Publisher: Czech Games Edition
Designer: Vlaada Chvátil
Artists: Tomáš Kučerovský and Radim Pech
Genre: Spaceship building and racing game
Year: 2007
Players: Two to four players
Ages: 10+
Playing time: 60 Minutes
MSRP: $74.95
Galaxy Trucker is an original concept mixed with racing, danger, and fun. The object of the game is to have the most money at the end of round 3 and, as the saying goes, getting there is half the fun. In each round, the players will build space ships out of parts in the community pile, and then fly these ships to their destinations. Along the way you might run into some horrible dangers and get blown out of space, so be careful.
At the beginning of a round, each player gets a board which shows an overlay where the players will construct their ships. The pieces are placed face down on the table, and when a player says “Go!” everyone begins picking up tiles and placing them on their boards face up. Each player can either add the piece to their space ship, or return it to the middle of the table face up. You can’t take another tile until you do something with the current one. The first player to complete their ship grabs the #1 player chit. Then each other player in turn finishes their ships and take a player # tile. There is a timer as well to help eliminate analysis paralysis.
The ship parts have many functions, and they all need to connect together properly based upon the connectors shown on the tiles. Some have propulsion, some have shields, cannons, storage, alien life support, cabins, and batteries. Each part can be added to your ship. You need to try to provide the best balance of protection and profit that you can create in a limited time allotment.
Once you all have your ships, you have to double-check them to make sure they are legally built. After a few times you’ll know what you can and can’t do, but you might get penalized if you make a mistake. Now you put together an 8 card adventure deck for this round and place your ship pawns on the flight game board in the order determined by the number you got in the building round.
The leading player draws the leading card and you are off. You can have bad things happen, like a meteor swarm. The leader rolls 2 dice for each meteor to determine which column and row on each ship the meteor might hit. It could bounce off your ship, or you could use your shields, or shoot it down if you must. If it gets through and hits the ship, it will damage whichever piece it hits. That piece falls off. Any pieces that were attached to it that are no longer attached also fall off. You could get attacked, and more bad things happen. You could pick up some cargo to sell for bonus credits at the end of the round, which is nice, but you’ll lose valuable time by stopping and picking it up.
Let me just say that the is a heck of a fun game. Building the ships is hectic and you usually will screw something up. Your ship could possibly explode if you leave an exposed connector in the wrong spot and it takes a hit. You build the best ship that you can and watch it get blown to pieces in the race part of the round. Many times, you will be happy if your ship makes it to the end at all, let alone makes a lot of money. There is a lot of tension and you really get that feeling of “Whew” when you dodge a potentially bad juju.
The components are first rate. If you haven’t seen the quality of Czech Games you are missing out. There are tiny ship pawns, alien pawns, a timer, tokens, multiple boards, and a bunch of cards. The rules help add to this feel. The artwork is excellent, and the whole game has a tongue-in-cheek feel to it. There is a quick start section so you can get playing in a few minutes. The rules are laid out very well with lots of pictures and examples.
The only detriment I see with this game is if you have players who do not like being under pressure. My daughter hated this game because she was rushed building her ship and as a result ended up getting blown out of the sky. So if you are looking for a relaxing, easy going game, this isn’t it. If you are looking for fast paced fun with explosions than go for it.
The game is currently being reprinted and the anticipated arrival date is this month (November 2010). There is also an expansion available that adds a fifth player and a bunch of other new stuff.
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