Rachel, Matt, Kiri, and I finally played one of the surprise hits of Essen 2008, Galaxy Trucker, by Vlaada (Vladimír) Chvátil and produced by Czech Games Edition. That’s right, people were skeptical that a game of that name could be any good. Believe me, it can be.
Here’s the gist of the game. Everyone builds a spaceship using the pile of parts in the center of the board. Although building quickly can be a bonus, and there can be a sand timer involved, it’s not strictly a “real-time” event. You will add things to your spacecraft like cargo holds, crew quarters, lasers, shields, engines, and batteries. There are, of course, rules associated with the building, but for the most part they’re obvious — for example, you really shouldn’t put any part of the spacecraft directly behind an engine or directly in front of a laser.
Once your ship is built, you then send it on a trip across the galaxy. Event cards are turned up one at a time and everyone encounters them. What you’re trying to do is make it to the finish intact, preferably with some cash and goods. Along the way you encounter pirates, meteors, abandoned spaceships, trade planets, open space (where you can put the pedal to the metal and gain some speed), and a host of other boons and banes.
You track each ship’s relative position (first, second, third, fourth), which can change depending on how events go. Being in first place will get the highest payoff at the end, but a lot of hazards like to hit the first place position hard. Being in first place gets you first crack at the trade planets and other opportunities, but taking advantage of them can often delay you and put you further back in the pack.
The destructive hazards are the most fun. There’s always a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth as meteors or pilots tear apart the players’ ships, sending cargo, engines, and lasers, and crew into the junk pile. In our game, Kiri got two unlucky rolls in a row and destroyed his main pilot’s section (he won anyway). Matt was particularly ill-treated by Dame Fortune, as he watched his ship get whittled down to five components.
My goodness, Matt’s ship, you certainly have lost a lot of weight!
Once you finish you get your reward for your finishing spot, sell whatever cargo you have left, see who has the prettiest ship (no fooling — it’s based on the number of exposed connections you have), and then pay for damage incurred.
And then you do it two more times!
The rulebook is very well written, and is one of those books where the writer attempts humor while explaining the rules. However, this is the rare case in which the humor is actually funny. I didn’t need to read most of the rules to the other players, but wanted to for the light-hearted, jokey tone (which still gets the method of play across). The rulebook also teaches the game by telling you how to build a spaceship and then having you do so, without explaining more. You then encounter a programmed set of eight cards for your first flight, which it uses to explain encounters. Having survived that, you’re ready for rounds two and three, with a few more rules. I think it works very well.
The game is very well produced. The bits (though tiny) are great, especially the cute little astronauts. The component tiles are well-done, and use color well to remind players what things do. For example, there are purple and brown aliens you can have on your ship, which enhance your lasers and engines respectively. You know this right away because their crew quarters are purple and brown, and also lasers are purple and engines are brown. The icons on the cards are very clear, and everything seems pretty sturdy, especially considering the first part of each round where everyone’s grabbing for all the tiles.
In fact, the only complaint I have is that it’s out of print and looks like when it’s back in print, it’ll be pretty pricey. Thoughthammer’s got preorders for the Rio Grande edition, scheduled for April, at nearly fifty bucks! Ouch!
And yet, I may pay that. Because boy howdy, is this game fun. We had a blast playing it and I know I would love to play it again soon. It’s light, fun, and funny, and I don’t really have any other games like it. I don’t know how well it works with three and two players, though I imagine it scales well.
Between Galaxy Trucker and Brass, 2008 is shaping up to be a great gaming year indeed!
Last edited on 2008-02-09 17:43:42 CST (Total Number of Edits: 3)
Posted Thu Feb 7, 2008 7:52 pm
