Race For The Galaxy

by Lobo7922

(Barquisimeto, Lara, Venezuela)

Game:
Race For The Galaxy
Board game manufacturer:
Rio Grande Games
Number of players:
2-4
Ages:
12+

Quick verdict

Fast game, card based, with a Science Fiction theme and combat basis. Your Empire must become the most powerful in all the galaxy, you will explore the depths of space, colonize or conquer new planets, develop your empire industry and military and demonstrate your strategy skills.

The game and gameplay

Race for the Galaxy is one of the best rated of the new strategy games. The game plays in less than an hour (when everyone knows the rules).

Think of a 4X game, like Twilight Imperium or Master of Orion for the PC, but this game uses cards for almost everything and it’s a lot faster.

The game is divided in several phases, explore, develop, settle, consume and produce.

Each player has a Start World card and a card for every phase. The players choose (secretly) a card phase and then reveal it. Phases occur only if a player has chosen that phase action card.

All the players then take the corresponding actions, with bonuses for the players that played the corresponding action card.For example I play Explore and you play Settle, then both of us take the actions for the Explore phase, we draw cards but since I was the one playing explore I have a bonus (in fact I can choose betwen two diferent bonuses).

Then we go to the Settle phase, we both take the actions of the Settle phase but since you were the one that played Settle you have a bonus; If more than one player has choose the same phase he has the bonus too, but the phase only happens once for each round.

If you have have played Puerto Rico, San Juan or other similar games you can see the similarities with Race for the Galaxy. The main difference is that all the roles are chosen simultaneously.

Of course the key to understanding this game is understanding the cards. The game came with five Start World Cards, 109 game cards divided between 59 World Cards and 50 Developments, plus the Action Cards (for the phases).

Other games you might enjoy!
Caeser and Cleopatra
Carcassonne board game
Castle board game
Civilization board game
Hera game
Ninja vs Ninja
Puerto Rico board game
Risk boardgame
Safari Jack game
Settlers of Catan
Star Fleet Battles
Thurn and Taxis board game
Ticket To Ride board game
Strategy board games guide
Two-player games guide
Adult board games

Pros and cons

Whether you like Race For The Galaxy I think will depend of what kind of game are you looking for; in my case I like combat in games. San Juan and Puerto Rico have no combat, so that’s bad for me, but I know people that prefer it this way.

Huge replayability, I think this is a big Pro for everyone. Each time that you play this game will need to develop a new strategy, not two games are the same, each Start World gives you a different beginning.

The verdict

Race For The Galaxy is fast. Me and my friends no longer have lots of time to spent playing a board game, so this is great for us, but if you are looking for something Epic like Axis and Allies, then this is not your game.