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Review #19: Race for the Galaxy

# of Players: 2-4
Playtime: 30-60 Minutes
Core Mechanic: Tableau Building
Theme: Space
Type: Card
Weight: Medium
Year: 2007

Rating: 9.5*

This is my favorite pure card game by a long shot. Although there is a bit of a learning curve due to the role selection and symbols, once you are able to get going, this is a solid engine building game set in space that plays quickly as well. The fact that there was an amazingly solid computer app helped me get a large number of plays in, possibly making this my most played game up until this year, where I was able to hone my strategies and gain exposure to the expansions. Add in some of the developer’s thoughts on creating the game found on the BGG website, including the backstory behind the cards, the game oozes theme every time I play now.  Recently, the Android app was released and I cannot stop playing. It is also available on Board Game Arena. So many options!


This game is based on the same role/action selection found in San Juan.  Each player secretly selects one of five actions: explore, develop, settle, consume, or produce.  The selections are then revealed and those will be the actions that occur this round.  Each player participates in each action for the round, but you also receive a bonus for the action you selected.  Using these actions, you will be building up a tableau of cards.  The game ends when one tableau reaches twelve cards or if the victory point pool is exhausted.  At that point, the player with the most victory points wins.  Victory points can be gained from developments, planets, or consumption.

Cards in the game have three functions - they can either be played as a planet or development, depending on what they are, from your hand; be discarded from your hand to pay for actions; or be drawn face down from the deck to be used as resources on planets.  Developments and planets can also modify the five actions mentioned earlier.


In the Explore phase, you will be able to draw cards from the deck and select one to add to your hand, with the bonus option to draw extra cards or select more cards.  During the Development phase, you will be able to play a development from your hand, with a bonus of paying one card less.  You will be able to settle planets during the Settle phase with the bonus of gaining a card from the deck after settlement.  In the Consume phase, you will be able to exchange resources for victory points, with a bonus of either receiving double the victory points or exchanging one resource for additional cards.  Finally, in the Produce phase, planets that can receive resources will get resources, with a bonus of extra production on specific planets.

The game is a combination of tableau building, action selection, and hand management. Being able to build an engine that gets you a lot of cards early on is important, but at some point you need to be able to modify that engine so you are able to generate victory points. It is also a game of hand management and timing. You may start the game off with fantastic cards that you want to play, but you must realize that you will need to sacrifice some of those cards to pay for the cost of playing other cards or spend turns drawing cards to use as payment. However, during that time spent other players may be already generating victory points or building up their engine.


Race for the Galaxy is a fantastic experience that is tense and strategic, especially when you try to predict the action phases that other players will be selecting for that round.  Having one of the best developed themes in a game only adds to the entire package. I think it belongs in the Middleweight collection for sure and will eventually add it to the Heavyweight collection once I review the expansions. For now, I think that it will also go into the Essential and Collector collections as I have not yet added any card based games to either, though I can see it being pushed ahead by another popular, space-themed card game when I eventually get to the review. Still, this is a classic by modern board game standards, with multiple expansion arcs and spin-offs including an even more well-received dice version and a highly anticipated board version.

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