David loves games about transportation. Every time he gets a new one in to sell he’s secretly hoping no one buys it before he’s ready to break it open and play it. You should see him when a new train game comes out. But unfortunately, all of these games have two things in common, one:  they all have boring art and two: none of them have vikings (that’s a detrimate in my book).

So, when David picked Pan Am for our next game to play I was not excited. I wasn’t even thrilled to punch out all the cardboard bits and as everyone knows, that is my favorite part. But David set up the game and I begrudgingly listened as he read the rules outloud. He barely got halfway through the rules and I got excited. The conceps just clicked. It had a little Ticket to Ride with collecting destination types in order to complete a route, but also mixed in a betting mechnasm with worker placement. And despite the cover and board art being a bit boring, the destination cards were beautiful and even the rules had fun art!

This game ended up being super tight, and David won by a tie break with Maddy. So, I lost and I still really enjoyed playing this. And any game where you can lose and still have fun is a good game. Pan Am is my new recommendation for anyone who likes Ticket to Ride but wants something a bit more … more.

Check it out if you get a chance.