agreement here. I just hope the destructive Legacy style ends in favor of resetting campaigns.

*chuckles* He said "choo-choo-choose a different theme," and there's a picture of a train!

I really enjoyed that Game despite I never played any other ticket to Ride title before and, honestly, before that never thought I would cause the theme didn‘t catched me at all. But this one really had something that I deeply wanted to play and i‘m so glad we tried it. We also played Legacy Games Like pandemic and my city, and yes they‘re really good in their own special ways. But the thing what I enjoyed about the ticket to ride legacy Game was, that it was fluffy (at least in our group constellation), Light and in the Same way had it‘s own way to create an excitement and tension and Even though it‘s a competitive and not a cooperative game we Never had the kind of Frustration After a session than we had with the other two Games. Sure sometimes a round wasn‘t that good and sure you kind of can tease your opponents with some content of the Game and if you‘re building a route another one deeply Needs but I never had the feeling the Game tries to punch me in the Face. With Pandemic sometimes we felt devaststing After a catasrophic round and not always enjoyed it . But for this Winter ticket to Ride was exactely what our group needed. A fun experience. But what really surprised me was a review of a Legacy Game mentioning other great games of this genre and there is not even the slightest mention of Kings Dilemma ? 😮

Never be ashamed when enthusiasm about an idea outpaces the ability to execute it. Learn from it and Forge a steel costume for the next train game.

I felt the same way about Charterstone, the only legacy game I've played. Every addition could be opened by players in (almost) any order so you're just left with a load of additions that don't add all that much and don't really interact with each other at all.

It’s like Tom disappeared and Thomas the Tank Engine appeared!

We love you, Tom! Don't listen to the others, I loved your costume! You tried so hard and I appreciate all the effort you put in.

The intro to this video has some real Green Lovers 'please don't tease me. this is my first video, please don't tease me' energy

So glad to see you guys again!! Happy New Year!!

that silly goose looks alot like tom

the costume reveal is one of the best moments in the history of SUSD

we have played this with 2 groups over 2 different boxes and everyone loved it and just wanted to go at it again right after.

My wife and I enjoyed playing this, but I also agree with everything you said. Another note... with two players, there was SO much that went unexplored and some mechanics we hardly interacted with at all. It felt like a list of test mechanics for what should be a bigger game in the future with just a couple of these mechanics being added in.

I would never say you're a silly goose in a silly costume. I'd never ever mock your lack of preparation and shoddy improvisation Tom, you're a sweetheart

I don't know how they got such a serious goose to do the Thomas the Tank Engine bit at the start, but bravo.

I have played: Pandemic Legacy Seafall Risk Legacy Scythe Legacy Betrayal Legacy And I've come to the conclusion that the only one which was really a good idea was Risk legacy. All the others are just games with built in expansions where you have to throw away half the components (forgive the hyperbole). They are massive commitments to a hobby which is already hard to get people together for, for games which are not quiet elegant enough to devote yourselves to. And if you think you like the game enough to devote yourself to it, it suddenly ends, leaving you without said game. Risk Legacy was different because it wasn't about a weird taped on meta-progression, it was about recording the scars of previous players. You could play with a new group of people each time. You had stories to tell. A real legacy to look back on every time you play no matter how often you played. And even with Risk Legacy I always felt the guilt of playing without a player I'd played with before. Do if anything, Risk Legacy already had some glaring flaws, and the next games doubled down on them. It reminds me of how in the videogame space every game has to be a "rogue-like" now, which does not mean a game like Rogue, but instead that it has tacked on meta progression and is maybe a bit arcade-y.

I'm still on a business break myself, so I thoroughly understand. It's so much work and you've had so much on your plate, I hope you find what you need 🧡🧡

No mention of clank legacy? that ones so good i did it twice!

This reminds me a little of Ultimate Werewolf Legacy. A group of friends and I played through the entire campaign in an afternoon, but the game didn't feel like it really progressed in any way. Each game had unique hooks and roles to shake things up, but that could just have been a set of standalone expansions. The actual legacy elements boiled down to "some players get an extra power they can use in a subsequent game," but those felt a bit too arbitrary to be fun.

My group is at 7/12 (or 8/12) plays. We have been thoroughly enjoying it. It isn’t insanely game changing like some other legacy games, but I wasn’t expecting that. I do enjoy the fact that you don’t get points from building routes, generally. It makes tickets way more impactful. I would compare it to Clank Legacy instead of a Gloomhaven or a Pandemic Legacy.

Wow, we had a lot of fun with this.

I saw this at Spiel 2023 in Essen and was like... "ooh, TTR & Legacy!" but after watching people play it for a while I left feeling pretty much with what Tom says here. Very much "Meh...ok I guess?!".

Your Thomas the Tank Engine cosplay was off the rails!!

Frankly, the way you felt about TTR:Legacy is exactly the way I felt about every Legacy game I've played. Out of the 3 ive tried (HP: Hogwarts Battle, Pandemic Legacy S1 and S0) I only managed to finish Season 1. And the best I can say about it was "Eh, it's fine I guess". But I'd still much rather play regular Pandemic. The story is always forgettable, the mini expansions seem more about the joy of opening boxes and getting stuff, rather than about adding anything meaningful to the game.

There was no reference pear. I can really understand the scale of this game without one.

If you like (or at least don't mind) Penny Arcade's style of humor, Clank Legacy is a lot of fun. There's lots of twists and turns, and my friends and I had a good time playing through it.

Recently finished playing this with my family and it's the first time we've completed a legacy game with my daughter, loved it. Yeah it's not the most complex, or crunchy, or interesting or any of those other words that we band about, but it was good fun!

My wife and I love TTR for it’s simplicity. Too many rule changes in Legacy games (My City, Machi Koro) often have you re-reading and adjusting new rules too often, particularly if you’ve only just gotten the hang of the PREVIOUS rules! Looking forward to a slowly-evolving adventure out West. Perhaps with Zeppelin’s ‘How the West Was Won’ in the background

Tom looks like a silly goose 🥰

Anybody who laughs is a Diesel.

This is the most Thomas the tank engine thing canonically in cosplay. Biblically accurate angles

Re: the designer's note about the bad things that happened in history that were associated with the railroads I guess I just don't agree with the premise that there's an ethical component to portraying historical events in board games. Imagine you're in an ethics class and asked to argue the following: "A railroad company in the 19th century displaced a Native American tribe to build their railroad. Does a board game designer making a game about the railroad in the 21st century share some of the guilt for that injustice? Justify your answer from first principles." I would have a very hard time making the affirmative case! Maybe you could argue that whitewashing Native American history could cause someone in the present to treat Native Americans worse. But that's very indirect and involves a lot of speculation. Wargamers all pretty much just agreed that playing as the Nazis wasn't an endorsement of Naziism. Eurogamers seem to be settling on the opposite conclusion, that making a game where the players take part in colonialism is an endorsement of colonialism unless the game goes out of its way to have an anti-colonialist message. And I guess I'm just not convinced.

My group finished all 12 games and we really enjoyed it. Sorry you didn't get the same enjoyment from it. My group has placed many legacy games starting way back with Risk Legacy. Ticket to Ride Legacy we found to be one of our top Legacy games.

As a great pick up and play/intro boardgame for most people I cannot imagine a game LESS needing a legacy version than Ticket to Ride.

Ha! Look at that silly goose wearing a silly costume. Love it!

That intro... Oh God, I'm crying! 😂

Wow, Tom looks so cool and earnest. He looks like a very serious duck in his earnest costume!

LOOVED the "cho cho" joke😂

Ticket to Ride legacy feels like a complete misunderstanding of Ticket to Ride and legacy games - Ticket to Ride is a game I play with my family because it's interesting and I've weaned them off of monopoly but know I shouldn't get them to play Sidereal Confluence. Legacy mechanics require a dedication to board gaming that I'd expect a gamer to first channel into deepening their collection and finding their local scene, not acquiring light and flimsy legacy versions of light & simple games. This feels like it's only one step above a legacy version of The Game of Life. (I'm not trying to smack talk Ticket to Ride either, it's a competent game and the Europe edition is nearly perfect at what it's aiming to do).

Honestly the 1 minute of costume caveat-ing Tom does *is* funnier than the costume itself, so mission accomplished really. I’m not in the comments going “haha Tom looks so goofy” after all :)

haha tom looks so silly and goofy, he looks like a silly goose in a silly costume

Welcome to 2024. Some things have happened already… birds have been replaced by dragons for instance.

Great review, 10/10 flawless Thomas the Tank Engine costume, it feels like your extrapolation to "The End of Legacy Games" is a stretch though.

Tom, the epitomy of chaotic good

What a silly goose in that costume

Tom, you look like a serious goose in a serious costume.

Tom as an authentic Silly Goose I welcome you to our flock. HONK!

Nice review Tom, the Island of Sodor would welcome you with open arms

I played this with my wife and 9 year old son. Had a great time!

'I tried to look like Thomas the Tank Engine' And yet it's giving Wish branded Applause by Lady GaGa...

Haha, Tom looks so silly, he looks like a silly goose in his costume

Tad harsh one feels....Having loved...My city but felt like My Island was school homework...TTR LotW was a joy. Whats more it made us go back and have fantastic games of TTR Usa and europe. We haven't finished got to 8 so far but cant wait to finish. Yes baggier but the map we have just unlocked means.....fun problems to solve for points. As TTR to ride is a foundation game to the hobby, this is an ideal family legacy game. Try playing Pandemic season 1 with your preteens or less invested gamers. I think the critic is coming from the ever so slightly elite end of the content makers. Yes a gaming content maker is jaded by a "entry" level legacy game shocker video. Ps price per hour for a game thats already been on table for around 16 hours (3x players ) in our house is pretty good compared to cost of cinema tickets per hour (my standard comparator)

Ticket to Ride is mostly for casual board game players, and so its Legacy version. It might be slightly unfair to judge it according to deeper Legacy games. I get where you're coming from, but casual board game players will probably love it. Considering that Ticket to Ride is the Monopoly of designer games in terms of its simplicity, my expectations for its Legacy version were nowhere near my expectations for more involved games. It wasn't a deeply strategic gaming experience and it didn't need to be. It was a fun ride, one that was thoroughly entertaining from beginning to end for everyone involved when I played it.

8/12 games in for Ticket to Ride: Legends of the West and as a Ticket to Ride Fan, we love it. 9/10 I’ve played Pandemic Legacy S1, 10/10 and Clank! Legacy: 8/10.

For some reason I feel like this review is too negative. The power of ticket to ride is still that it's a great family game which can be enjoyed by 6 year olds as well as 80 year olds. We're having fun with it with the whole family and it's a good 'entry' level legacy game. As for 'expensive'... it's 85EUR nowadays and you get a huge box stuffed with items. I think it's good value for money given the current board game prices. And in the end you still have a nice copy of ticket to ride (apart from the clipped train cards which are stil usable). Still, good review and a fair warning for the more hardcore gaming groups.

"This space has been as thoroughly explored as it can be at present by those with the means to explore it" Oh my wonderful little thomas the tank engine. Watch this space. We aren't even close.

Haha, Tom looks so silly and goofy, he looks like a silly goose in his silly costume

Haha, Tom looks so silly and goofy, he looks like silly goose in a silly costume

Pandemic Legacy Season 1 was a rollercoaster! How much drama an stress in a game when a new rule is introduced: "You can't do X"

Haha tom looks so silly and goofy, he looks like a silly goose in his silly costume!

It doesn't matter how you look, as long as you prove you are a useful engine that's all the rulers of the Island of Sodor care about.

As someone who doesn't really care for legacy games but loves ticket to ride, I was real hesitant at first but after playing it we all knew that this was the best time any of us had playing the game. It is the only legacy version of a game I will likely play at least in the next few years. And I do think what it has for after completion is worth it although a little light considering what is added quantity wise. Also, regarding the designer's note I really did not see this as an issue. I don't know why people are always walking on egg shells regarding history. It sucked for many who worked there but that's literally the case for most of human history for most major events. This ain't the space for that and the whole expansion idea was very inutitive for this theme and legacy style. A+

Tom, i think you should absolutely check out Triangle Agency when it comes out later this year. it's a tabletop RPG that takes a lot of inspiration from legacy games, particularly pandemic legacy! it's the first legacy-style TTRPG i've ever seen - normally a TTRPG campaign easily generates emergent narratives that feel like they belong to the players, but what Triangle Agency does that's special even beyond that is the way that it rolls hidden rules & evolving mechanics into the generation of those narratives!! i've been playtesting it and i think it's really unique and suits the game's secret-paranormal-investigation-agency themeing really well. it absolutely lands those twists and turns and weighty consequential decisions that you feel in a good legacy board game, imo :O

Honestly your Oath costume set my expectations for your skills sky high

I can tell you as an FLGS owner in Canada, that this game was overwhelmingly well received by my customer base. The casual to hobbiest gamers bubble is a growing one. People that like games a lot, but that don't follow board games much, don't have bgg accounts. But they use my store as a outlet and info base. Ticket to Ride still sells in droves, and Legends of the West is popular with the casual family gamer thats a touch on the enthusastist side.

Thank you for the review

Am confused as to why Tom has pixelated his shirt. Is the shirt a Ticket To Ride Legacy component?

No one should ever have to remember what happened in Florida.

I played through session 1 of this game with my family this Christmas and i have to agree with the review. There's talk of this becoming a tradition every year but we'll see if it sticks since my family had a negative reaction to the legacy elements too much introduced too quickly at the end especially since it's been months if not years since they played ticket to ride.