Race for the Galaxy 10

Apr 22 2017

Tags

I'm playing this game with the Gathering Storm expansion Robot AI player. It looks pretty cool, has a little decision track. To get going in the game, I've been watching a number of Youtube videos. It's helped a bit to understand what the rules are actually saying. As is typical for modern "easy" games which function mostly on iconography, I do not find the supporting text to be clearly written or unambiguous. English is a difficult language for expressing precision, which is why it's really important rules are crisp and clear.

At the half way point in the game, Mr Robot is far, far ahead, and I am pretty sure I'm going to lose very badly. On the other hand, I'm getting a better grip on what all the icons mean.

That was a little more than half way, just a couple more rounds resulted in Mr Robot taking all the remaining VPs to end the game.

Final score: Robot 38, me 22.

What to play next?

Deciding what to play next is always a tough call when faced with a closet full of games, all of which were purchased with intent to play. Here's one I'm dealing with the decision.

Something New: this means both something new to me and a game which has been published recently, within the last two or three years.
Something Classic: I've acquired a number of games properly considered "classic" which haven't yet been played. The current example would be PanzerGruppe Guderian.
Something Again: mastery requires constant practice, which means playing games many, many times to allow nuance to appear.
Something Vietnam: as I'm on a Vietnam binge. I don't have all the Vietnam games ever published, but I can say that I have a lot of them, and probably more than most people.
Something Obscure: as it's fun to poke around in the dustier corners of game design.
Something Different: break away from the same old publishers and try a game from one of the new kids on the block. Or, conversely, dip into legacy with a classic tried and true.
Something Light: once in a while it's nice to actually finish a game all the way through in one sitting, in an hour or two.
Something Heavy: if possible, it's nice to set up something big and complicated which can be left out for days or weeks or even months, for a leisurely stroll through a very large or long game.

There are surely many more ways to choose, but the above method keeps me busy enough, helps me get both breadth and depth into my play, and provides me with a sense of progress.

The odd man out

When there is an odd man out:

Have a solo game ready to play.
Keep score or advise on a game in progress.
Referee a game in progress.