Race for the Galaxy
- rank: 78
- rating: 7.7
- published: 2007
- designer: Tom Lehmann
Print Status
- in print
Why It's On The List
- After you climb the iconography mountain to figure out the game, Race for the Galaxy is an amazing adventure in hand management & reading your opponents' mind - made even better by clever card design & interaction as well as great sci-fi art.
Tips & Tricks
- Learning Race for the Galaxy can be a bit of a chore - of course, since I've ranked it #2 on my list, you know I think it's worth it - but there are some things you can do to make it easier.
- First, don't add any of the expansions.
- Second, the first time you play, play two games in a row.
- The first game should be open-handed & use the preset hands from the base game.
- The second game can be "normal".
- Third, don't get obsessed about winning your first few games. Use them (they're short!) to explore the gamespace & see how cards can work together.
- There are five expansion sets available for Race for the Galaxy, all of which add numerous cards to the deck:
- The Gathering Storm (which adds a fifth player, goals & a robust solitaire system)
- Rebel vs. Imperium (which builds on the previous expansion, adding a sixth player & rules for takeovers)
- The Brink of War (which builds on the previous two expansions, adding prestige & the prestige/search action)
- Alien Artifacts (Alien Artifacts does NOT build on the previous expansions but instead is meant to be combined solely with the base game. It adds a fifth player & a new mode of play in which you explore the Alien Orb.)
- Xeno Invasion (the newest expansion - again, a stand-alone addition to the base game that adds the potential for a non-player adversary attacking all players.)
- There is another Xeno expansion planned... but it is waiting on some production issues.
- Between the iOS app powered by Keldon's AI, the version of Keldon's AI online, and BoardGameArena, I'm comfortable estimating that I've played Race against an AI and live players over 3k-4k times.
- My favorite way to play is 2 player advanced with goals & prestige... and no takeovers.
Extras
- I'm surprised how little I've written about Race for the Galaxy - evidently, I've been too busy actually playing the game to blog about it!
- This is the seventh of seven (7!) Tom Lehmann games on my top 100 countdown!
This is probably my #1 game, but I like playing New Frontiers and Roll for the Galaxy, too. Maybe even more than the original, so it is hard to rank them. I am glad I have them all (and Jump Drive, too)
ReplyDeleteI love Race for the Galaxy, but - it's also the game that made me realize that goals are _not_ a game element I care for. They can be done in ways that bother me less, but they just aren't my thing.
ReplyDeleteIt's the only game I've ever played 1000 times in person in a year, back in 2008.
And I don't want to think about how many times I've played against the AI. Fortunately, the PC version doesn't keep count...