Rio Grande Games Roll for the Galaxy Board Game, Strategy Dice Game for 2-5 Players

Before I say how much fun this game is, I want to explain how this game has a "learning curve". The tiles, individually, don't have a lot of text on them, but they all have DIFFERENT text. That means you have to get used to them and how they combine before your game score will increase. The game is probably too difficult for most people under about 12 years of age. You also have to realize that it's imperative to combine the benefits of the tiles! The rules need to be studied, and I highly recommend watching a few videos on You Tube. There's a few very good ones that will at least help to get your game going. Without that, I would have been lost, because the rules in the rule book seemed to be "all over the place". Now that I have told all the negatives I found, here are the positives: This game is BRILLIANT!!!! After playing a game, I don't feel fatigued like I do after some games. It takes less than an hour. You CANNOT hurt your opponent. It doesn't have the familiar dull worker placement mechanic. Dice act like workers, but the SYMBOLS on the dice are your workers! Luck in this game is minimized by the strength of dice symbols, plus a couple of mechanics. There is no "beating your opponent to the best space". There is no "first player"! There's no feeding your workers! Everyone plays at the same time. There is no attacking, area control, fighting monsters, or shortage of resources. The "Explore" mechanic takes care getting dice back in your cup. Roll For The Galaxy is enlightening somewhat, and makes you concentrate. I feel it has a very high production, and probably worth more than its price, when considering how much detail went into the game. To understand the game, you need to set it up, and "jump in" and start playing. For the first couple of games, you will be referring to the rule book several times, but don't let that scare you. It's NOT as difficult as you might think. I had not played Race For The Galaxy before playing Roll For The Galaxy, and I was wondering if that might be a handicap. NOT SO! Roll is actually fairly easy, except for getting used to all the tiles, which takes a little time. If you haven't noticed, I did not say much about how the game is played. My review is intended to PREVENT potential customers from shying away from the game. Even without any expansions, this game has LOTS of replay ability. This game is TRULY DIFFERENT, and deserves serious consideration if you don't want the same old stuff you get with lots of games on the market. My final analysis is that Roll deserves more than 5 stars!

First, let me say that I LOVE dice games, and this one does not disappoint with 111 beautiful custom dice. The other components are of nice quality as well. Some people would argue that $50+ for a dice game is pricey, perhaps so but you are getting a lot in this game. I've only played this as a two-player game so I can not comment on larger groups but I will say that it plays fast and smooth as a two-player game. Most of our playthroughs lasted between 30-45 minutes. Gameplay: It is essentially a role selection game with dice-building. You randomly choose your starting faction and home world tiles which grant certain dice or abilities. Starting with a small pool of dice you roll and assign phases, the dice sort of act as workers. Depending on the phase (role) you choose, you can explore for new planets/developments, develope/settle those developments/planets, produce goods on those planets (the dice act as commodities), or ship off the goods for points/profits. The game ends when all the victory points in the pool have been taken, or when a player completes their tableau of tiles. I have played "Race For The Galaxy" in the past and I must say that this game totally replaces it for me. It is MUCH easier to teach. There is text on most of the tiles that is self explanatory. The player shields iconography is easy to interpret and breaks down the game-play fairly simple. It is a faster game. Takes up less space on the table. Some people have complained about the lack of player interaction. The game is not broken; it plays exactly how it was designed. Different games have different levels of interaction. Sometimes I am in the mood for something light and fun, a game where I can build my galactic empire without my opponent being in my face attacking every move. This game scratches that itch.

For context, my GF and me are quite avid board gamers, and basically have one room in our flat filled with nothing but games. Delivery: As always, perfect delivery. Thanks amazon. :) Production quality: Very good. The dice are well made, the planets and developments are on very sturdy cardboard, the only thing I could criticize at all is that the dice strip (on which you place your dice after rolling) and your "home board" are printed on thin cardboard. They look sturdy enough since they're not being moved around during the game, though. Rules complexity: Medium-high ~ high. This is one thing one has to be aware of, this game scares new players off with it's endless flood of symbols. However, and this is a huge improvement, unlike Race for the Galaxy most effects are *also* explained in the text this time. For advanced players the symbols convey the function much faster, but for newcomers the explanation is handy. Still, expect 1-2 practice rounds with inexperienced gamers. Strategic complexity: From what I can tell (about half a dozen games so far) it's very deep. It has the same overall balance as Race for the Galaxy in that most efficient strategies to gain victory points would take longer than the game will last, but just barely so (so there's incentive to gamble on the game dragging on). There's quite a few ways to build, and it depends not only on draw or roll luck, but also on how predictable you will become (a production-heavy setup means lots of free easily predicted phases for the other players) and how predictable the other players are. Luck factor: This was what I expected to be the downside of Roll, but really, it's not. The draw-luck when drawing new tiles can be problematic (but if you discard unwanted tiles you get a 1:1 replacement so it isn't that bad), but the dice-luck has minimal effect due to the huge number and variety of ways of messing with the results of a roll. Basically just about every development you can get allows you to re-assign dice in some manner, and plenty of the non-starter dice (you start with a few dice of the type which is good at gaining money or new tiles, other dice colors are specialized in other areas) have wildcard sides allowing even more re-assignment. Overall, big recommendation from me. I thought I'll be getting a fun "sidedish" to Race for the Galaxy, instead we got a clear replacement in all areas apart from box size. ;)

A medida que vas conociendo las fichas, desarrollos y facciones, te das cuenta de lo realmente ingenioso que es este juego. Además sus desarroladores son muy activos y aclaran dudas en la comunidad. Para mí un equilibrio delicioso entre azar, estrategia y psicología del adversario. ABSOLUTAMENTE recomendable. Rio Grande: ¡Queremos una versión en español YA! Lo volvería a comprar si lo editaran en español sin duda.

Sobre el envío 5/5: Llegó a tiempo y bien empacado. Sobre el juego 5/5: Este juego me encantó con la primera partida. Cada jugador empieza con las bases de un imperio (de manera aleatoria) el cual le dará ventajas dependiendo de lo que le haya tocado. Nuestros trabajadores (dados) nos sirven para descubrir, conquistar, colonizar, investigar, desarrollar o viajar/cosechar. Al principio contaremos con una determinada cantidad de dados, pero conforme avanzamos podremos tener más y cada uno cuenta con diferentes utilidades. El juego no cuenta con mucha interacción entre jugadores pero se compite contra ellos para ver quién es el primero en conquistar una determinada cantidad de planetas o el primero en conseguir cierta cantidad de puntos. Es un juego que todos deberían probar.

Versione con i dadi del celebre Rice Galaxy; a mio parere più divertente e giocabile anche in solo con regole che trovate su Bgg!

Had a little problem at the start getting the pieces out as they ripped when opening. Wrote them a letter to complain and they immediately sent me replacements which was great. After that my girlfriend and I played together and it is currently our favorite dice rolling game and possibly our current favorite board game even after a few months of having it. The dice look beautiful and there's always a new strategy you can do so I highly recommend it. Only downside is there is not much interaction with your opponents other than trying to guess what kind of action they are likely to do so you can get a free move but it is still lots of fun.