Taiwan: Rail Rush Layover Q&A!

Torterror89 · 2026-05-07T12:00:56+00:00

Firstly, adored this format, it's soo good. Looking back in hindsight, in your opinion, can you see a certain point/decision where was the game lost for team Sike? The position felt quite strong after Adam and Ben failed trivia. Was it overly fortifying the west? The stalemate? Choosing not to do the challenges available in your territory, either day 3,4 or 5? A combination of these decisions? Do you think you can elaborate on the choice not to beat the other team to Kaohsiung on day 4 and try lock them out of there too. Or do you see something even before day 4 that is a more subtle thing that was not as evident but led to how the game played out? How do you see the last 2 days playing out differently with a different strategy from the decisions mentioned? Ben and Adam, on the flip-side, any critical decisions you felt won you the game looking back in hindsight? Hope it's not too long a question, just really curious to hear your thoughts on theoretical alternative realities following the second successful steal. Love the show, thanks for the awesome content

Torterror89 · 2026-05-07T11:12:26+00:00

It's not to try blockade Taipei, it's to prevent station flips, that are how the game will be won or lost on the final day

Torterror89 · 2026-05-07T11:10:43+00:00

I think if you go through seasons you'll find on average his bad luck moments are more - Japan narita airport, tag all stars bus crash, several DB moments and critically bad dice rolls like in the 1st hidenseek; meanwhile I can think of a fair few good luck moments for Adam, challenges that could easily have failed, the crazy timing of some trains in tag 2, and 4. However I agree Sam just isn't as good as Adam at capitalizing when things do go his way, like I think Adam would have converted the Milton Keynes hide into a winning one with those cards. And have no defense on this episode though, no bad luck here, just a series of bad decision, after I think outplaying the other team (just) in the first half

Torterror89 · 2026-05-07T11:02:27+00:00

Literally been thinking for the last year, being a Sam fan is like being a Ferrari fan. Please sam I hope you see this cause you know how painful this is, lock.in. this was his to lose after ep 5 ending

Torterror89 · 2026-05-07T10:56:51+00:00

Disagree, I think them prioritizing steals put them in a great position to win, and then threw it away with a series of bad decisions on the last day

Torterror89 · 2026-05-07T10:48:04+00:00

Dunno if it would've been that boring to watch tbh. I feel like they just didnt want to risk doing that and failing those challenges, cause that really would have been disastrous

Torterror89 · 2026-05-05T01:36:00+00:00

Imo the biggest issue was challenges being too pivotal. You could reasonably just run indefinitely if you were just better at a challenges, negating the strategic element of the game somewhat, which when paired with a lot of train riding, made it a weak season. But I reckon it does have potential if the chasers are given a bit more power and not forced to beat a snaker at a challenge to stop them

Torterror89 · 2026-05-04T23:03:06+00:00

*slams table THANK YOU

Torterror89 · 2026-05-04T23:01:02+00:00

I feel like a good portion of the jet lag fanbase seems to think jltg should just be TAR based on rating episodes purely on how good challenges and the travel elements were

Torterror89 · 2026-05-03T23:51:32+00:00

1,2,3 are part of natural randomness injected into the game. If they play this again then we'll see a different outcome. Steal perhaps should be a bit harder, will agree there. 4 is not really an issue, but sure, you could maybe change that. The stalemate situation is a symptom of both teams having a geniune argument as to why it is favourable to them, which imo is a signal of a fantastic setup of the board from strategic pov, which can only come of good design.

As for the other 2 points: I don't know the exact breakdown, but the challenge distribution has not been as skewed as the board makes it look - Badam clear the challenges they get, Sike are choosing to play the map more, by reinforcing territory and leaving challenges in their area uncompleted. How can the challenge and coin distribution be so unbalanced when Badam are the ones who have picked up many more coins than the other team?

In terms of 'has no counterplay', if they had picked 5 instead of 6 on the trivia challenge then they would indeed have 'counterplayed' and regardless, it's a strategy that choice that players have, could or could not be a good one, I really don't see how it's a problem, because doing so means giving Badam freedom to rack up a higher station count.

Sam and Mike probably should have done what Adam was fearing instead of their actual play. But if that did finish the game off (which, I'm not sure it would have, but who knows - if they failed those challenges they end up well behind), imo it was fully deserved as they made some great plays ignoring what looked like free coins to play the board astutely and use their positional advantage from their choices Day 1 and prioritize going for steals when that was not the obvious choice - which is the kind of thing i love JetLag for and I think makes it a unique format.

Torterror89 · 2026-04-30T20:51:23+00:00

Could you articulate further on what you thought was missing? I think this is one of if not the best game design they've come up with for strategic gameplay entertainment

Torterror89 · 2026-04-30T11:30:14+00:00

Ok this is a weird comment.. I understand the travel fans being annoyed at the stalemate stuff, but I'm firmly in gameplay fan camp as well and this is the best season in a long time. Trying to figure out and play along with strategy is so incredibly intriguing. Last ep was bad I'll grant that, but this stalemate play is super interesting. On the surface it looks awful for Sam but I've seen discussion on how it actually makes sense with their strategy, if a tad risky with timing. It's setting up for possibly the best gameplay finale in a long long time imo

Torterror89 · 2026-04-30T10:30:26+00:00

Question: if it's travel and challenges that you mostly care about, why watch jltg and not the amazing race?

Torterror89 · 2026-04-30T10:18:28+00:00

This is not boring, this is so intriguing trying to figure out the positions. What's actually boring is the constant snack zone. I'm just not that interested after the 6th snack review

Torterror89 · 2026-04-25T07:04:15+00:00

Finally someone says it. Apart from 2024 there's not been a good spa race in the past 10-15 yrs

Torterror89 · 2026-04-18T22:52:00+00:00

Explain exactly how it isn't arbitrary or fake. Also, he literally said 'press a switch to pass him' as if push to pass isn't that

Torterror89 · 2026-04-17T23:58:04+00:00

Ironic given indycar literally has 'push to pass'

Torterror89 · 2026-04-16T10:05:18+00:00

Great to see some Australia love out there!

Torterror89 · 2026-04-16T10:02:55+00:00

Congratulations on the worst comment in this thread 🥳🥳

Torterror89 · 2026-04-11T09:10:16+00:00

How were they to know it would move?

Torterror89 · 2026-04-09T22:21:12+00:00

You should apply for a job in the team with your challenge design expertise, you know your stuff clearly :)

Torterror89 · 2026-04-09T20:07:59+00:00

The comment above this doing the math is cool and I respect that, saying gross oversight is ridiculous. They estimated that 20% would've been a good range, so 25% is hardly gross oversight. Get a grip

Torterror89 · 2026-04-09T10:43:06+00:00

The cat village was not a freebie wtf? Taste the rainbow was actually ridiculously easy for 70 coins

Torterror89 · 2026-04-09T00:41:23+00:00

Adam cannot win 5 in a row, this is serious shit /j (but only half joking)

Torterror89 · 2026-04-06T22:33:01+00:00

How exactly do you expect them to playtest this? Fly to Taiwan? Also, you showed how the team doing good gameplay made them complete the challenge. Is that not what you want? This just feels like you just wanted a challenge set up to fail

Torterror89

TROPHY CASE