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Develop (Phase II). Connie plays Galactic Survey: SETI for 5 discards. This is a 6-cost development (with -1 for choosing Phase II). She looks at 2 extra cards whenever she explores. Its value at game end is 1 VP per Explore power plus 1 VP per world.

Laga plays Space Marines for 1 discard. This adds 2 to her military strength, bringing it up to 3.

chrismg passes. He has more important fish to fry in Phase III.

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And in Phase III (Settle), chrismg plays Terraformed World. He gets -2 cost from Replicant Robots, so it costs 3 discards. Terraformed World just has the one power, consume 1 good for 1 VP. However, it's also worth 5 VPs on its own. He picks up a card for choosing Settle.

Connie passes, she tossed all her cards to play Galactic Survey: SETI.

Laga, however, still has cards left, and plays Outlaw World. This is a 1-strength military world, so she has suffficient military. It can consume 1 good for 1 VP and 1 card.

Then there's Phase V, in which a bunch of producing happens. But that doesn't matter so much, because chrismg now has 12 cards in his layout, which means the end of the game! Points are up next.

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On the whole, this was quite a low-scoring game. From my perspective, cards never seemed to wind up where they would be most valuable. Alas, it happens sometimes.

Connie managed some significant consumption in this game, total of 11 points. She only used two Consume powers, but they each gave a bonus card, so there's good incentive to use them.

Consumption VPs
Connie Neil: 11
chrismg: 3
Laga: 5

Layout value favoured chrismg. After all, he played 12 cards, the others managed no more than 9. Most of them were cheap though, until Terraformed World in the last round.

Layout Value
Connie Neil: 8
chrismg: 18
Laga: 10

His only 6-cost development, Free Trade Association, was only worth 1 point. To him. It would've been 10 points to Laga. She did play Galactic Federation. Since that gives points for every development, that's generally a decent play for anyone. Connie had two cards here, Mining League and Galactic Survey: SETI, and leads in this category too.

6-Cost Developments
Connie Neil: 7
chrismg: 1
Laga: 6

Connie led in two categories, chrismg in one. Laga finished in second place in each category, for the most balanced strategy.

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And the totals are:

Connie Neil
Victory Points: 11
Layout Value: 8
6-Cost Developments: 7
Total: 26

chrismg
Victory Points: 3
Layout Value: 18
6-Cost Developments: 1
Total: 22

Laga
Victory Points: 5
Layout Value: 10
6-Cost Developments: 6
Total: 21

Congratulations to Connie, our winner! With everyone somewhat constrained in layout values, her edge in consumption carries the day. chrismg managed to edge in front of Laga in the final round, with his play of Terraformed World. He ended with bonuses or discounts in every phase but Explore, and was unlucky not to find better card to play with them. (Perhaps an Explore bonus would've helped with that.)

Only one point behind was Laga, who performed credibly in every category, but possibly just ran out of time.

Yeehah!

A very good game. Thanks billytea for GMing!

Well played, Connie.

Great game guys. Congrats, Connie!

I feel like, even though I managed to keep the cards flowing, I never managed to get them working together. Connie did that with the Blue production worlds and FTA and that put her out in front.

Last game, I noticed that production got VPs quickly, so I focused on that.

I feel like I got lucky with blue but did not focus on endgame soon enough. Connie really played well.

Weekend gaming report. I played two games of Race for the Galaxy with Ryan yesterday. He's a bit young for it, so we play with open hands; but with that caveat, he really has quite a good grasp on the mechanics, and how the cards interact. (And it also means that I get questions over breakfast like "Daddy, do you think Psi-Crystal World is a good card?" For the record, yes; yes I do.)

Even if the game is a bit complex at times, I've found it's a good one for a six-year old. Because there's limited interaction, and because one's layout never goes backwards, he can feel good about the layout he's built whether or not it actually wins. Much better than Monopoly, which ended in tears as he had to start removing hard-won houses from his properties to pay his debts.

We've gradually added game elements over time, so he could get used to them, and now we play with all three expansions. That adds scoring options compared to the base game, notably goals and prestige points. That'll be important here.

So, our two games. In the first game, I won by 103 to 51. My starting world was Alien Research Team, from the third expansion. This card gives -1 cost to play non-military Alien worlds, and allows you to play Alien military worlds as non-military - the only card in the entire game that does so. It also lets you consume an Alien good for a prestige point. I wound up with nine Alien cards in my layout, including two 6-cost developments that both gave bonus points for the number of Alien cards in your layout. (One of them was from the base game, Alien Tech Institute.) Those two cards alone were worth 39 points.

In the next game, he was the one with Alien Research Team. (I think mine was Ancient Race.) I built a strong layout, no complaints at all, and racked up 79 points. But Ryan just gunned it. He pulled Settle discounts and Explore bonuses, had prestige coming in from multiple directions, by game end he could trade Blue goods for 7 cards a pop, and he claimed most of the goals. Oh, and to cap it off, played a bunch of Alien worlds too. He claimed victory with 96 points.

This will do nothing to put him off the game.