Roll for the Galaxy

This game is really good. Nothing else to say, just wanted to make a thread because I enjoyed it so much.

The only way I can think to make this game better is to clean up the iconography and the guides on the back of the player screens. Even after understanding all the rules it still took me seconds when looking at the hieroglyphics in the "guides" to work out which rule they were referring to! It's not bad, it's great in parts — for example, they clearly mark on each tile which phase special powers trigger in, making it easier to track what powers you can activate — it just feels overwrought, and baffling as a result.

Was this your first time playing Sam and have you played Race for the Galaxy before? I found it took me a while to familiarise myself with the iconography in Race but eventually it just clicks.

Duplicating a question from another thread, how do people think it compares to Race, which is one of my favourites?

karl_b wrote:Was this your first time playing Sam and have you played Race for the Galaxy before? I found it took me a while to familiarise myself with the iconography in Race but eventually it just clicks.

Duplicating a question from another thread, how do people think it compares to Race, which is one of my favourites?

I've only played each one once so I'm not qualified to do a detailed analysis, but I think I preferred Roll to Race. One of the main things being it was a lot quicker to get to grips with. Both games are very good though, in my opinion, and I'll happily play either again.

Also only played each once, also prefer Roll so far. Would like to play both a few more times.

Two major things I prefer in Roll:

1. Resources and buildings are separate. One things that frustrates me about San Juan and Race for the Galaxy is that cards are buildings and resources, so you have a bunch of cards you have in your hand that you have to read, and remember, and then most of them get thrown away as resources anyway, but you get a bunch of new cards that you have to read and remember and might force you to reconsider your whole strategy, or you irritatingly get cards that would have worked great with cards you just threw away for resources... In Roll the resources are dice and the buildings are tiles. Seems that the game moves faster for this reason also, because people (me) aren't stressing over which buildings to scrap. Big improvement.

2. The new dice system for choosing phases. Not only does it speed things up by restricting your options, because people (me) aren't stressing over which phase to choose, it just adds a bit of excitement when you need a particular phase but you don't know if you will roll enough of it. Something which I'm sure is in many games but I am surprised how rarely I see it is that here different coloured dice have different probabilities so as you get more dice types you can swing luck in your favor. I really like this mechanic. There are other chance-mitigating mechanics and you can usually make something of whatever dice you roll, so it doesn't become a game of luck, but it is more fun.

Basically, dice.

The other thing I'm trying to work out is what went well last time so I can defend my victory.

I figure the first things to worry about are getting money and tiles. Having a yellow planet to start with worked out well for me because I can trade for lots of money, but if you don't have yellow or green resources to trade I think it must be more dice efficient to scout with the explore action? So a ton of exploring for the first turns might be a good go-to strategy, unless your starting buildings give you a better option, in order to find enough tiles to work out a good strategy for the rest of the game, whilst also keeping the money coming in.

Sam wrote:
Two major things I prefer in Roll:

1. Resources and buildings are separate. One things that frustrates me about San Juan and Race for the Galaxy is that cards are buildings and resources, so you have a bunch of cards you have in your hand that you have to read, and remember, and then most of them get thrown away as resources

I actually really like this mechanic - it forces the player into sacrificing potentially great cards in order to get what they need.

As for my opinion on the Xxxx for the Galaxy games, I probably like playing them both equally,but I definitely like teaching Roll a lot more than Race. It is much simpler to grasp.
The biggest criticism I have of Roll is a problem it shares with the base game of Race - it's largely a game of "Solitaire with friends", if a future expansion introduces more player interaction it could go from being a good game to a great game.

Has this stood up for everyone then?

I've been playing it lately and am finding that it ends just too quickly for me sometimes (although, that often leads to playing it again.... and again). Favourable strategies are always leaning towards starting with exploring, building cheaper worlds for dice, and cheaper developments for bonuses like $. Then building a couple of the bigger developments with the + bonuses. Finally racing towards finishing the tableau and timing it so that I have the most points by keeping an eye on the other players' tiles/VPs and if they're likely to build.

Even when tiles seem to be pushing me towards shipping it rarely seems to be of benefit to go with that strategy as someone else will play with the previously outlined strategy, finish their tableau, and I'm left with produce on worlds and a handful of VPs on chips.

Is there any way to stop them racing away like that which I'm just not seeing?

I've played this maybe four or five times now. I enjoy the need to constantly adapt what you're doing to the current situation of what tiles you've found and then what dice you've rolled, and so far I've been looking more at immediate tactics rather than any long-term strategy.

I think I'll try a few exploratory games where I'm pushing towards particular strategies, such as trying to get as many points from shipping as possible, any time I can, or finishing my tableau as quickly as possible, or going the opposite way and trying for big value worlds/techs at the expense of finishing the tableau.

I'm still very happy with it. Perhaps the Ambition expansion will rekindle your interest.

JohnH wrote:Has this stood up for everyone then?

I've been playing it lately and am finding that it ends just too quickly for me sometimes (although, that often leads to playing it again.... and again). Favourable strategies are always leaning towards starting with exploring, building cheaper worlds for dice, and cheaper developments for bonuses like $. Then building a couple of the bigger developments with the + bonuses. Finally racing towards finishing the tableau and timing it so that I have the most points by keeping an eye on the other players' tiles/VPs and if they're likely to build.

Even when tiles seem to be pushing me towards shipping it rarely seems to be of benefit to go with that strategy as someone else will play with the previously outlined strategy, finish their tableau, and I'm left with produce on worlds and a handful of VPs on chips.

Is there any way to stop them racing away like that which I'm just not seeing?

I haven't found it so one-sided. One thing to consider is that it changes depending on the number oif players and strategies. If 2 or more people choose the shipping strategy, it becomes a much better route to follow.

One thing to note is that we tend to play a variant where you get some choice over your starting worlds (draw 2 of each size and then pick). This also then helps you make predictions about the strategies other might plan.

PaulC wrote:

Sam wrote:
Two major things I prefer in Roll:

1. Resources and buildings are separate. One things that frustrates me about San Juan and Race for the Galaxy is that cards are buildings and resources, so you have a bunch of cards you have in your hand that you have to read, and remember, and then most of them get thrown away as resources

I actually really like this mechanic - it forces the player into sacrificing potentially great cards in order to get what they need.

As for my opinion on the Xxxx for the Galaxy games, I probably like playing them both equally,but I definitely like teaching Roll a lot more than Race. It is much simpler to grasp.
The biggest criticism I have of Roll is a problem it shares with the base game of Race - it's largely a game of "Solitaire with friends", if a future expansion introduces more player interaction it could go from being a good game to a great game.

With regards the criticism, I'd say that making accurate predictions of what others will do is often the key to success. It is still quite low on player interaction though. One thing you could do to increase interaction would be to make discarded cards/tiles available to others as an alternative to drawing from the deck/bag. Anyone fancy trying this in roll? (not a big change for roll as opposed to race)