Game Preview: Race for the Galaxy Designer Preview #1

By Tom Lehmann
May 11, 2007

Publisher: Rio Grande Games
Designer: Tom Lehmann
Artwork: Mirko Suzuki (graphics) & Martin Hoffman and Claus Stephan (illustrations)
Players: 2-4
Ages: 12+
Playing Time: 20-40 minutes
Release Date: July 2007
Price: $34.95

[This is the first of several previews (roughly one per month) I’ll be posting before the game is published.]

Race for the Galaxy is a card game of economic expansion set in space. It has two primary sources: the unpublished CCG Duel for the Stars that I designed in the mid-1990s (with assistance from Rob Watkins) and a Puerto Rico card game prototype. I designed this prototype, at Alea’s request, based on an idea that Richard Borg and I came up with, namely that cards could serve multiple purposes in an economic game: what you build, the money you pay, and the goods you produce.

This idea was merged by Alea with Andreas Seyfarth’s own Puerto Rico card game prototype to form San Juan. Players familiar with San Juan should find Race fairly easy to learn.

Race is built on the notion of simultaneous play. Unlike San Juan (and Puerto Rico), players secretly select their actions from a personal set of seven action cards. After revealing them, only the game phases chosen by one or more players occur; the rest are skipped. Thus, a round might consist of nothing but Develop, if that’s what everyone selected, or—in a four player game—any four of the five phases (Explore, Develop, Settle, Consume, and Produce) could occur (in this order).

The players choosing a phase receive a bonus while everyone performs the phase’s action. Two phases—Explore and Consume—have two different bonuses available (thus the seven action cards for only five phases). For example, the base Explore action is that everyone draws two cards and selects one of them to keep. The two possible Explore bonuses are: Draw five more cards to select from (still keeping just one card), or draw one more card and keep one more card (i.e. draw three cards and keep two of them).

Phases are performed simultaneously. For example, during Settle, each player selects a world to place and then, once everyone is ready, they all flip these cards over and pay for—or militarily conquer—them. (The Settle bonus is to draw a card after settling a world.)

This phase structure not only reduces downtime but changes the game’s feel. If there’s an action you need to do, you can always play its action card to force that phase to occur. Alternatively, you can guess, based on your opponents’ positions, that one of them will call that phase and then choose another phase that also helps you, with the risk that the phase you really need doesn’t occur if your estimate is incorrect. Thus, instead of tactical denial (as in Puerto Rico or San Juan), you are faced with the “piggy-back” problem—how to most effectively take advantage of your opponents’ actions while pursuing your own strategy.

Players begin play with four cards in hand and a start world—each with a different special power—in their tableau. All cards are one of two kinds: developments, placed during Develop, or worlds, placed during Settle. Some worlds have military defense and can only be placed by being conquered. (If one has the development Contact Specialist, most military worlds can be placed by paying for them instead.)

Some worlds receive a good when they are first settled; others don’t start with a good but do receive one every time Produce is called.

Victory chips are earned by consuming goods. Empires have no inherent consumption abilities (though some start worlds have consume powers). One route to victory is to construct an economy by settling worlds that produce goods (not all worlds do) and building developments or worlds with consume powers, then turning this produce/consume “crank” over several rounds to earn lots of victory chips.

The game can end in two different ways, either when the last victory point chip is handed out or when a player has twelve or more cards in his or her tableau. Since two cards can potentially be placed each round (if both Develop and Settle are called and a player can afford both), a game can end in as few as six rounds. (Nine or ten rounds is typical.) Managing this variable tempo is one play challenge.

Developments and worlds are also worth victory points themselves. Worlds can be settled either by payment or, if they are military worlds, by conquering them (for no cost). Building a large military, by buying developments such as Space Marines or Drop Ships, then conquering valuable Rebel or Alien worlds is another victory route. Alternatively, by settling windfall worlds (those with a good placed on them upon first being settled), then selling these goods for cards, players can afford the more expensive worlds and developments that are worth more victory points.

The 6-cost developments are the third source of victory points. Each one is unique and provides bonus victory points for having cards of a specific kind (such as Genes worlds for the Pan-Galactic League) or with certain powers (such as Explore powers for the Galactic Survey). Each 6-cost development also has a useful power which encourages players to build them before the end of the game. Building several “interlocking” 6s, so that your other tableau cards earn victory point bonuses multiple times, is another path to victory.

Card powers can provide discounts, trade bonuses, extra production, bonus card draws, etc. Selecting which cards to build, which ones to spend as money, and when to explore to find the cards that will work best with the ones you have are some of the skills you will need in your quest to build the most powerful and prosperous space empire. Enjoy!

Race for the Galaxy is for 2-4 players, and each of the two projected expansions allow one more player to play. Typical game length is 20-40 minutes. (Expect the game to run a bit longer for your first few games until players are comfortable with the more than 90 different cards in the base set.)

Pictures - Click the picture for a larger version
	Zen-tastic—but who gathers the food?
	Everybody in the pool!
	An icon for everything, and every icon in its place
	Nice highlights on the scales

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