Race for the Galaxy: Review
Information:
Mechanics: Engine-Building, Simultaneous Play
Player Age: 12+Player Count: 2 - 4 PlayersTime to Play: 30 Minutes
Game Designer: Thomas LehmannGame Artist: Martin Hoffmann, Claus StephanPublisher: Rio Grande GamesYear Published: 2007BGG Weight: 2.99Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.
Player Age: 12+
Game Designer: Thomas Lehmann
Introduction:
Race for the Galaxy is an engine-building game where players are trying to use high-scoring cards, or to create an engine that produces and consumes resources to score victory points. The unique hook for this game is that five possible phases can occur each round. However, only the phases that the players secretly select at the start of a round will determine which phases every player will partake in. For example if two players select the develop phase, this phase will only occur once and both of those players will gain a benefit in the develop phase. Players are often weighing up which phases are most important to them and which phase they believe other players may choose, so that they don't have to.
Cards:
Card Anatomy:
The development and planet cards have similar attributes. They all have the cost to the left-hand side in a circle for a planet and a rhombus for a development. In the shape next to this will be the victory points that the card is worth if it is in the players' tableu at the end of the game. Each card also has a benefit that will be gained for the player's engine to the left-hand side, shown as icons. This is broken into the phases, as well as the sale consume action between phases three and four.
If the player aid doesn't contain enough information, some cards will also have a text box to the right side of the card to explain the benefit in better detail.
Development Cards:
Development cards are played throughout the develop phase. These cards will be used to enhance the player's engine.
6-cost development cards hold valuable scoring conditions to the top right of the card. Playing these cards and building the tableu around them is a key scoring metric.
Planet Cards:
Planet cards are played during the settle phase and contain three types of planets. There is a production planet that will have a filled circle in one of the four resources; Alien Technology (yellow), Genes (green), Rare Elements (brown), and Novelty (blue). These planets have a produce function for the production phase that will allow the player to create a resource (represented by a face-down card from the deck) of the matching planet’s colour. Each planet can only have one produced resource at a time.
Windfall planets (shown by a coloured aura around the ring of the circle in one of the four resource colours) are similar to production planets, but instead of having a produce function they gain a resource when the planet is played. Some cards, like the production action selection card and other engine-building cards, will produce on these windfall planets at later points.
The last planet type is military planets. They are shown by the red border on the planet cost. Instead of costing cards, the cost is military power. This is a renewable currency where each player starts with zero. Through other cards in a player's tableu, they will have plus-1 or minus-1 from this military value. Military planets can still be windfall or production planets.
Action Cards:
Each player will have the same action cards in their colour of choice. At the start of each round, every player has all of these action cards in their hand. Everyone will secretly choose one action card and together they will be revealed. This will determine which phases are played for this round. For example,if only the ‘develop’ and ‘produce’ are revealed the round will consist of only those two phases and every other action phase will be skipped.
Each action card also performs a benefit during that phase to the player who choses the action. There are two explore cards and two consume cards. The explore cards will award the benefit of drawing more cards from the deck but only keeping one or two. The consume action will grant a multiplier of two to all points gained this phase, or it will allow the player to sell one produced resource for a set amount of cards (as a sell action).
In a two-player game, there is a bonus settle and develop action. In this two-player variant, players will action two cards at the start of each round. If two develop or settle actions are played by one player, there will be two develop or settle phases for everyone.
Setup:
- Each player takes their seven action cards of their colour (nine in a two-player game).
- Deal each player a starter world for their tableu. These are cards with a red or blue border in the corner (these borders matter for an expansion).
- Deal the rest of the start worlds to the players. Two will be discarded into the discard pile while the remaining four will be shuffled together to make the starting draw pile.
- Shuffle the remainder of the cards to be placed under the draw pile.
How to Play:
Race for the Galaxy is played over various rounds until the victory point pile is depleted or one player has 12 cards in their tableu. When this occurs, the round will resolve fully and every player will count all points on their tableu, any six-card developments, and any tokens. The player with the most points is the winner.
At the start of every round, each player will select an action card privately. All the action cards will then be revealed, and these will be the action phases that are played this round. At the end of every round, the played action cards will return to the players’ hands. The game is mostly simultaneous as each player selects the card they want to play, then reveals and pays for it. The five phases are; explore, develop, settle, consume, and produce. Chosen phases will resolve following this order.
Phase 1 - Explore:
This is the common method to gain cards, especially being able to select the one you want to keep. The base phase is to draw two cards and keep one. This will be enhanced by a benefit if the player selects it this round.
Phase 2 - Develop:
In the develop phase, each player can build one development by discarding cards from their hand. Playing the develop action card at the start of the round will make the development cost one less.
Phase 3 - Settle:
Settle is the same as the develop phase, only it is focused on playing one planet card. The military planets won't cost cards, instead, the player must have a military value meeting the cost. By playing the settle action card for the round, players will draw a card after settling.
Phase 4 - Consume:
Each consume action in the players' tableu will activate through spending production resources. Some consume actions allow the player to gain a card as a bonus in addition to points.
Phase 5 - Produce:
This phase will activate every produce action in a player's tableu. If a player already has a resource on a card, they cannot produce on that card again. Some produce actions will gain the player a new card instead of a resource. The benefit to the player who played the produce action card is that they can produce a resource on a windfall planet.
Final Thoughts:
- Cards are your currency, which helps accelerate finding the engine-specific cards as there are plenty of ways to draw more cards.
- Core engine building game of designing an engine and crunching that engine until the points have dwindled or cards that score well have been played.
Race for the Galaxy is a core engine-building game. Players are finding an engine that will work for them through settling the right planets and building the right developments. Players will then try to optimise these engines to produce resources and consume victory points, and/or build a six-cost development and focus on its specific scoring conditions. This may sound quite procedural but it's very fun and engaging how two core elements work. Firstly, cards are the main method of payment throughout the game so players will burn through their deck quickly. This allows players to easily search for the right cards to add to their engine. The other element is how the phases work each round. There are five phases in the game but not every one will occur each round. This is a great way to do action selection as not only do players have to decide which action is most important to them but they can also judge off the other players tableu which actions they may do. I have really enjoyed this game and hope for many more plays. I can easily recommend this engine builder.
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