2007
Sci-Fi
2007
Sci-Fi
30 - 60 Minutes
2 - 4 Players
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. At the beginning of each round, players each select, secretly and simultaneously, one of the seven roles which correspond to the phases in which the round progresses. By selecting a role, players activate that phase for this round, giving each player the opportunity to perform that phase's action. For example, if one player chooses the settle role, each player has the opportunity to settle one of the planets from their hand. The player who has chosen the role, however, gets a bonus that applies only to them. But bonuses may also be acquired through developments, so you must be aware when another player also takes advantage of your choice of role.
This is definitely one of those games that was a challenge to learn, partly due to the fact that it could do with a revision to make it easier to learn. The rulebook is basically not worth struggling with it’s that difficult. A friend of myself sat down and watched and re-watched a how to play video. And then tested scenarios of cards in order to finally get our heads round it. But once that happened, the payoff was great! We found ourselves just wanting to play this game over and over. Really creative and some really cool concepts with tableau building combined with action selection. Something that feels a little frustrating is that some of the cards in the base game Are expecting you to purchase a further expansion due to some of the symbols on them which makes them feel a little lacking. It’s never a great feeling to feel like you really ought to buy the expansion at the same time in order to get the most out of your base game. But that being said I’m sure that it is worth it as what you do get out of the game play with the base game is still really good fun once you get the rules locked in.