Join us as we take a look at the engine building card game Race for the Galaxy published by Rio Grande Games. NB -Apologies to the anal amongst you. I screwed up one of the card descriptions. Sue me.
One of my favorite games ever! Yeah the symbols take some time to get used to but after it's just pure enjoyment. And the art: I honestly don't mind it at all, kind of like it.
The symbols greatly help to see other players' tableau at glance, enabling the interactivity. Something that Wingspan and Everdell sadly threw away to avoid confusing beginners, though fortunately Underwater Cities and Ark Nova didn't The art is very reminiscent of scifi books from the 70s, which heavily inspired Gundam, which probably aired when the millennial Japanese artist who worked on the card art was a teenager
Nice review 👍🏼 Definitely in my top 3 games ever. The word elegant gets overused but this game definitely is elegant. Elegant. Nothing beats the feeling of seeing your opponent optimistically building towards a military victory, oblivious to the fact that you are about to steamroller them in three turns with a joyless, but meticulously crafted novelty goods 'consume-produce'' engine..... Stoopid opponent. Great game. Elegant too.😂
We usually house rule this for the 3rd expansion: the pink prestige icons that appear on the lines for different stages are synonymous with VP chips. We ignore the pink prestige symbol at the very top by the world or development symbol completely so we can play with more cards without a bunch more rules overhead.
That was spot on. It's a shame that Rio Grande could not take these critiques, raise by players over the years, and make the subtle changes to improve the game. Tarot sized cards seemed to be outside their economic model. Still, a fantastic game if you bring your own Fresnel lense or magnifying glass and icon reference sheet.
As an occasional luck-chasing board game heathen, I really enjoy the Roll for the Galaxy version and never felt the need to try this version...until now. Bugger! Only shame is, as a player who has to fluff about in games playing solo most of the time, it rarely gets played.
My first board gaming love. Played this religiously at university and could waste hours on boardgamearena. If you've not played it you owe it to yourself to experience one of the all time great engine builders. Tricky to become fluent in the iconography making it a poor pick for a casual group but if you have a regular group this can become a mainstay in your gaming routine. Regarding BGBs point about linited interaction, I'm quite surprised to hear this. Every action picked by your opponent you yourself get to do, too. This leads to constant deliberation about what cards you should be putting down and which actions you should be taking. Will you benefit your opponent by picking settle? Can you assume your opponent os about to produce, meaning a quick consume action for points or trade will be rewarded by another resource placed on your planet? Can you assume your opponent will select an action you need, meaning you get more value selecting another action? Is your opponent speeding ahead with military, meaning you need to transition your consume strategy into a trade strategy to get currencies for big card plays? I'd love to hear if other people with experience in this game think it has limited interaction as my experience is very much the opposite. In my limited experience there's not many games that can deliver so much depth inside a 15ish minute game
One of the best engine building card games ever made. Add the cards from the Alien Artefacts expansion for complete perfection. No other card game packs as much depth into such a quick playtime once you've got the hang of the iconography. It could really use a new edition with some nicer graphic design. I can't help but wonder if it would be worth adopting a couple of tweaks that were used in Roll for the Galaxy which makes the actions slightly more intuitive: make the Settle a Planet action bonus also give a discount of 1 (instead of paying full cost, then getting one back), make Sell and Ship separate actions (instead of alternatives in the same phase), and do them after Produce. That might require some subtle rebalancing, but probably worth it for the easier teach.
Great game. Not at all multiplayer solitaire though!?.. Most games come down to reading what the other players are doing (although this is easier if just 2 players); online if I take my eyes off the other players card count, goods, and 6-cost cards, I will almost always lose. Played over a thousand times now and will never be done with it.
Excellent review as always. Great game, but jumping Jehoshaphat it is a bitch to teach... but once people know the game, it really earns its place as a classic (IMHO).
Res Arcana is good stuff, and easier to teach by far, but with players who know the rules, I'd prolly pull Race off the shelf first (because it is harder to get to the table).
One of my favorite games ever, played hundreds of times! It shows more of its depth with each play, and even more after a few hundreds! I love your review, but I don’t agree about the multiplayer solitaire part: with the simultaneous phase selection, there is a lot of interaction! And you definitely need to “read” each other player’s choice to outperform them, leeching on their selection…
It boils down to a guess. There’s no real way to know what action they will choose as you don’t know what cards they have. It’s rare that their tableau gives you enough info to make a meaningful decision.
@@BoardGameBollocks it’s more than a guess: it’s a mind war! He would benefit from this, but he knows I know, so he would surely do that instead, but what if he thinks I know that and does the original instead… 🤪
The deck is random; it literally doesnt matter who takes cards from the deck first. There is no way to get information about the deck so you might as draw from the bottom of the deck.
@@BoardGameBollocks ok, mate. Thanks for replying. Loved the video, just like all your videos. Told you before you're such a breath of fresh air in these P.C. times we're going through. You a ballsy dude. Keep at it matey.
Terraforming Mars spent one very special night with Race for the Galaxy and then we got Ares Expeditions; so if it's not *exactly* like Terraforming Mars, it's at least species compatible.
I don't know if you're tried it or not, but IMO "New Frontiers" is a better manifestation of RFTG. While I liked, but always struggled with RFTG, I had no problems with NF and found it far more enjoyable.
@@BoardGameBollocks it's a shuffled deck. So when you pick a card it can be any remaining one. Therefore it does not change anything. Just imagine a regular deck of card, i pick the top card, a 7 of spade. Ok... but it could be any other. The 7S, could have been anywhere in the deck, maybe in second place, so you might have picked it The only exception are when cards are put back under the deck or when a discard pile is reused "as is" without shuffling, or game like tarot when cards are not shuffled fro a game to an other.
@@BoardGameBollocks that's because you considere the shuffled deck of card as something important or imutable, which is not. It's... Shuffled, it's randomized! In most of game (incuding RFTG, i guess) you can draw cards pick one then replace the other in the deck, then reshuffle it. It doesn't change anything. When there is deck of cards, you can pick the first ones, or, anyones you want randomly in the deck, it doesn't change anything.
@bastoktok No. At the point the deck enters the game the deck is no longer randomised its predetermined. I’ve already had this argument so I’m stopping here.
I will have to disagree wit the iconography. Everyone says son BUT i find it the CLEANEST and BEST iconography of all games EVER designed. You grab 7 cards and in glimpse you know what you just got. PS: Cleanest iconography ever desesigned. Did i say that already?
I don't get your criticism that there is no turn order for drawing cards. The deck is completely random, so it doesn't matter. Maybe the other player takes the cards you don't want allowing you do draw the cards that work for you? Who knows? Doesn't matter!
It’s not. If there’s a free for all someone could complain that a card drawn could’ve been there’s card had they got there first. How do you decide who draws first? No deck is random as it has a pre determined structure.
Yes there is. If there were a turn order then someone would draw certain cards before someone else based on the pre determined structure of the deck. As it stands there’s no way to determine who draws cards before someone else. If two people go to grab cards at the same time and one person yields and finds their opponent drew cards they needed what then? That seems unfair that they muscled their way to getting the cards. Better to have a structured turn order.
I’ve been through this multiple times in the comments. The deck is still structured as it has a pre determined order. This means the distribution isn’t random. Someone may grab a card that you wanted for no reason other than they dug in first? How is that fair? Better to have a turn order so the deck structure is distributed in a structure fashion.
I was shocked to hear you say that you like the artwork. I think the graphic design is abysmal (the text, those grey boxes and cylinder looking things on the left side of each card) so maybe that's my problem with it. The box art is shite as well.
Simple fix that is to add the Xeno Invasion expansion. It forces everyone to cooperate to repel the aliens, but you're still trying to win individually via points as usual.
