Race for the Galaxy

Overview

Ladies and gentlemen… start your engines… and go! Explore the universe of possiblities, develop your infrastructure, settle planets, cash in on your planets’ resources, and start mining the planets for all they’re worth! There’s much wealth to obtain and too many players rushing to grab them to make this game one for those who are slow or inflexible.

Just be the first one to get your engine up and running because when I say this is a race for the galaxy, I really mean it. You and up to 3 other players will be constantly playing one action each turn and jockeying for the most valuable collection of planets, infrastructure, and points. The twist is that during the action resolution phase, everyone gets to perform everyone else’s actions though the person who plays the action gets a special benefit for doing so. Use those actions wisely to accumulate victory points or fill up the tableau. Or not, as you may wind up finding yourself being left in the dust as people settle, produce, consume, and redeem resources in their way to the top.

Core Mechanics: Cards, Tableau Building.

Victory Condition: There are two conditions that can lead to the game ending: someone builds a board of 12 cards, whether they’re planets or development cards or the victory point markers run out. Once the game ends, count how many victory points each player has earned on their card tableau and add that to their number of victory point markers. The winner is the person with the highest point total.

Ease of learning: Race for the Galaxy is a real bugbear to teach, not in the least because the iconography is both numerous and obtuse. For example, the most fundamental part of the game, settling planets, involve an explanation of regular versus military planets and halo planets versus colored resource planets versus gray planets. Finally, the whole differentiation between consumption and trading is annoying to neophytes, especially when they realize they need to consume even though they didn’t play that action themselves. All of this can be painful, all of this can be excruciating. Once you understand what all of the symbols mean, the game pretty much goes on autopilot. I’m just hesitant to teach this since the learning process may simply be too much for most people to stomach and suffer through.

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Basic Race for the Galaxy Strategy Guide
Race for the Galaxy Review
Race for the Galaxy Video Guide

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