Title: On Tour – USA & Europe | Designer: Chad DeShon | Artist: Anca Gavril | Publisher: allplay | Genre: Roll & Write | Players: 1-8 | Ages: 10+ | Time to Play: 20 Minutes
I first came across On Tour when my friend brought it over for game night. The premise of the game is that you are part of a band plotting out its tour across the US or Europe. Your job is to plan the ultimate route to play in the most cities and scoring the most points to win the game. Are you ready to rock!?
What’s In the Box?
The components of the game include:
- 1 Rulebook
- 41 USA State Cards
- 39 Europe Country Cards
- 8 Dry Erase Markers
- 2 10-sided Dice
- 8 Double Sided Player Maps
Setup
Each player will get a double sided Player Map and a dry erase marker. As a group, decide if you are going to use the USA or the Europe side. All players must be working on the same side of the board. For our play through, we used the USA side of the board. Shuffle the cards together (either the USA or Europe cards) and put them face down in the center of the play area. Also place the dice within reach of the players.
As part of set up, roll the dice. For set up only, if you get doubles, re-roll. Now use the two results to form two numbers. For example, if a 3 and a 7 are rolled, the numbers will be 37 and 73. One player will draw one card, and all players will take the lower of the numbers and draw it on the location of their Player Map matching the location shown on the card. Draw another card and use the higher number on the region shown. Repeat this step, so that four cards are completed. Take these four cards out of the deck and place them to the side. The first four numbers used, that all players wrote down, should be circled on the map.
You are now set to play On Tour!
Objective
In On Tour, you are planning the best route across your map for your band to tour. Each time a player rolls the dice, you will write the numbers shown on your map. At the end of the game, each of the 41 locations on your map will be marked. You will then draw a line going from the lowest number toward the highest number, going through as many cities as possible. The person with the most points at the end of the game is the winner.
Gameplay
On each turn, a player will reveal 3 cards from the deck and roll the 2 dice. Arranging the numbers on the dice will result in a high number and a low number. All players must write these two numbers on their map, using the cards to determine where to write them. Players will use two of the three cards drawn to guide them on where to write the numbers. The number must be written in one of the five regions in the game, either north, south, east, west, or central. If you are able to write a number in the state shown on one of the cards, you may circle it. Numbers that are circled earn extra points at the end of the game. When writing in your numbers, remember that a different card must be used for each number.
If doubles are rolled, or all three cards flipped show the same region, players may add a star to their map. If they are placing the star in a listed state or region, players may circle the star. Stars are wild and may be used as any number when planning your route. Once all players have written their numbers or stars, the three cards are discarded the cards, the dice are handed clockwise to the next player, and a new turn starts.
For the final turn, when only one or two cards remain, don’t flip the cards, only roll the dice. Use these numbers to fill in any empty spots left on the map. There may be a turn, when you are unable to place numbers in the regions the cards represent. In this case, you must place an X in an empty spot. These do not count for points at the end of the game.
After all states and regions are filled in, you will review over your completed map and try and draw a line through the most cities as possible. Lines must start from lowest and move toward the highest number, and all subsequent states must have a number of greater or equal value to the previous number. There is a spot on your game board to add up your points. The number of places you visited and the number of locations will give you your final score. The person with the highest score is the winner!
“Are you ready to rock!?”
Final Thoughts
I enjoyed On Tour, though it took me a hot minute to work out a winnable strategy. In my case, I wound up placing all the lower numbers in the northeast and the higher numbers in the southwest, and attempted to put all the mid-range numbers in the central regions of the map. Three of us played On Tour; Arc, our friend Wyc who brought over the game, and myself. We all seemed to have a different strategy of plotting out numbers, but somehow we all ended our tours with a score of 29. We couldn’t believe it! To make this even stranger, when I looked at the example given in the rulebook, the example also showed a score of 29!
I especially want to give mention the quality of the dry erase markers. They came to a nice fine tip, allowing for detailed writing. I wish more roll and write games would take the extra care to provide quality writing tools! The version on On Tour we had is printed as being published by boardgametables.com, but if you go to that website you are redirected to allplay.
I enjoyed that right out of the box, you can play On Tour with up to eight players. A lot of games seem to cap out at six players, and as we occasionally host bigger game nights, I can see this hitting our table again in the future. I also liked that you could name the band you are takin on tour. We each came up with some silly band names!
Overall, On Tour was a good time. I disagree with the time recommendations, however; as it took us closer to 35 minutes to complete a play through. That said, if are you looking for a different take on a roll and write, I recommend On Tour- USA & Europe!
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