RACE FOR THE GALAXY -- Rio Grande Games

Card Game
2-4 players -- 12 and up
publisher: Rio Grande Games
list price: $34.95
author:  Thomas Lehmann
artist: Martin Hoffmann; Claus Stephan; Mirko Suzuki

In the card game Race for the Galaxy, players build galactic civilizations by playing game cards in front of them that represent worlds or technical  and social developments.  Some worlds allow players to produce goods, which can be consumed later to gain either card draws or victory points when the appropriate technologies are available to them.  These are mainly provided by the developments and worlds that are not able to produce, but the fancier production worlds also give these bonuses.

*****

This strikes me as one of the harder games to learn, but if you can get your family and friends to sit down and actually learn and play the game, you  could have a lot of fun.

There are a lot of aspects to learn, even though nearly everything you need to know is actually printed on each card, it takes some time to decipher what all the codes and images mean.  But after playing it, even just once, it comes much more quickly and the game really should move along at a good pace.

There's a great deal of strategy involved in the choice of cards, the cards played, the order that you decide to play them and so forth.  I could see that I was two rounds away from a big score and maybe finishing the game when my youngest son surprisingly finished the game on us, AND won with the most points.

There is also some luck involved in the cards that come to you, though I've seen a good player win repeatedly no matter what the cards, by playing to his hand strength, rather than trying to draw cards he wants.

if you consider yourself a gamer and want a great game with lots of components involved, this is maybe one of the best.  If you are a new gamer, maybe sit in on a few rounds with a friend.  In either case, this is a game to look forward to!

Rating: * * * *