Race for the galaxy

Race for the galaxy is a four player card game published by Rio

Grande Games.

The goal of the game is to build a space imperium and the player with

most victory points wins.

There's also a computer version of the game, which saves you from

packing up the game after playing.

Turn sequence

There are five phases in turn:

Explore

Develop

Settle

Consume

Produce

At the beginning of turn, every player selects one of these phases

and selections are revealed simultaneously. Only selected phases will be

played. Player who selected a phase gets a small bonus.

Explore

draw two cards and keep one

bonus: draw five cards and keep one

bonus: draw one additional card and keep one additional card

Develop

place development card in play and discard cards from your hand to

cover the cost

bonus: -1 to cost

Settle

place a planet card in play and discard cards from your hand to

cover the cost

except military planets, which you'll conquer with your military

score

if it's a windfall world, produce on it

Consume:

use consume powers on cards to turn good into victory points

you have to keep consuming until you can't anymore

bonus: trade one goods card for 2-5 cards

bonus: 2xVPs gain twice the victory points

Produce:

produce on regular planets

bonus: produce on windfall planet

repeat until:

one empire is 12 cards big

VP tokes run out

score:

points for cards on the table

cards in the hand (+1 for each)

VPs earned

special rules

cards on the table

draw extra cards

trade goods on planets

add up your military score

settle planets for cheaper

have bigger empire limit

produce on a windfall planet after discarding a card

etc.

Examples of cards

Star nomad raiders

military 2 planet, worth 1 vp

+1 to military

+2 cards when trading goods

Terraforming robots

development 3, worth 2 vp

draw 1 card after placing a world

discard 1 rare elements good to gain 1 card and 1 vp

Public works

development 1, worth 1 vp

draw 1 card after placing a development

discard 1 good to gain 1 vp

Expansions

All expansions add new cards.

The gathering storm

goals (first and most)

extra player

Rebel vs. Imperium

solo play

take over (conquer other player's worlds)

extra player

Brink of War

- prestige

counts as VP in the end

can be used to perform actions

requires two previous expansions

Alien Artifacts

incompatible with previous expansions

49 cards representing alien orb players can explore

balance between expanding and exploring

Verdict

fun and quick game

every player concentrates on their own imperium

keep an eye what opponent is doing (trading / military)

cards are dense with information

Example

I recorded myself playing against computer: [Race for the galaxy -

three medium