My friend and I played 2P advanced TGS for the first time tonight. We have played the base game against one another well over 100 times. I need to caveat that we had printed out versions of the new home worlds months ago, and have been playing with them in the deck for the last 50 or so games (we discard 4 worlds at random after world selection to not upset the balance or worlds to deveopments). Prior familiarity with the new homeworlds may have somewhat diminshed my enjoyment of the expansion.

So we had a chance to play four games tonight. The new cards got pretty fair representation.

Space Mercenaries was played 3 times
Abandoned Alien World was played 3 times
Terraforming Guild was played twice
Galactic Uplift Project was played once
Improved Logististics was played once
Galactic Bazaar was played once

Many others were played as well, but I can't recall them - none of the really interesting one with the new abilities.

Strategies changed a bit as well. Due to the interim goals, we were less focused. No one consumed for more than 10 vp in a turn - no one played 3-4 development discount/refund cards - we seemed to be all over the place. Green was very effective / yellow not so much - twice all 3 alien discount cards were played with nothing to follow.

With the interim goals, the cost benefit decisions are tougher. The best card for your tableau may not be the best card, when you factor in points from goals. This slowed down the game dramatically from about 20-25 minutes to about 40. I expect that this will speed up over time, but will unlikely reach the speed of the base game.

So, overall, the game is different. It is certainly harder. My opponent and I both felt that the interim goals changed the game far more than the new cards - by comparison, the new cards are almost unnoticable. However, I can't help feeling that the game is a bit less fun. More thinking and calculating for a less elegant result. We both thought it would be worth trying the new cards without the interim goals - I'll post a report on that one once we've given it a try.

Overall, while I'd give the original game a 9.5/10, I'm thinking the expansion, with the official rules, is at about a 7. Given the amount I have enjoyed the original game, I will definitely play a lot more of the expansion, with the cautious expectation that i will grow to like it more. However, if I picked this up without playing the base game, I would be on the fence on whether or not to purchase it. This is purely a first impression, and I'll be sure to provide an update after a few more games.

Regards,
Beowulf

nice report !

Any chance we get a report of a game with the draft version of the rules ?

First time I read about interim goals I thought they would be no more than three random cards displayed at the start of the game, but it looks like you have to play all of them. Maybe limiting and randomizing this new goals will reduce its impact in the game while keeping the players on their toes and increasing a bit the interaction.
It's just an idea. I don´t own (still) this expansion.

No - only a random selection of the new goals are used, though I think it's six out of a possible ten, rather than three.

These are exactly the sort of things I want from an expansion. I'm actually glad the new cards don't leap out, as expansions to card games often suffer from power creep. I just like more variety.

I'm not too fussed about the time increase, unless it gets way out of hand, as I expected some increase with all the new considerations.

Thanks very much for the well-considered "first impression"!

I can't wait for my first 5-player game!

I think we've seen most of the cards, but what about the goals?

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/345909