Board 8 > Anybody here play Race for the Galaxy?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've been playing against an AI, and while I think I have the rules down, I have no idea what I'm doing for strategy, and have gone like 1 for 16. Any tips? I am pretty sure I am taking too much time to focus on my infrastructure, but if I try to rush VP I usually get owned. I also tend to just make up a strategy as I go if I can find two or three cards that go together to some extent.

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http://i.imgur.com/VITyG.jpg

It's my favorite board game! You're playing no expansions right? I don't remember how to play vanilla race that much. I think you have to just think really hard about what the AI might do and take that into consideration. You don't want him always taking advantage of your action while you never take advantege of his actions (for example, if he has 8 cards in hand and you have like 2, and he settles or develops, thats bad for you). Also, consume x2 is considered slightly too powerful in the base game.

The first expansion changes the game a lot (for the better), and the ones after that are nice but don't add that much. So I do recommend turning on the first expansion.

Unfortunately http://rftgstats.com/ is down right now for some reason :( But it's a really cool website with beautiful charts showing which cards are correlated with winning games, and which cards are in general most often played, etc

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People who don't finish their sentences
I'm a Team Fortress 2 superfan! Ask me anything!

Three major principles I would keep in mind:

1) Because the deck is big and there are a lot of cards, seeing as many cards as possible is crucial.
2) Play cards that maximize the potential of your other cards. Don't play cards together if their synergy is weak.
3) Take actions that maximize the potential of your cards compared to your opponent. Don't get too attached to explore.

Good lord I hate that game. With expansions, there are a zillion different rules in play that make it really hard to keep track of. And if you're really trying to be good at the game, you have to study everyone else's cards and try to predict their moves. That's information overload to me, and I don't have the patience to try to learn every card combo in the game.

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SuperNiceDog took my lunch money.

Yeah, I'm on the fence about Race to the Galaxy. I've played it a lot since I think all the different card powers and fun and the single-player computer version of it is really well done, but it is without a doubt one of the most inelegant and bloated games I've ever played. I don't even have a problem remembering what the cards do, and it's still an information overload. There's too many cards and sometimes finding the ones you need is a total crapshoot, although part of being good at the game is making combos out of what you happen to draw.

Hm, thanks. I've slowly started adding in the expansions, and I've been doing a bit better. Having the goals really helps me formulate strategies and get points. (the latter being kinda helpful since I usually either focus on my infrastructure and forget to score, or focus on scoring and never actually create the infra to do so >_>) I am not entirely sure how the later expansions work, but I'm figuring it out. Also trying to wean myself off Explore, because I DO get attached to it. <_< Can't pay for stuff if you don't have cards! But I had a few boards where I managed to build in a way where I got plenty of cards just from producing and/or trading :D

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http://i.imgur.com/VITyG.jpg

Yeah I think the moment you stop being a noob and start being a normal player is when you figure out how good trading is.

Gathering Storm just adds goals
Rebel vs. Imperium adds takeover powers, where you can take over another player's military world if you have a ton of military power (most people prefer to play without this, myself included)
Brink of War adds prestige which is a new type of victory point. When you have the most prestige, you get a free extra vp chip every round and sometimes a free card.

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People who don't finish their sentences
I'm a Team Fortress 2 superfan! Ask me anything!

A mistake I see pretty much every new player make is that they use Explore +1 +1 too much. It certainly has its place, especially when your handsize is small and you have no resources. In fact that's basically when you use it. If you have plenty of cards or you have resources, don't explore, or use Explore +5. Explore +5 is tricky. it seems bad but it's important for trying to see as many cards as possible to expand your combo potential. Explore +1 +1 isn't great. The main problem with Explore is that selecting it always allows everyone else to Explore, when it may be better to use other powers so that your opponent doesn't benefit so easily.

As a general rule, trading is awesome and I almost never win a game without doing it, unless I do a mass develop or mass consume x2 strategy. Trade for stuff. Don't feel like you have to go for alien (yellow) worlds, they're sort of a trap. Trading on brown and green worlds does just fine.