10 Days in the USA

• Designers:  Alan R. Moon and Aaron Weissblum 
• Publisher: the Op
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 10+
• Time: 30 minutes
• Played newest version with review copy provided by publisher; probably 50+ total plays with all versions since 2003

You have 10 Days in the USA. Travel the country by jet, car, and on foot. Plan your trip from start to finish using destination and transportation tiles. With a little luck and clever planning, you just might outwit your fellow travelers.

This is the first installment in the 10 Days in series.

There are 50 state tiles, 10 colored airplane tiles, and 6 car tiles. Players all flip tiles one at a time, examine them, and put them in the 10 “days” of their tile tray, in any order. Then in turn, they draw a tile from one of three face-up piles or a face-down pile. The new tile may replace one tile in their tray, with that tile (or the unused drawn tile) discarded onto any of the face-up piles. Alternatively, players may swap any two tiles in their tray. When a player has all their days connected correctly, they win the game.

In a review paraphrase below by our own Greg S. – this game is described in one sentence as: “Rack-O with a geography lesson”. 

The comparisons to Rack-O are inescapable. However, instead of attempting to get numbers in the correct sequence, players must plan a cohesive and logical vacation through the states of the U.S.A. This vacation will be planned by each player on their private rack, into which they will place the country and transportation cards in attempts to form a logical path for their whirlwind tour.

The racks of theOp version are molded plastic. They don’t have much weight to them, but they do a decent enough job to hold the cards in place. They are linear as opposed to the curved plastic racks in Europa Tour, so they do occupy a bit more table space.  I find that I often stagger them, one above the other to keep them in front of me in my own table area, and to be able to turn them away from the other players so they can’t see my travel plans.

The cards are very nicely illustrated, each showing a travel highlight from the state.  Unlike some of the previous versions, the board in the 2024 edition is large enough so you can see all the states and clearly see the borders.  There is also a helpful asterisk at the Four Corners intersection to show you that the corners are not adjacent.   On the map, the countries and states are divided into various groups by easy-to-distinguish colors. 

States can be connected in one of three ways:

Land: If states are geographically adjacent and share a common land border, then they are considered adjacent. 

Air: If two countries / states have the same color, they can be connected by an air route, provided a player places an airplane card of the same color between the two countries on their rack.

Car: Any two countries / states can be connected by car, provided there is one intervening country or state that shares a common border with both of those countries or states. For instance, a player can travel from Texas to Kansas by car, since Oklahoma shares a border with both of those states. Of course, a player must place a car tile in their rack between the Texas and Kansas tiles.  In this newest version, I always make a point of showing players that there are two different shades of blue, and unless you’re paying attention, you might confuse the light blue airplane for the dark blue airplane.  This is really my only gripe about the graphic design – everything else is pretty easy to see.

The game begins with each player randomly drawing cards one-at-a-time from the face-down stacks until their racks are filled to the ten card capacity. As in Rack-O, a player may not move cards around within his rack. Once they are placed, they will remain in that position unless discarded on a future turn. The challenge, then – and the frustration – is to get them into the proper sequence.  An added physical challenge in this version is drawing the cards out of the plastic holder.  We now use this only for storage

The rest of the cards are placed in a deck, and then the top three are revealed and form the “draw” piles. On a turn, a player may select one of the three face-up cards, or take the top card from the face-down draw pile. He must then discard a card from his rack and replace it with the newly drawn card. Or, if he so chooses, he may simply discard the card he just drew.

The idea is to form a connected network of states. States that share a land boundary need no intervening form of transportation between them. However, if a player wishes to travel by air between two states, these must be of the same color and a player must play a plane card of the same color in his rack between those two tiles. (Again, warning that there are two varieties of blue planes!)  There are only two planes of each color in the mix, so this can be tricky. 

If a player wishes to travel by car between two states, the player must place a car tile between those two states. Remember, there must be an intervening state between these two which shares a common border. Car tiles are not color-sensitive. Since many states share common borders, it is possible to reach numerous other states via the use of an automobile. Thus, these tiles are very valuable and should be scooped at every opportunity. They rarely go to waste and give you much flexibility in your planning.. 

The first player to complete his vacation by logically connecting all ten tiles on his rack is victorious and enjoys the fruits of a well-planned vacation.  To prove that he/she has won, he transposes his cards from his rack to the spaces at the bottom of the board and everyone makes sure that the trip route is valid.

10 Days in the USA is a great family game.  The rules are easy, and at least for most Americans, the basic knowledge of geography makes it also easy to pick up.  There are no deep levels of strategy or numerous tactics to be employed here. That doesn’t mean, however, that the game is completely bereft of strategy. One should place tiles so as to keep as many options available as possible. So, spot the states that give you the most options and try to utilize these in your rack.  

There is also definitely a skill to the initial placement of the cards in your rack – and everyone seems to have their own strategy on this.  I like to place the first well-connected card near the middle (position 5 or 6) and then only place cards adjacent to this which are valid connections (or cards/planes of the correct color).  Cards that don’t fit well end up on the outsides of my board.  Then, when the game starts, I already have a nice linked middle section and I just work on making the outside ends connect.

Further, when discarding a tile from your rack, you are usually free to discard it atop any of the three revealed stacks of tiles. Try to cover tiles that you don’t wish to use, but which may be beneficial to your opponents. This will thwart their plans and often force them to completely rearrange their itinerary.

As with all the games in this series, there is certainly a degree of frustration involved. It can be quite maddening to never have the tile or tiles you need surface, or to have them scooped by an opponent before you have the opportunity to grab them. Often, you find yourself being forced to re-plan your itinerary, which is time consuming and fraught with its own perils. And, there is always this nagging feeling that your opponents are one step ahead of you in the rust to complete their vacation plans. These elements are what makes the game “click”, however, and help make the game quite enjoyable and moderately tense.

The game can be played with 2 – 4 players and is quite enjoyable with any number. With two players, however, it is a bit more strategic, as you can plan your discards and control your tile choices with a bit more certainty. Maneuvers can be made wherein you discard a tile, only to pick it up on your next turn in order to position it in your rack more advantageously. With 4 players, this tactic is much more difficult as the likelihood that the discarded tile will be taken or covered by an opponent before your next turn arrives is far greater.  Higher player counts also make it more risky to play a strategy where you are waiting for a single card that will complete your route – as there are always 30 cards out of your reach in the other player’s racks, and a much higher probability that it is locked away in someone else’s hands.

There is no escaping the fact that this is primarily a light family game – which is not a negative thing to say about a game.  There are definitely games that work better in different situations, and this is one for more causal gaming for sure.  There is a healthy dose of luck involved, and some folks might find this aspect not to their tastes. I’ve always enjoyed Rack-O, however, so I can enjoy any of the ”10 Days” games for what they are: Rack-O with a geography lesson.  

Thoughts from the Opinionated Gamers

Mark Jackson (13 plays of Europa Tour – the original German edition of the series, followed by 50+ plays of 10 Days in the USA): Dale (and Greg) are correct – this is Rack-O with a theme and with more interesting alternatives than the standard sorting of numbers. While I rated it “I like it” below, my non-gamer wife LOVES this game and is willing to play it whenever I ask.

Matt Carlson: It’s been awhile since I pulled this one out but I liked the original enough to keep the US map and all (four?) world sets around in my closet. With gaming space at a premium I think this shows how much I value this as a great lightweight game to drag out to play with non-gamers – especially friends who I don’t plan on trying to help make the jump to becoming full-blown gamers.

Mary Prasad: We love the 10 Days series of games. I believe we have all of the original versions. It’s a great filler and also a wonderful gateway game.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it! Dale Y, Eric M, Erik Arneson, Mary Prasad
• I like it. Mark Jackson, John P, Matt C.
• Neutral.
• Not for me…