The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

Awhile back, I ordered a big box of board games. They have arrived, and we are now playing through them and enjoying them. Etc. So here is some of my first impressions of the games within said big box.

One of the games I bought almost completely on a whim was Race for the Galaxy. I didn’t know anything at all about it, besides it was a card game (which is a huge plus in my book) and that several people on Talking Time seemed to like it. So some days ago, when the box came in, we busted that sucker out and gave it a try.

Damn, this game is complicated.

This is not a game you get right on the first, or even perhaps the second gameplay session. Each game card is partially COVERED in obtuse symbols. Each player is given a full page cheat-sheet for these symbols. Depending on differences in coloration, cards might play completely different. Some elements of cards actually don’t matter unless you add in an expansion set, but are just there in the base set. It’s really weird, and not for the weak of heart. This isn’t a game you’re going to be teaching your non-gamer parents or anything.

Still, once you start to get into it, the game starts to show off its fairly clever mechanics. The main idea of the game is that there are 5 phases to a turn, and each player picks a phase to get a special bonus in, in secret, at the start of the turn. The catch is that unless a player picks a bonus for that phase, it doesn’t happen. So if nobody picks the Explore phase bonus, no player gets an Explore phase that turn. This means it’s actually impossible to play all 5 phases in a turn, since there are only 4 players, max. It’s pretty interesting.

The other thing that I find interesting is the fact that the cards in your hand are both your money and your options. (options, options…) You have to discard cards to put things in play, but then you’re also throwing away things you can do… it’s a pretty solid way of making a currency without having another currency. (Though they then kind of throw that out the window with the “Goods” thing on Planets.)

Anyway, this game has a huge learning curve, but already, by the end of our second game, we were starting to get the hang of it. I think in another game or two, this will be really fun. We’ll have to see how it goes, though. Such learning curves can really kill the game, but it’s clear that underneath it, there is a really clever strategy game here. Hopefully we can find it.