Alex Rockwell
United States
Bothell
Washington
-
The primary goal: To win in RFTG, you want to do two things:
1) Make it so that there is something you can do which scores more points for you than for others. (Your scoring strategy).
2) Be versatile enough that you can usually take advantage of every role selection that your opponents make. (‘Leeching’ + making preparations to be able to do something in each phase).
Doing both of these will generally beat doing one of them.
The Four Strategies:
The four strategies each attempt to make a certain role choice much better for you than for your opponents. You need to choose a strategy based on your hand, homeworld, and early card builds, not on cards you wish to draw from the deck! For example, don’t build military without military worlds, don’t build a production engine without consume powers in your hand or play, etc.
When faced with a hand containing several, incomplete strategies, don’t build one (discarding the cards for the others), and then hope to draw the right stuff. In that situation, explore or trade for cards so you see which one comes, and then follow it. Try to build versatile cards, and make money in the meantime. The only ‘strategy’ that’s worth blindly throwing all your cards away for at the beginning of the game, is to make a big trade good as an income source, such as a big alien windfall world. Income is the universal strategy. If you don’t have the pieces of another strategy yet, do it.
The strategies are:
Development discount Strategy:
You develop cards which give you discounts or rebates for making more developments, and then make cheap developments for points.
Cards that make it strong: Galactic Federation is the best card for this, it’s the entire strategy in one card. Investment Credits, Public Works and Interstellar Bank provide your discounts, while many 6 buildings score well, especially Galactic Federation and New Economy. Trade league is also strong, and there are usually a couple others based on what cards you build.
How to play it well: Try to time your non-develop role choices for times when your opponents have plenty of cards (when they are able/wanting to develop). Try to develop any time they don’t have plenty of cards. It is especially strong to develop multiple of the discount/rebate cards very early, as opponents will not have the cardflow to keep developing frequently.
How other strategies work as a secondary boost to it:
Military: You can build cheap developments that give military, and then have free worlds to play when others settle.
Trade: You can get cheap trade bonuses, deficit spending, trade league, and use your trading to find 6 cost developments. This tends to be the best combination for a Develop strategy (but it depends on your cards)
Production: You can build engine cards for cheap to benefit your production worlds.
Military Strategy:
You get cards which increase your military, and stockpile military scoring worlds in your hand, and then repeatedly settle for no cost.
Cards that make it strong: Early on, a good military windfall world will help get cardflow. Big scoring military worlds like the rebels and aliens, and the 6 developments New Galactic Order, Galactic Imperium, Alien Tech Institute, Galactic Survey: Seti, and possibly Pan-Galactic League.
How to play it well: Don’t discard any big scoring cards unless absolutely necessary. Its better to go slower and save the card so you have it later. Stockpiling future plays is far more important in a military strategy than in any other strategy. Do NOT settle a ton very early in the game, it helps the producers get going very fast. Do not just settle a bunch of little windfall worlds. Settle a little, to get your windfall world, and trade and explore (and possibly produce onto your windfall if it doesn’t help others too much). Choose explore +5 to find big scoring cards, if you have plenty of cards but not enough big military scorers. Settle almost constantly at the end, spending your stockpile of big scoring cards. You want to have a modest number of early settles and a ton of them later.
How other strategies work as a secondary boost to it:
Development: Discounts can lead to cheap military boosting cards and scoring 6 buildings.
Trade: Combines very well, you can settle, then trade the good you get for many cards, both allowing you to find big scoring worlds, and afford the big developments.
Production: Doesn’t combine well for scoring, since there are almost no military production worlds, and normal worlds aren’t utilizing your military. However, it can get you good card income to get a world and consume power that provide cards. You’ll generally only develop a leech on other’s production.
Trading Strategy:
You make trades for huge numbers of cards, and then purchase large scoring developments and worlds, as well as discarding cards for VPs through Deficit spending and/or merchant world.
Cards that make it strong: Deficit Spending and Merchant world are amazing, as without them this strategy tends to waste many cards through hand-limit discards. Trade bonuses, especially large bonuses to a certain good that you can produce, are very helpful. Trade League and New Economy tend to do very well here, along with some other 6’s. Contact Specialist is also good in this strategy, allowing more cheap windfall worlds to give you trade goods, as well as providing more opportunities to get big scoring worlds in the rebel worlds.
How to play it well: Create a setup where you can trade multiple times per production cycle. Produce/Trade/Produce/Trade helps others way too much. Product/Trade/Trade is better, while just Trading and not needing to produce (getting goods off other’s produce + played windfalls), is the best way to go. This means that you want to have at least 2 more production capacity than you have consume powers, so that after a production you can trade and still have a good left to trade again on the next turn. If someone else is alternating produce/consume, you will be able to choose trade every turn. This makes Deficit Spending/Merchant World insanely strong, as each one thus provides 4 vps per cycle of produce/consume that others get to do. That balances out two production/consumption worlds of your opponents! Another good way to go is to alternate between trading and spending your cards on big stuff, waiting for opponents to produce.
How other strategies work as a secondary boost to it:
Development: Putting together a combination of developments and worlds with trade powers and consumer powers, and 6 buildings like Trade League, New Economy, and Galactic Federation is incredibly strong. However, develop discounts probably wont be very important when you are trading for a full hand each turn, you’ll just discard cards.
Military: Generates more windfall worlds for you to sell, and the military worlds
Production: An early trade strategy can often morph into a production strategy by getting consume powers and switching to 2xVPs. Also a Trade League will allow you to make both a trade and choose 2xVPs.
Production Strategy:
You make worlds which produce goods, and some consume powers, and then alternate between producing and choosing Consume: 2xVPs.
Cards that make it strong: ‘Engine’ cards that consume multiple goods and possibly provide other advantages are a very efficient way to get a consumption strategy going. Consumer Markets, Diversified Economy, and Mining Conglomerate all consume multiple goods of certain type and produce cards. Tourist World and Galactic Trendsetters consume goods for bonus VPs over what you usually get. Cheap Production worlds, and Replicant Robots will help you be able to afford to get going quickly. Many 6 developments such as Merchant World, Free-Trade Association, Mining League, Galactic renaissance, Seti, New Economy, and Tradue League support a production strategy.
How to play it well: Get your production set up quickly, not missing settle opportunities. Once you get set up, stop choosing Develop or Settle, and instead do Produce/Consume. If you get set up first, you can run your engine and gain a lead over the others. Do it. Force them to choose settle or develop in order to try and catch up to you in production/consumption powers, and when they do, spend your cards. It is much better to be able to produce cards while doing your cycle, through worlds or developments that make cards when you produce, and/or consumption powers that make cards. For example, a Comet Zone, Mining World, and Mining Conglomerate are far, far better than a couple Prosperous Worlds.
If you don’t make cards during your Produce/Consume cycle, you wont be able to grow or afford big scoring cards. A quick setup like this can win, but you need to race the VP pile and hope the game ends before others can catch up to your early lead. If you do make cards during your cycle, then you can score almost as many points during develop and settle as your opponents, making it very hard to overcome your gain from the production cycle.
Making one windfall world is good, it lets you use your production phase bonus, and gives you an early trade. Making two windfall worlds is bad unless you got something that produces onto one of them.
How other strategies work as a secondary boost to it:
Development: Many developments have useful consume powers, and many 6 buildings score well for a production strategy.
Military: Military isn’t really helpful to a primarily production strategy. Its kindof a waste of settle phases that could’ve been increasing your intake from produce/consume.
Trade: You’ll often trade early on in a Production strategy, so trade bonuses are good early, but not late. Deficit Spending/Merchant World aren’t very helpful when you’re only consuming on half the turns, choosing 2xVPs and don’t have a bunch of extra cards. While production is a good second to a trading strategy, trading bonuses don’t really help a consume strategy later on. Trade League, however, is very strong.
Summary of the general strength of supporting (hybrid/secondary) strategies, to your main strategy:
Primary Strat:
(Development): Military: ok. Trade: strong. Production: ok.
(Military): Development: ok. Trade: strong. Production: bad.
(Trade): Development: ok. Military: strong. Production: ok.
(Production): Development: ok. Military: bad. Trade: good early/bad late.
Summarized Strategy advice:
Early trading (windfall/trade bonus) is always good. Trading for income supports all strategies well and keeps your options open. To use trading as more than a support strategy, you should get deficit spending or merchant worlds, and get a set up where you can consume more than once per production cycle.
A production strategy should mostly focus on making its engine fast (worlds to produce, and developments/worlds to consume). It should prioritize cards that both make cards and produce or consume. It focuses less on its secondary/hybrid strategies than any of the others. It should not be combined with military.
Early development discount/rebate cards are strong and versatile. They can either support a development strategy or help out any of the other strategies.
Military strategies are much more concerned with hoarding strong future plays than any of the others. A military strategy should only choose settle a moderate amount of times early on (to limit opponent’s production setup), and should work on trading, exploring, and building up a hand of high scoring cards to play in the future. Like a trade strategy, and unlike a production strategy, settling a bunch of windfall worlds is fine.
Hand Management, by strategy
Hand management is different for the different strategies.
Development Strategy: Generally you won’t have many hand issues, since stuff is very cheap for you. You should hold 6 cost developments that might be of use to you, but almost anything else is discardable. When discarding, try to maintain versatility in the cards you have left, such as keeping a development, and worlds that are different from each other, to react to different situations. You don’t need to stockpile future plays very much, basically just 6 buildings.
Military Strategy: You must stockpile future plays, or you’ll find yourself without ways to score later on. Don’t discard your big scorers while setting up your military, or you’ll be screwed. It’s better to wait and get more cards, and then create your setup, with those military cards remaining in your hand. Throwing away extra little military windfall worlds is fine. Don’t throw away the big scorers. If you get to the point where you have a bunch of big scoring alien/rebel military cards and/or 6 buildings that are good for you, you need to start getting them on the table. If your hand fills with these you wont be able to build anything. It can definitely be worth it to trade a big good and go from say, 7 cards to 12, losing a couple cards in the discard, if it allows you to then play your 6 building without losing your big military scoring worlds. If you have a number of military worlds in your hand, don’t be afraid to treat the small ones as money.
Trading Strategy: You care the least about holding future plays of any strategy. You generate a ton of cards, so you’ll probably get something to play later. Try to keep playing big scoring cards whenever you can, to get your handsize back down, and avoid discarding. For example, Terraformed World, Alien windfall worlds, and big Rebel worlds if you have contact specialist, are really good for this strategy, start trying to get them down midgame. If you have a choice between building an expensive/high point card which doesn’t grow your economy, and a small card which grows it by a little, like a small trade bonus, you should almost always choose the big scoring card. This will lower your handsize so you can take full advantage of your next trade, and gets the points onto your board. (Deficit Spending or Merchant World is the exception).
Production strategy: You care a moderate amount about stockpiling future moves, since you want to hold onto 6’s that help you, your engine card (until you get one into play), and production worlds. If you need to discard good future plays to get out an important world, or your engine card, do it. But it might be better to explore and hope someone else picks the develop or settle, so you can hold onto some future cards. More cards work for your strategy than any other, so if you discard stuff you want to make something that will generate cards, its ok.
General Hand Management:
When discarding cards to pay for something, if you’re going to have a number of cards left over, be careful to keep versatile cards. For example, if you’re doing a production strategy, and you have several production worlds and a couple developments in your hand, don’t just discard all the developments to pay for something. You probably don’t need all those production worlds, and it’s more helpful to keep a development that you might want instead.
When you’re able to keep a lot of cards after paying for something, there are some cards that are generally good to hold onto (beyond the cards you know you want to make as future plays) when choosing what to discard, due to their versatility. For example:
Development discount buildings: Investment Credits/Public Works/Interstellar Bank. These are very cheap and thus easy to play when an opponent develops, and you don’t have anything else to do. They are pretty universally helpful.
Colony Ship/New Military tactics: These could allow you to take advantage of opponents develop and settle phases that you otherwise couldn’t really afford. Or with the colony ship, you could choose settle, desperate to get a certain expensive world down, and hope an opponent develops, allow you to get it cheaper using the ship. They can be a nice way to upgrade your play in the settle phase, if a develop also happened.
Contact Specialist: Contact Specialist is very cheap, and is kindof like the better version of new military tactics, to the non-military player. It has broad uses, from getting very cheap windfalls, to buying big scoring rebel worlds, to scoring with Pan-Galactic League.
Very cheap production worlds: Lets you do something on that settle, and get a cheap leech.
Alien Windfall Worlds/Terraformed world: It can be good to hang on to these in case you end up with a bunch of cards, and a settle comes up. Gives you more ways to convert cards to points. These are especially good for a development or trading strategy that gets lots of cards and doesn’t have enough ways to spend them.
Keeping different, versatile cards, and cards in different price ranges, can help you to more often be able to take advantage of the roles your opponents choose. It’s a good idea to maintain possible plays, especially cheap but useful plays,
Leeching:
You want to make the roles that your opponents are picking benefit you as well. Doing so limits their ability to make a gain over you,
A Leech is abilities that work for some phase that isn’t a phase you are primarily choosing for your strategy, but while opponents are choosing for theirs.
Various leeches:
Development: Investment Credits/PublicWorks/Interstellar Bank. (Bank is the best leech).
Settle: Replicant Robots, Terraforming Robots, Contact Specialist, Small military (for making free windfall worlds). Replicant Robots is an Extremely strong settler phase leech.
Consume/Produce: Deficit Spending/Merchant World, Trade League, Worlds and Consume powers that make cards in some way. Also, a consume power when youre doing a military strategy with lots of windfalls.
When developing a leech, do NOT make it in an area that no opponent is using as their main strategy! Thus:
Do not build midgame development discount buildings if no one is doing a development discount strategy!
Do not build stuff like Replicant robots, or military, if no one else is going military (unless youre planning to settle constantly yourself).
Do not build production/consumption stuff if no one else is (unless you want to go into a production strategy yourself).
Leeching and hand management will allow you to make use of the roles your opponents choose, so that you limit their ability to gain on you.
The other role: Explore
There are many effects of choosing Explore. The obvious one is getting more cards so that you can afford to build your stuff (or afford to build it without discarding something critical). It also improves everyone’s potential plays by giving them more options. This means that if a lot of exploring is happening, it is more critical to make sure the builds you make are strong ones, instead of just ‘anything helpful’. Also, exploring early on slows down the game (less develops/settles/produces because you aren’t picking them). Because the phases that let you build aren’t happening as much, people cant get their strategies set up as fast, so it makes the opening phase of the game longer.
Early on, if you are thinking about choosing develop or settle, to make something that doesn’t have a strong impact on the game, its probably better to explore. Your develop/settle for something average might allow an opponent to play something strong, and thus cause you to fall behind. Develop or settle when you know the thing you are doing is good, and thus will set you up with a better position than your opponents.
For example: Do NOT settle to build a random blue or brown (non-military) windfall world, or small production world (as your first production world). Doing so will often just allow an opponent to make a better windfall or production world, and possibly even trade a windfall that turn! Save that cheap play for a time your opponent picks it and you cant afford something better.
Do NOT develop to build some development of minor benefit like an export duties, terraforming robots, an engine card you cant use yet, new military tactics/colony ship that you don’t have a strong world for yet, etc. You’ll probably help someone else do something better. (Development discount buildings on the other hand are great…and with them you plan to develop repeatedly while your opponents can utilize all the develops). Save that cheap thing to use as a play for when your opponent picks it.
If you DO have a strong early play, like a development discount card, an alien or gene windfall world, or production capacity when your opponents don’t have it, build or use that! Don’t explore and let your opponents find something strong also.
The purpose of explore +1/+1:
Almost exclusively an early game play.
Early income.
Helps with hand management, to afford something and keep future plays.
Gives you more time to find a strong play before develops/settles happen, so you won’t fall behind your opponents.
The purpose of explore +5:
Generally a midgame or possibly endgame play.
Finds big scoring cards, good when you have lots of cards, but don’t have something big to do with them, its better than explore +1/+1 if you have plenty of cards, and need a way to score points.
Pressing your advantage / Catching up when behind
When you have an early advantage in terms of the capacity of your board position to do something helpful. You need to use it.
Lets say that at the beginning of the game, you build a strong windfall world and traded, while your opponents built less useful things. Don’t choose Develop or Settle to make some relatively minor, cheap thing, that helps you a small amount! Instead, keep working on pushing forward your main strategy and getting money, and save that play for a time when an opponent chooses that role, so you’ll have something beneficial to play then!
Another example: Lets say that early on in a game you have a good in play, and in your hand you have a trade bonus like export duties, or a world that gives a bonus to that color. You opponents don’t have production capacity. Here, you should just focus on trading and producing that good, instead of building/settling your trade bonus! If your opponents don’t develop/settle, they aren’t developing their positions while you get to gain income to prepare for the future. If they do develop/settle, you get to play down your bonus, and save tempo! Doing produce/consume presses your advantage, building something allows your opponents to catch up.
Another example: You make an Investment Credits on turn 1, and there was no settle phase. In your hand you have a helpful development (say an Interstellar Bank, or a Military development with a military world it can conquer in your hand). You also have a decent windfall or production world in your hand that you want to make. Develop, don’t Settle! Developing presses your advantage, and your opponents probably cant use a second develop. Settling lets your opponents play something potentially strong, and then start using other phases more effectively than you.
When your tableau’s capacity is stronger than your opponents, USE IT, don’t just settle or develop more and let them potentially catch up. Instead use it, and then if they develop/settle, you can build your stuff to maintain your lead.
If you don’t have anything strong to build in your hand (or can’t afford it), explore. Do not develop or settle a lesser card that doesn’t help you enough. Try to get a strong play, or else your opponents will gain on you in board position.
Only develop/settle/produce when its best for you (your play is strong, or you make the most). And when it is best for you, do it. (If produce helps say, you and one other opponent out of 4 a lot, and doesn’t help the others, still probably do it. You can’t afford for the two of you to not use your setup while the others catch up or gain an advantage in other areas)
Choosing a Role
For most of the roles, the advantage of choosing that role is +1 thing (card or good), and making the role happen. For Consume, the advantage is several cards for Trade, or later several VPs with 2xVPs.
The result is that it’s better for you to Consume, and have someone else pick the other role you want, than anything else. This can make it a good strategy to choose Trade, hoping an opponent will settle and you can play a windfall world, if you have good reason to believe someone will settle. It also means you need to be extra wary of early settles that aren’t very beneficial to you, as it could allow an opponent’s trade that turn.
Past the beginning of the game, the main benefit of a role choice is making the role happen that helps you more than others. You should look at which strategies your opponents are pursuing, and then plan to not (or almost never) choose the roles that are for their strategy and not yours. You should save plays that you have for that phase, such as develops/settles, and then just play them when they happen. Don’t make them happen yourself, it just helps your opponent’s strategy, while you don’t make progress on yours. Only when you are very desperate to build the card should you do it yourself, if that role is part of an opponent’s strategy.
Say you are playing a production strategy and an opponent is playing military. You have a couple production worlds in play and several more in your hand. You should NOT plan on playing all those production worlds or work at making it happen. Do your produce /consume thing that’s only helping you instead, and when your opponent settles, expand your engine. If you settle, your opponent might have explored or traded, and you just help them to get free stuff while not scoring points for yourself.
This also means that you should make sure you can afford to make your play when your opponent does choose their role. You don’t want to miss it and then need to force it yourself later. Develop your 6 building when your develop strategy opponent picks develop, so you don’t have to pick it for yourself at the end.
Role Streaks
(I think this part is especially important, and I haven’t really seen it discussed yet).
Going along with focusing on your role and avoiding your opponents, it can be very beneficial to play the same type of role that you several times in a row, and then play another one that you need several times in a row.
For example, say you are playing a military strategy. You could do several turns of exploring/trading in a row, to build a good hand, and then several settles in a row, to play them out. When you aren’t settling, your opponents are probably avoiding it, expecting you to do it, and it is starving them on world building opportunities. This might make them pick settle for you, giving you both roles you want. Then when you settle several times, they might run out of cards after the first one or two, and miss opportunities. This tends to work better than something like a settle/trade/settle/trade alternation, where your opponents have cards each time you do it.
The same thing applies to a development strategy. When you develop, do it several times in a row to run your opponents out of money, and when you explore or trade for funds, try to do several of those in a row to frustrate an opponent who wants to develop.
Try to time your develop or settle streak right before people get a big trade off, and your streak of starving them out of that role (while you raise money) for after their trade. You build before they get their money, and then you leave them with the money burning a hole in their pocket, and not enough chances to spend it. For example, say youre doing a development discount strategy:
Turn A you develop. Produce was also chosen. Your opponents blow their money developing and then everyone gets goods.
Turn B you develop, while others trade! You make another development for cheap and others sit there and are broke. Then they all get money, you have your good left.
Turn C you trade. Others might develop to spend their big cash inflows (you build a cheap thing), or they might sit there and be annoyed that you didn’t choose develop. Say they didn’t develop.
Turn D you explore and find another 6 building. Others sit there annoyed that they still can’t spend their money from the trade yet, or else the picked it themselves and help you.
Same thing works with a military strategy for settling. You alternate between starving them out of a role so they can’t spend money or build their position, and then you do it too much, so they cant take advantage of all of them.
This can work especially well in 2 player where you can pick two develops or settles in a turn! Doing these role streaks can force your opponents to pick roles that help you, while you do things at the wrong time for them.
The Opening:
In the opening you want to get cards, and develop strong, versatile cards to begin your strategy. You won’t have committed to a strategy yet, you’re trying to find the cards which will give you all the pieces you need for one of the strategies. (Either development discounts + good 6s, Military + big military worlds, Trading + Deficit Spending or Merchant World, or Production capacity + Consume powers). Income is your main focus, and whatever you build will either be the start of your strategy, or a good leech/supporting strategy.
DON’T explore if you have something strong to do already, instead do it.
DON’T develop if your play isn’t strong (like a development discount, military card/contact specialist that lets you build a good military world in your hand, replicant robots, colony ship into something awesome like lost species arc world, etc).
DON’T settle if your play isn’t VERY strong (gene/alien windfall, great production world like Lost Species, etc) you give others windfall trade chances.
DON’T produce unless it helps you much more than a couple opponents.
DO trade pretty much any time you have a good.
The Midgame:
Build and execute the strategy that you found the cards for. Try to maintain the ability to build in develop and settle phase if possible. Try to avoid the roles of your opponents’ strategy, and focus on your role plus income roles (explore/trade). Try to play role streaks, alternating couple roles of your role with a couple income roles, to frustrate opponents, make them unable to build during your phases, and cause them to pick your role instead of their own.
Develop strategy: Alternate between multiple develops in a row and multiple explore/trades.
Military strategy: Alternate between multiple settles and multiple explore/trades. Try to do explores and trades first so as not to help producers set up their production capacity too early.
Trade strategy: Keep trading as much as you can, maintaining less consume powers than production so that you can trade more than once before you would need to choose produce. (Hopefully someone will choose it again before you would have to). Try to blow as much money as possible on big point scorers when your opponents develop or settle, so that you don’t reach hand capacity issues and have to pick those roles yourself.
Production Strategy: Get your engine set up fast and then produce/consume constantly. Favor worlds or consumption cards that also make cards, so you’ll be able to afford to keep doing stuff on opponent develops/settles.
The Endgame:
You generally want to end the game before your opponents, so push hard on your strategy (keep doing your role and don’t get distracted from it!).
Based on the number of spots left in people’s tableaus, you might be able to see that you don’t have time to build certain developments or worlds that you had planned on. Just let them go and build them for money. Also, in these cases choose the big scorers first, throwing away the littler scorers that you don’t have time for to pay for them. When you cant choose between a beneficial, cheaper, moderate scoring card, and a bigger, expensive, high scoring card, pick the high scoring card! Because you might draw another high scoring card off a trade or explore, and then you can build both big ones instead of a big and a small.
One trick that can end the game unexpectedly is for a player with Deficit Spending or Merchant World to pick consume (with nobody having goods), throwing away a couple cards for the last VPs. Also, near the end of the game, hold onto a windfall world, so that if someone settles at the end you can play it and consume the good (with your 2xVPs perhaps). This can also cause a surprise end to the game. Alien Windfall worlds are worth a lot of points and are especially good for this. When discarding, try to hold on to a mixture of cards of different costs, so you’ll have something to play for whatever happens.
-
Richard Young
Canada
Victoria
BC
Old Ways Are Best!
Check Six!
-
Great article Alex, thanks!
-
Wei-Hwa Huang
United States
Mountain View
California
-
Alexfrog wrote: Role Streaks
(I think this part is especially important, and I haven’t really seen it discussed yet).
This can work especially well in 2 player where you can pick two develops or settles in a turn! Doing these role streaks can force your opponents to pick roles that help you, while you do things at the wrong time for them.
Historical note: Early on in the game's development the two-player game rules were "Choose any two action cards, but they must be of different phases." The game eventually became its current form in part because of the ability to add these streaks and the impact it would have on the game.
Quote:
You generally want to end the game before your opponents, so push hard on your strategy (keep doing your role and don’t get distracted from it!).
It can't possibly be right for all players to want to end the game before their opponents -- since the game ends for all players at the same time! And surely there are players who will benefit from the game ending later.
I guess what you're trying to say is, if you're ahead of your opponents, end the game as soon as you can.
-
Alex Rockwell
United States
Bothell
Washington
-
onigame wrote:
I guess what you're trying to say is, if you're ahead of your opponents, end the game as soon as you can.
Yes...and also end the game in your way (build a full tableau before they get all the VPs, or vice versa). The person who is able to end the game first is usually the one who is ahead.
-
Wei-Hwa Huang
United States
Mountain View
California
-
Alexfrog wrote: The person who is able to end the game first is usually the one who is ahead.
I don't agree with this statement, at least not fully.
I would be willing to agree with: "If there is one player who is clearly ahead, then they are usually the person who is able to end the game first."
However, I think it's also common for, when there are two players who are clearly ahead of the rest, but otherwise neck-and-neck, then often the player who is able to end the game first is neither of them -- and when that third player decides to end the game will often determine which of the two lead players win.
Alex, I suspect you're hitting a lot of sample bias, due to you being the best player in your group and therefore not seeing many close games. 
-
Alex Rockwell
United States
Bothell
Washington
-
onigame wrote: Alex, I suspect you're hitting a lot of sample bias, due to you being the best player in your group and therefore not seeing many close games.
...and usually when I lose its because I got raced out and wasnt able to finish the stuff I wanted to do.
Yeah, it doesnt make sense for all the player to want to rush to end it. It only makes sense for the player in the lead.
I guess I should say: think about when the game is going to end. If you need it to end faster, to avoid people 2xVPing more, or because youve run out of good stuff, focus on that. If its going to end soon, get out your important stuff ASAP.
-
David desJardins
United States
Burlingame
California
-
It might well be true that the people who are reading strategy guides on BGG are also generally the best players in their local gaming groups. I think it's not surprising that a lot of strategy guides are written from the point of view of the player who's clearly more knowledgeable about the game than their opponents.
-
Aaron Fuegi
United States
Framingham
MA
-
I also wanted to complement you on this guide. Very well written. Partly as a result of a reading it the other day, I played and won a game last night where on the first turn I played Deficit Spending and ended up treating it as basically a 'strategy in a card' based on your guide. I had done a trading strategy before but never so much focused around this card. I probably ended up choosing Consume Trade (playing Alpha Centauri) like 80% of the turns of the game.
We played a second game right after too where I also ended up with Alpha Centauri and Deficit Spending in my opening hand amazingly. This one the trading didn't go quite as well but I was eventually able to switch it to a ConsumeX2 strategy with the rares 6 and chose Consumex2 for the last 4 turns in a row getting 3x2 + 2 (for DS) VP a turn.
-
M Dornbrook
United States
Arizona
-
Alex wrote:
Yeah, it doesnt make sense for all the player to want to rush to end it. It only makes sense for the player in the lead.
Often it is in a player's best interest to end the game sooner despite losing as it results in the vp gap being the smallest. Sometimes, winning just isn't possible. At this point, knowing when to end the game is more about saving face than winning.
-
Wei-Hwa Huang
United States
Mountain View
California
-
mdornbrook wrote: Sometimes, winning just isn't possible. At this point, knowing when to end the game is more about saving face than winning.
I would be mildly annoyed if I was about to catch up to the leader, and a third player decided to end the game "just to save face."
The general question of what a player "should" do if winning isn't possible has been the subject of many a debate.
-
M Dornbrook
United States
Arizona
-
Quote: I would be mildly annoyed if I was about to catch up to the leader, and a third player decided to end the game "just to save face."
I'm glad to hear that you'd only be mildly annoyed. By ending the game faster when I'm doomed, I get to play another game, sooner. The incentive on my end is more than just to save face. And, frankly, if another player can't account for my actions ending the game, then they haven't really earned a victory, have they? I guess it's clear what side of the debate that I fall on.
-
Matthew Linn
United States
Alexandria
Virginia
-
I won my first game with the help of your guide and the understanding that you gave me of the game. Thanks.
-
-
I was looking up tactics for two games this evening, and Google directed me to two guides written by the same person. What are the odds?
Thanks for a great writeup. I'll have to read it again later, though, since I'm not as familiar with RFTG as with Puerto Rico. :-)
-
Wei-Hwa Huang
United States
Mountain View
California
-
Itangalo wrote: I was looking up tactics for two games this evening, and Google directed me to two guides written by the same person. What are the odds?
Pretty high when one game is the ancestor of the other....
-
-
I think this is a solid foundation, I may print it out and keep it with my copy of race for new players to read. It provides a decent understanding of the mechanics of the game, and is helpful.
One thing should be brought up.
How does a military strategy overcome a points hurdle against produce consume?
my thoughts so far:
With improved logistics, it can be beneficial to get to 9 cards on the table, then settle 2x resulting in 13 cards in play for you
make sure to capitalize on 6-cost developments! I change what worlds I'm throwing into play if it maximizes a specific 6-dev, and others can attest to single 6-devs being game changing i.e. galactic fed. but there are great consume engines in some of these, there is a wonderful comparison of them in another thread
terraforming guild is by far one of the best for military, since we have access to so many free windfall worlds, and it lets you leech off their produce
there are a few other cards, all of them cheap that produce goods onto windfall worlds. anything that lets you recharge alien toy factory from their produce is always worth it!
-
Michael "Tie-Dyed-Eyes"
United States
California
-
Alex,
Thanks so much. I've been playing against the computer. Within the first 5 games I had mostly figured out the rules. But after 40 games I still hadn't won more than once (broke lucky with a pure military strategy). I knew the key had to be in strategy, but I wasn't piecing it together fast enough. I finally got my first "real" victory (pick a plan, follow it through, succeed) this morning. But now, after reading the first section of your article I know I've got what I need. You can bet I'm going to read this through many times. Thanks again.
Michael
-
Alex Rockwell
United States
Bothell
Washington
-
Thanks Michael, glad it was helpful!
-
Constantine Georgantzas
United States
New York
New York
-
This was a very good guide, especially the part about role streaks.
However, how have the two expansions packs changed your strategies. I have played many games with Gathering Storm and I argue the production strategy has become far less winnable, especially when going novelty goods. The deficit spending cards, and therefore the trading strategy, were given a huge boost in this expansion with the inclusion of the goals. So too was the military strategy with the inclusion of several developments like "improved logistics." With the inclusion of "alien toy ship," "damaged alien factory," and "abandoned alien colony" I argue an alien strategy can now be added to your short list of game engines.
I always go for plenty of settlements with production powers when I play the produce strategy. However, perhaps when employing the production strategy I lacked the speed with which you mentioned it should be executed.
Please feel free to mention Rebels vs Imperium also – I will be playing it in three days. How do conquests change the game? What changes when playing a game with six people?
-
Roberto Ullfig
United States
Chicago
Illinois
-
I've been playing Keldon Jones' computer version of the game and I have to say, the Production strategy seems to be the first strategy you should always go for. At least with his computer game, the goal seems to be nearly always to get three VP-Consume-Powers, 3 Goods-Worlds and then just Consumex2-Produce. I've been playing with the first expansion - have not tried with the second.
-
Roberto Ullfig
United States
Chicago
Illinois
-
Started trying out the goals and they seem to balance things quite well - at least in the computer version.
-
Alex Rockwell
United States
Bothell
Washington
-
costig wrote: This was a very good guide, especially the part about role streaks.
However, how have the two expansions packs changed your strategies. I have played many games with Gathering Storm and I argue the production strategy has become far less winnable, especially when going novelty goods.
I find that Improved Logistics in particular swings the game back in favor of military, versus production. That card is very, very, strong in military strategies.
I generally find that Trade / Deficit spending strategies are a bit weak in 2 player. They seem a lot better in 3-4 where you can still do trade ocne a turn, but opponents who used to be able to do two consumes, develops, or produce+vps in one turn can now only do one of those.
I also find that development discount strategies tend to be good all the time and combo very well with all strategies. Generally your oppoenents cant do as much with a develop as they can with a settle, and doing things like 2x develop early on with a public works, investment credits, or interstellar bank is very strong, helps you a lot, and speeds the game up.
Quote:
The deficit spending cards, and therefore the trading strategy, were given a huge boost in this expansion with the inclusion of the goals.
I dont find that. I think goals in general favor the already dominant strategies, and tend to screw over the lesser strategies. There isnt really any goal that helps trading strategy other than 'discard a card at end of turn'. VPs goal helps production more, and all the big 5 point goals are not trade oriented.
Quote: Please feel free to mention Rebels vs Imperium also I will be playing it in three days. How do conquests change the game?
So far I played a dozen times. No conquests happened but a couple times a player was prevented from playing certain worlds or else they would be conquered. There seem to be an even greater variety of different types of military strategies than before. Some more help for green production and diversified production, but also another brown 6 development which probably helps to make brown the best production strategy. (At least when drafting - since the brown production strategy is more based on synergies between worlds, discounts, producing on windfalls, and 6 developments, than other production strategies are, it is most benefitted by the drafting format where you build a focused deck).
I like that you get two homeworlds (one military one non military), and get to pick one, as the 'default' rule. This helps you coordinate your hand with your start world, to reduce luck of the initial draw.
Quote: What changes when playing a game with six people?
Its even slower than 4 or 5.
At this point I'm pretty much focused on 2 player, as it just seems much, much better. (But of course, 3+ is still an awesome game).
I am beginning to work on a guide to drafting 2 player Race for the Galaxy with both expansions. However, it will be some time before I finish this, because I want to have plenty of experience to back up my findings and make sure they are accurate.
-
Ryan
United States
Unspecified
-
I had only played RftG maybe 12-15 times before a month ago (all face-to face), when I downloaded the AI version. I started out playing with both of the expansions and with the goals. I found the goals to be a little too random. Sometimes a player has no chance to win any of them if they just don't draw the right cards early enough and their opponents do. I also didn't like RvI nearly as much as the first expansion, GS.
So after my first few dozen games using the program, I switched to playing only GS, with goals disabled. I find this to be the best way to play if you want to eliminate as much luck as possible.
I looked for a strategy guide after a while and, sure enough, Alex was the one who had done it again. I had only really tried the production and military strategies before finding this thread. I have since tried the development strategy a few times, and it has also been effective, though it gets used far less often due to the dependence on one card (and the deck size has increased with the expansions). I still really haven't been able to get a trade strategy working though, just maybe in pseudo form only so far. It also is far more dependent on having a combination of scarce cards, so it would also be used less often. One can do a military or production strategy almost every time if one wants to.
And there is almost a whole new strategy based around the card Terraforming Guild. You don't even have to get it early for it to pay off big. Naturally, it works especially well with military strategies (and Improved Logistics) since they usually have a lot of windfall worlds in play anyway. You don't even need a large military to pull this off. A power of 3-4 will do nicely. I would say the card is a bit broken, given the large amount of windfall worlds in the deck. I routinely see it score in the 10-14 point range and it has very nice abilities on top of its point value. The computer scored 20 points with it once, and I've hit 18 points with it a few times myself. I probably score about 12-14 points with it on average. One could potentially score 24 points with it, if they start with one of the windfall worlds and play nothing but other windfall worlds and Terraforming Robots.
More than a few times I have been ahead by double digits and end up losing when one of the AI opponents play this on the last turn and I don't have a good scoring card to end the game. Basically I love it when I have it but hate when it burns me. So, yeah, I would consider this the most broken card in the game. If a tournament were being held, it would probably be a good move to remove it from the deck.
Anyway, nice guide Alex. As usual, you've given me quite a bit to think about. I have played a lot of games recently, but I've been playing them so fast, I didn't stop to analyze things as much as you have here. I'll be interested in reading your thoughts about the expansions when you get done.
-
-
shroud wrote: So after my first few dozen games using the program, I switched to playing only GS, with goals disabled. I find this to be the best way to play if you want to eliminate as much luck as possible.
And it's still too much luck!
IMO, "Race for the Galaxy Strategy" is an oxymoron.
EDIT: OK, sure, there is strategy in this game, but once you figure it out, it's luck that determines the game.
-
David desJardins
United States
Burlingame
California
-
shroud wrote: I find this to be the best way to play if you want to eliminate as much luck as possible.
Using the components to play Chess would work even better.
-
Tom Lehmann
United States
Palo Alto
California
-
Ambrose wrote: OK, sure, there is strategy in this game, but once you figure it out, it's luck that determines the game.
Yet another player who confuses "strategy" with "control".
I mean this seriously. How is successfully adapting to your opponent's choices good play, but successfully adapting to an evolving and partially random game state not good play?
I have no problem with someone who prefers more or less randomness in a game, but I do have a problem with those who argue that the mere presence of luck in a game reduces the importance of good play.
-
|
|
