Race for the Galaxy is a 2007 game designed by Thomas Lehmann, and published by Rio Grande Games
Race for the Galaxy is a tableau-building game for 2-4 players competing to expand their military, economic, and/or cultural influence throughout the galaxy fastest. Build your forces, mine planets for precious resources, and try to remember what all the iconography means. May the best Galactic Superpower win!
Is it fun?
It’s a race! Races are fun! Humans have been racing each other for millenia, and now we get to do it in SPACE. RftG is a light engine builder, and I love a good engine builder. As much as I miss a lot of the interactions that come from less race-style games, few other experiences give me the same thrill as executing that perfect consume-produce cycle over and over like a good interstellar mining executive.
A very qualified yes. Despite playing it at least a dozen times now, this game remains, for me, so incredibly obtuse. By the time I feel like I have remembered / relearned the iconography and am just starting to feel like I have an engine developing, the game ends. Although this game feels cluttered and confusing, if you can big-brain your way through the mess I do feel like a good time can be found.
Do the components/aesthetics improve the experience?
There’s a card in the game I like to play simply because the art reminds me of “Daft Punk in Space.” It’s also a decent card, mechanically, but that’s wholly beside the point. The art is swell. The cardboard point tokens are …space-themed cardboard point tokens, and my copy is starting to see some wear and tear, but understand that that’s after dozens of plays. If that tells you anything about how much I like to play this.
The art on these cards might not appeal to everyone, but I like it. It has a good, almost-pulpy, sci-fi aesthetic which I think lends itself very well to the vibe of the game. The components otherwise are fine–nothing to write home about, perhaps, but then again it would be odd for most of us to write home about board game components.
Does playing the game create an immersive experience?
This is where the game picks up some of the ground it may have lost with me on interactivity. Each player is telling themselves a story about their own galactic civilization: the war-mongering ones, the hunt for alien artifacts, the tourist trap on the edge of the corporate rim. The game itself isn’t narrative-heavy, but in an almost Dixit-like fashion, you tell yourself the tale as you play. And, of course, you can see how well others’ strategies are working in real time as they begin to collect victory points, which can ratchet up the tension if your own engine isn’t quite in place yet.
Everyone starts with a homeworld and is racing (hence the title) to 4x their way into galactic supremacy. The theme fits the mechanics pretty well, and a clear story emerges in each player’s tableau about the space civilization they have shepherded through the stars.
How often does a player make meaningful choices?
Every turn you are the master of your own destiny when it comes to selecting the phase you want to ensure occurs. Managing resources, handling card draw and engine building–there are even mechanics in play to help minimize the amount of randomness that comes along with being at the mercy of the draw pile.
Every turn involves multiple, sometimes-agonizing choices. Cards are the engine, the fuel for it, and the victory points all in one, so balancing which ones to keep, which to spend, etc. is a constant struggle.
Does the level of player interaction encourage continual engagement?
No, but the simultaneous turns make up the difference. I know that the expansions do adjust the level of player interaction, but base-game Race for the Galaxy could use a little more player interaction, to my mind. Still, that doesn’t really hurt engagement. It just feels like a game of solitaire sometimes.
Well, there isn’t any interaction to speak of. Nominally you may be paying some attention to what your opponents are doing to better understand what cards they are taking out of the pool, or how close they are to winning, but you might be smarter than I am. All my concentration goes into trying to keep the rules, how my engine is building, and what my budding “strategy” is clear in my head. That said, I remain firmly engaged in the game, just head-down on my own tableau. It very much is a race.
Is the game balanced such that it feels like a fair experience?
Yes. Every game feels different, and one runaway may come down to luck or it may come down to execution. When everyone makes the best of what they have on a level playing field, there are no snowball or runaway mechanics. It’s possible to come back from behind.
Everyone is working from the same deck, so it is almost totally equitable. Everyone does get a separate random homeworld, which can point you in the direction of a particular strategy, but you can easily-enough overcome one card if you choose a different path. The only real complaint I have in this category is that the learning curve is steep, which means experience gives a critical advantage.
How often would you want to play this game?
Sometimes I forget how much I like Race for the Galaxy until I pick it up again and am reminded. Those telltale riffs you’re hearing out of nowhere right now? Yeah. This game is my jam. There are people in my play group who wouldn’t want to see this hit the table every time — or ever — and that’s fine, but over a decade later, I still enjoy this game in heavy rotation.
Despite my complaints and how terrible I am at this game, it’s quick, it’s fun, I like it. I complain loudly when someone suggests this game, but I also don’t say no…
Is the game accessible?
Hooo-boy. The fatal flaw.
This is the one game I’ve actually had players change their minds about mid-rules and decide, “Uhh, no thanks, I’m good.” And it comes down to the symbols.
In trying to make the game “accessible” and reduce the amount of rules text on the cards themselves, I’m afraid Race has made the game intimidating for an unmotivated new player or beginning enthusiast on the fence. It takes a game or two for the symbols to really jive.
Playing a round of the game itself requires a minimal amount of reading, but you’ll need that symbol-to-text cheat sheet to really understand what’s going on. And it helps a lot if you’ve got someone at the table who already knows how to play and can provide some ongoing clarification.
If you’ve got a willing, captive audience, it’s totally teachable and totally accessible. If you’ve got a player who doesn’t even know if they want to play? Maybe steer clear.
Nope.
No, really: it is a very daunting game for new players (and even for an “unmotivated new player” or “beginning enthusiast” like myself…who has played this game dozens of times and it still feels like I am learning it for the first time, every time).
IF you have a good teacher and can play it enough to really cement the rules in your mind, it becomes a smooth experience, but that can take several plays, and then dedication thereafter to retain that knowledge.
Is the game good value?
Yes. Accessibility concerns aside, I still can’t help but recommend this game for the people willing to overcome the steep learning curve. At roughly the same price as Incan Gold on popular retail sites, I’d play this one orders of magnitude more often. At time of print, MSRP for the base game is $35, but some stores and reseller sites have it for less.
At $35, 2-4 players, and high replayability you will get your money’s worth. If this sounds like a game you might like, you owe it to yourself to have a copy up on your shelf.
Je ne sais quoi?
Yeah. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, yes. The game is a little obtuse. But in particular, Race for the Galaxy definitely has a quality I can’t really put my finger on. Maybe it’s the finish on the cards. Maybe it’s Galactic Trendsetters. It’s a fun experience that has outlasted even some of the “trendier” games in my collection.
I love 4x games, and this is a very good distilled 4x experience. The phase mechanic is excellent and building up your engine can be very satisfying.
Final Thoughts
Race for the Galaxy may have the most skewed ratio of accessibility to enjoyment out there. It is can be a hard sell to a new player, is difficult to teach, and is difficult to remember how to play once you have learned it. However, we both agree it is a classic, and highly worth the effort to teach and learn.
Final Scores