[We welcome first time contribute Andrea "Liga" Ligabue, a well known gamer from Italy with a varied background, broad interests and a keen insight in gaming. As he says:
"I was born in Modena in 1972 and since my childhood I really enjoyed playing and inventing games. My real "debut in society" was when I was 16 years old and I entered for the first time Club TreEmme, the oldest and greatest Italian games association. I was initiated into almost any game available in the late 80, starting from World in Flames, Battleltech and Star Fleet Battles, down to the Avalon Hill titles and the first Games workshop boardgames. I was also deeply involved in roleplaying activities, as player and as Dungeon Master: mainly Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, but also Warhammer RPG, Star Wars, Torg, Call of Cthulu. My love for boardgaming rose up year after years and in 1999, during a period of work in Denmark, I was lucky to meet the Great Dane himself, Mik Svellov. We started playing together regularly and I started to know and "import" the "German games". From 2000, I was also involved in organizing the Boardgame area in ModCon, the greatest Italian games convention. I never lost the love for American style games: I don't like party games and abstract games at all. I like good German style design with a nice theme, but I prefer games with a bit of randomness and dice. At the moment, my top 5 list is: Dungeon Twister, Age of Steam, RoboRally, Twilight Struggle and Twilight Imperium 3ed. I always like to try new games and designs and I'm not scared by long games with complex rules. I play both at TreEmme and with my family so I'm used to playing a lot of good family games, like last year's SDJ winner Zooloretto. Sometimes I also play miniatures games and CCG, but I'm never been involved in collectable games apart from a small involvement with Dragon Dice. I was part of the Boardgamenews project since I starting writing about Italy and Italian games and from 2007 I am a committee member for the International Gamers Award for strategy games."
In this issue, Andrea takes us into space with Race for the Galaxy.]
RACE FOR THE GALAXY (Abacus Spiele/Rio Grande Games, 2-4 players, ages 12 and up, 30-60 minutes; $34.99)
Race
for the Galaxy, designed by Thomas Lehmann and published by Rio Grande
Games, is one of the greatest Essen 2007 hits. Thomas was already known for many
designs including Phoenicia (featured last issue). Thomas
was also involved behind the scenes in the developing of San
Juan (Spring 2004 GA REPORT) and that is quite evident in this design
even if the two games differ.
I think there is no need to spend ink talking about the publishers since Rio
Grande Games has produced so many good quality games to be well known by
everyone. In the box you will find cards: four action decks in different colors
(nine cards each), a deck of planets and technology cards and victory points
counters.
Race for the Galaxy is fully a card game and you
get some of the feelings of a CCG, playing cards turn after turn getting more
power and possibilities. Every player controls one of five space civilizations
expanding in the galaxy through the colonization of planets and the developing
of technologies. Planets and technologies are represented by cards that also are
used for trade goods and money. The game ends at the end of the turn in which
one of the players has played 12 cards in front of him (or if the pool of
victory points counters is depleted). As in San
Juan, if you have to spend money, you are going to discard cards from
your hand; resources on the planets are marked with a face-down card displayed
below it.
Every turn, each player secretly decides which one of the five possible actions
he/she is going to execute by playing one of his seven action cards. The possible
actions, in the order they will be executed, are Explore, Develop, Settle,
Consume and Produce. All
the activated phases are then executed by all the players (not only the one who
played the card) in a fixed order with a sort of Puerto
Rico-like bonus for the one who played the right card.
Both Explore and Consume are displayed on two different action cards
because they could be activated with different bonuses. In the two player game,
every player is going to play two action cards and a second Settle and Develop
card is added making the decision of which two out of nine your are going to
play. It is important to note that not all the actions will be executed every
turn and that it will be possible (and is actually quite common) that more than
one player will choose the same action.
This part of the game, the decision
about which action card play in the turn, is where all the interaction between
players lay, trying to determine which actions other players are going to
activate so you can optimize your turn. If we need to find a fault in this
game, it is the lack of direct interaction between players. The rules assume
that every civilization is expanding in an unlimited zone of space so that there
is no competition for the same planets so no alliances, no trades, no epic
space battles but just a slow process of expansion in a quiet galaxy!
To understand the game, we need to go through the actions one by one. First
there is Exploration, the standard way for players to get new cards. Two new
cards are drawn from the deck but only one is held in hand. The two exploration
action cards allow a player to take seven cards instead of the usual two (always
keeping one) or just take three and keep two. You can imagine the first
simulating a deep space exploration in the aim of finding a particular planet,
the second like a detailed scan of a particular sector.
The second phase is Develop, where civilizations are going to acquire new
technologies. Most techs give players special benefits during the game; the most
expensive ones also give a lot of points in the final score. To play a
technology card you have to spend money (discard cards). The cost varies from 1
to 6 with a discount of 1 if you have played the Develop action card.
Since you can never accumulate more than 10 cards at the end of each turn, it is
quite clear that developing the six high cost technologies is a big investment.
On the other hand, it is not easy to win the game without at least one of these
special victory point cards The tech 6 cards are really different and to get
high bonuses, you usually have to follow a particular strategy; it is
important in that way to think ahead remembering that you can't be sure to be
able to get and play a particular 6 tech card until you have it in your hand.
The third phase is Settle when new planets are colonized. Usually the costs
range from 1 to 6 and every planet has particular and special abilities and
sometimes the possibility to produce goods. The planets are divided in two big
categories: red planets and black planets. You colonize the black ones spending
money, like developing new techs, but to colonize a red planet, you need to
conquer, without spending any cards but with enough military power. You start
with 0, 1 or 2 military power depending on the civilization you are going to use.
Some technologies and some planets improve this value. The military power you
need to conquer a planet varies from 1 to 7 (for the high point valued Rebel
Outpost!).
Usually, if you decide to follow the military way, you have to concentrate on
developing military technologies and conquering planets that give you more
military power. Sometimes it could happen that a lucky sequence of cards in the
beginning allows a player traveling the military way to rapidly become a
powerful military force conquering at no cost new planets every turn leading the
game to a quick end. The military way could be a good strategy to follow if you
have the right cards and the right civilizations.
The fourth phase is Consume where victory points are awarded and trades resolved. Trading means discard one (and only one) of your goods from one of
your planets getting from two to five cards depending on the type of good. This
is the most efficient way to get new cards/money in your hand, Then all the
other goods you have are converted to victory points as long as you have planets
and technologies allowing you to do that. A good production/consume engine could easily bring 4-6
points every turn.
The conversion of goods to victory points is activated for all but trade is
only available by playing the right action card. The second card activating the
Consume phase lets the player collect exactly the double amount of victory points.
The final phase is Produce where all planets capable of production and without
goods produce. Some planets are special, in the sense that they come in play
with a good but do not produce so often. There
are four different type of goods; they change in trade value and also in the way they
are used in the game thanks to the different powers activated by planets and
technologies.
The game ends at the end of the turn when all victory counters are been awarded
or when one of the players has 12 cards displayed in planets and technologies.
The winner is the player with the most victory points after totaling VP gained
by planets, technologies, special 6 tech card bonuses and victory counters.
What the game lacks, I think, is a bit of interaction between players and the possibility to play with more than 4. It is difficult to stop a player going to win because you have no possibility to interfere with his actions and that sometimes ruins part of the fun. Also, sometimes you have the impression that the game ends just when you have wisely raised your victory points engine and are going to use it at full power.
Race for the Galaxy plays really well and the
variety of planets and technologies and combinations make the game really fun
for many many sessions. There are a lot of symbols and icons on the cards,
referring to the many different abilities and powers. There was a lot of talking
about that on the net but I think that when you get into to game, knowing what
you are usually doing phase by phase, the icons are really clear and explicative
and in the first sessions you can use the well done reference sheets that
display, phase by phase, which icons you will find and their meanings. Starting from the second game, you won't need to use the reference sheet
anymore. I
have played it many times and still have not found any evident bug or killing
strategy. The
game plays well with 2, 3 and 4 and, of course, is easily expandable with new
cards and new civilizations. One of my best Essen purchases. - - - - - - Andrea "Liga" Ligabue
1960: THE MAKING OF THE PRESIDENT
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PALASTGEFLUSTER (DARK WHISPERINGS)