Two questions were asked in addition to the one about resources. I said I’d answer, so here we go.
Clement asked how to order pizza in Thai, or at least how to say, “I’m hungry.” I’ll start with the latter.
The word hungry is pronounced like the English word “hue,” with a rising tone (look here or here to know what that means).
The rest depends on whether you’re a guy or a girl. The personal pronoun for a guy is like the word “poem,” with a rising tone; for a girl it’s “chun” with either a rising or a high tone. Then, to be polite, you need a particle at the end: “cup” for guys, “kah” for girls (high and falling tones, respectively).
So, Clement, you would say, “Pŏem hŭe cúp.” Cindy would say, “Chún hŭe kâh.” (This is not the proper anglicization of Thai, by the way. I’m writing these the way they are pronounced.)
If you want to order pizza, say “Căw pízzâ nòy cúp/kâh.” Of course then they’ll ask you all sorts of questions about what kind of pizza you want, at which point you find some pictures to point at.
Whytey wanted to know my strategies for success in Ticket to Ride. I’ll tell you how I play, but the only way I know to win for sure is to not play with Cindy and Emmet at the same time (also don’t play Europe – I can’t win on that continent). Here are some general strategies I play with:
- Keep the biggest destinations, if possible.
- Keep as many destinations as can reasonably go together (i.e. they share cities or are along similar routes). With 3 or 5 players, you might want to keep the minimum. With 2 or 4 players, don’t be afraid to keep them all.
- If you don’t have any big destinations, keep destinations near the big ones – as if you did have them. You might pick up the big ones later (it helps to know what the big destinations are for this one).
- Figure out which routes you have to have – the ones that will be the most trouble to go around if they’re taken. In the first turn, that means the 1-car routes and possibly Houston to Dallas. If you can use these, grab them right away.
- Grab face up cards for (a) routes identified in #3, (b) colors you need that just aren’t showing up, or (c) 5- or 6-car routes (especially if (b) is also true). Otherwise, take face down, especially in the beginning. You’ll get cards you don’t need, but you’ll be able to use them later and you’ll be glad you have them. You’ll also get wilds.
- Don’t ever draw face down for just one color. If you need just one color, you should be grabbing new destinations (in the middle) or wilds (at the end).
- Stay out of the Midwest. All those 1- and 2-car routes just waste time. Avoid it as much as you can.
- If Cindy says she has a terrible hand, and she’s sure she’ll lose, you should be more worried, not less. She’s not lying, but she’s probably not going to lose either.
Hope that helps!