Race for the Galaxy First Impressions

Race for the Galaxy is a game I owned but sold before playing it…

Did I make the right choice?

In the card game Race for the Galaxy, players build galactic civilizations by playing game cards in front of them that represent worlds or technical and social developments. Some worlds allow players to produce goods, which can be consumed later to gain either card draws or victory points when the appropriate technologies are available to them. These are mainly provided by the developments and worlds that are not able to produce, but the fancier production worlds also give these bonuses.

This is a simultaneous action selection game where you build a tableau of cards. It’s known for being fairly complex with its depth of symbols It is in a way, but not too much. 7 Wonders is no different in my opinion.

Gameplay

Each player picks an action and simultaneously reveals it. Of the 5 actions available, only the ones selected by the players will activate. Those players that actually selected the action will get a bonus to it.

You get a handy in-depth if not massive helper sheet.

Actions

So the actions are…

Explore – Draw cards – The bonus either lets you draw more or look at more.

Develop – Play development cards to your tableau – Discard cards to pay the cost, the player playing the action gets a discount.

Settle – Play planet cards to your tableau – Discard cards to pay the cost or use Military, the player playing the action gets a discount.

Trade/Consume – Sell goods on your planets for points or more cards.

Produce – Produce goods on your production planets.

Rounds continue until one person has 12 cards in their tableau or the victory point tokens have depleted.

Most points win.

Race for the Galaxy Summary

This is a good game and I can see why it’s so popular. I can also see how the experience has a lot to do with the outcome of the game. You really need to play it to know what you can do and what’s in the deck.

As far as the game goes, I prefer Eminent Domain which is the game it’s most similar to in theme in my collection and also the lighter League of Hackers which is similar in gameplay.

Update: Roll for the Galaxy is better 🙂

But still, a good game that I will play more of. It only took 30 minutes.

Jesta ThaRogue