Race for the Galaxy

[Jan van Leyden]

I prefer Race to San Juan, mostly because San Juan is... well, sort-of solved. I don't recall the card combo offhand, but it's basically focused on the one that gives you extra VP for plantations, and then building a crapload of plantations really quickly. Most of our games of it have ended that way for the last half-dozen plays or so, so I've pretty-much lost interest.

Beg to differ. This Guild Hall plus Plantations strategy is only so powerful if your opponents are helping you. This strategy needs a three-card-cycle (Overseer -> Trader -> Builder) for nearly each plantation you want to build. Guess how long this cycle takes when you're on your own with the growing/selling part.

And with this strategy you absolutely need the Guild Hall. What do you do when you have to wait for it? And what do you do when it is dealt at the start of the game? Do you really use a strategy which gives you few cards up to the middle of the game? Be prepared to have the Guild Hall still lounging in your hand when your (aggressive) opponent builds his 12th building.

To be more flexible, you need several purple buldings as well (Smithy, Poor House, Aquaeduct, Black Market,...), which in turn reduce the value of your Guild Hall.

The proposed strategy is a seldom winner in our games.

 

[Fast Learner]

I admit that I've only played it about 15-20 times, but after the first 5 or so games (at which point it become obvious), it's won more than half.

Excited about the Race expansion... hoping to play it on Friday!

 

[Victim]

Just stumbled through my first 5 or so games, generally losing to my brother. And dang, New Galatic Order rocks.

 

[brehobit]

Race plays fast. Very fast. I like that.

We played 6 games in 4 hours and the same guy won every time. I like that too (skill matters).

Mark

 

[Asmor]

I wouldn't call Race a long game, by any means, but nor would I consider it a fast game.

 

[D.Shaffer]

I've seen it on the shelves, but considering my budget I need to be careful in what I purchase these days.

Can someone give/point to an overview of how it plays? I've seen several complaints about how non-interactive it it with other players in some ways...which in a game themed around sci fi empire building seems a bit odd.

 

[Asmor]

I've seen it on the shelves, but considering my budget I need to be careful in what I purchase these days.

Can someone give/point to an overview of how it plays? I've seen several complaints about how non-interactive it it with other players in some ways...which in a game themed around sci fi empire building seems a bit odd.

There's pretty much no player interaction. It's basically just a race to have the most points by the end of the game. Thus, player interaction is limited essentially to trying not to fall behind.

If you've played San Juan, it's rather similar to that, though still quite different.

There are 5 phases in each round, but not all 5 phases are used each turn. Specifically, each person chooses a phase secretly and they're all revealed at the same time. If, for example, no one chose "Explore," then there won't be an explore phase this round. If one or multiple people chose settle, there's a single settle phase this round.

So there's a bit of... implied player interaction, I guess, in that if you really want to explore, develop and settle, you can only play one of those and you gotta try to guess what other people might play and hope others play the other cards you need that round.

 

[brehobit]

So there's a bit of... implied player interaction, I guess, in that if you really want to explore, develop and settle, you can only play one of those and you gotta try to guess what other people might play and hope others play the other cards you need that round.

The interaction is actually non-trivial with practice. It just feels like solitaire to start. The only major interaction is guessing what others will do.

That said, it is certainly less interaction than most games.

Mark

 

[darkwing]

Can someone give/point to an overview of how it plays? I've seen several complaints about how non-interactive it it with other players in some ways...which in a game themed around sci fi empire building seems a bit odd.

BoardGameGeek is a good sight for game reviews.

It's interactive in so far as your best selected action might change depending on what your opponent does or is likely to do, but you're not going to send an invading force to take over their planets or anything like that. I like the game because I enjoy its focus on overall economic optimization based on variable (luck of the draw, what the other player does) inputs.

 

[Badwe]

Early on, it will feel extremely non-interactive. The change from the puerto rico style where one player taking a phase excludes another will lead to learning plays constantly overlapping. This is not to say more seasoned players will not overlap, but it will happen much less because of what interactivity the game has to offer coming to light.

For those completely uninitiated: Race is a completely card-based game of attempting to amass as many victory points as possible before the end of the game, which is any player managing to put 12 cards down on their portion of the board, or the victory points running out. Early on in the learning curve of the game, most groups will conclude predominantly with board fill. In the game, cards represent everything: you will both play cards from your hand as well as discard from your hand to play the card's associated cost. In this way, cards are both your money and your options. Similarly, to signify that a planet has produced a good, you will put a face down card on top of it.

For the actual game: there are 5 phases, with the "consume" phase (similar to captain and trader in puerto rico) and the "explore" phase having 2 potential ways to be played. There is a small advantage to playing each phase, the most prominent being the advantages of the consume phase. Early on, our group would frequently overlap as we would refuse to rely on anyone else to give us a phase we required.

This brings me to the main point: how is RftG interactive? I consider it very similar to drafting in magic the gathering. The strategy you pursue should be very dependent not only on what is made available to you in your early draws+starting planets, but what your opponents are doing. If you are looking to, for example, focus on a particular kind of good to capitalize on cards that work well with that good, be aware of any opponents also digging for it, and get out of an "overdrafted" strategy. The second part of this is knowing what your opponents will be doing. If there is only one military player, he is likely to settle on most of the turns, so rather than you settling you may pick a different phase. Much like drafting in magic can at first feel as simple as picking the best card out of 15 or fewer cards, you eventually realize that it is just as important what you are passing to and recieving from your opponents. Success comes from finding underutilized resources.