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.

that is so cool!

Right! Let's start putting together the next game of Race for the Galaxy. Who's in? I figure same rules, same cards.

I will describe the next game element that we can add, though I recommend we play again with the existing rules unless everyone feels comfortable with them. The next element is goals, which are a way to score bonus points.

When we use goals, we will randomly draw some tiles before the game starts. They come in two sizes and can be seen here: [link] We draw four of the small tiles. Each of them describes some condition to be met. (For instance, score 5 victory points in chips, or get a power in every phase (including Consume-Trade). Whichever player achieves that condition first gets the tile and 3 points. (If two or more players achieve the condition at the same time, they all get the 3 points.)

We draw two of the big tiles. They go to whichever player has the most of some element, and has reached some threshold - for instance, the most production worlds (with at least 4), or the highest military strength (with at least 6). These tiles are worth 5 points. The leader can change during the game, in which case the tile changes hands too. (If two people become leaders in thata element at the same time, they each get 3 points until someone pulls in front. If someone catches up to but doesn't pass the leader, they get 3 points and the leader keeps the 5 points.)

Goals offer another way to score points, and therefore are another thing to think about when playing. I therefore suggest that you make sure you're comfortable with the base game before we add them.

Back to the original question - who would like to be in this game? Reply here or by email.

rftg

I'm in and would like the base game.

Work is calming down, if needed, I could play. But would give my seat up for a new player, if we have abundance.

Work is calming down, if needed, I could play. But would give my seat up for a new player, if we have abundance.

With the first expansion set in the game, we can accommodate up to five players, so I wouldn't be worried about taking someone else's space. Welcome aboard!

I'll sit this one out, thanks.

So, my brother is awesome and got me an Xbox One as an early Christmas present (he's a Game Stop manager and traded in the latest free PS4 he was given [apparently Sony loves showering Game Stop management in PS4s] for an XB1 for me) because he knew how much I wanted to play Halo 5. So far I've spent close to three hours trying to get to the point I can actually play the game. I've updated the Xbox twice, the controller once, had to wait for the game to install (because apparently being able to play it directly off the disk is so last gen) and now it wants to install a 14GB update to the game before I can play.

So instead of taking advantage of having an empty house and no work tomorrow by actually playing the game, I'm just jumping through the hoops necessary to hopefully be able to play the game someday. /first world problems

ETA: We're at the 5 hour mark from starting this journey and the update is at 38%. I've wasted less time installing DOS games from giant stacks of floppy disks than doing this. No wonder Sony is beating the crap out of MS in current console sales. This is unbelievable.