Through The
\nAges<\/a>“. “Galaxy Trucker” will be released by the new publisher Czech Games Edition in
\ntime for Essen 2007.<\/p>\nThe rules and the components of the game immediately triggered memories of both
\n“Sternenfahrer” and “Space Dealer”. Two to four players have the task to build
\nspaceships and then explore outer space in search for valuable goods they can sell at the end of
\ntheir journey. The game starts with a shipbuilding phase where all players simultaneously try to
\nbuild a well-functioning and safe spaceship using ship part tiles from a common pile. The duration
\nof this phase is controlled by a timer, creating time pressure for the players when building their
\nships. This time pressure uses a clever mechanic that is fair and adaptive to the speed of the
\nplayer group. An hourglass may be moved along a track by the players whenever is runs out, and is
\nturned over again. Ingeniously, the player shifting the timer to the last space on the track must
\ncease building when he\/she does so. Once the timer has run out on the final space of the track all
\nshipbuilding must stop immediately. Moving the hourglass is optional, therefore players have it in
\ntheir hands how long the building phase lasts, while still guaranteeing a minimum building
\ntime.<\/p>\n
When reading this rule we became a little worried about how this would work in practice,
\nactually expecting a lot of chaotic grabbing of ship tiles and a general mess in the middle of the
\ntable. Real play then showed that this is by no means the case. Despite the time pressure building
\nwas carried out controlled and organized and became only a little hectic when the timer had been
\nturned for the final run.<\/p>\n
The reasons why shipbuilding is controlled rather than chaotic are manifold. First, the ship
\npart tiles are all face down when the ship building phase commences. Only tiles returned to the
\npile because players render them unsuitable for their ship are turned face up. So there is no
\njumping on that e.g. “best engine” tile because nobody knows where it is. Instead
\neverybody grabs a tile and tries to determine if and how it can extend ones ship in a suitable way.
\nSecondly, ship part tiles come in different types (engines, guns, shields, cargo bays, crew cabins,
\nuniversal connection modules) and connection styles so that players need to spend some time on
\nfinding out if a tile fits their needs.<\/p>\n
![\"ship\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/Ressourcen2\/galaxytrucker_b1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Once the timer has run out on the final track space and all shipbuilding has stopped players
\nbegin to check each other’s spaceships for validity. Any part not properly connected according
\nto the rules must be removed from the ship, sometimes disconnecting additional structures from the
\nmain body of the ship, which then also need to be removed. In our game we did not manage a single
\nround of the game without at least one player having to remove tiles. This gives an indication that
\nit is not too easy to build ships under time pressure.<\/p>\n
When all ships have been checked the second phase of the game starts: the space mission. The
\nmotor of this phase are event cards laid out in four stacks. The spaceships, represented by pawns
\nin the players’ colours, are placed on the “flight board” showing a race track for
\nthe intergalactic mission. The initial sequence in which the spaceships are positioned is
\ndetermined by the order in which the players completed their shipbuilding, with the first player to
\ncomplete his\/her ship being the first to select his\/her starting position. Once the ships are all
\nlined up the player of the leading ship draws an event card from any one of the four stacks. Being
\nthe owner of the leading ship and thereby being able to select the stack to draw from has a
\ndistinct advantage: during the shipbuilding phase players are allowed to inspect any one of three
\nstacks, the fourth remains secret to all players. This way players are able to build their ship
\naccording to the events that will happen during the mission and they even know which event are in
\nwhich stack, with of course a bit of uncertainty about what evil might lure in the undisclosed
\nfourth stack.<\/p>\n
Events come in three general types: they either provide an opportunity to collect goods or they
\npose a threat to the ship and may destroy parts of it, or they represent empty space where the ship
\ntravels forwards in the race track according to its engine power.<\/p>\n
Once the last event card has been drawn and executed the space mission is over and the players
\ncollect credits for the goods they have on board and the position they hold on the flight board.
\nThen a bonus is paid to the player with the best-looking ship.<\/p>\n
![\"track\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/Ressourcen2\/galaxytrucker_b2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The game is played in three rounds with each additional round increasing the size of the
\nspaceship that can be built while at the same time increasing the number and severity of events
\nthreatening the ships. Sometimes in the second and third round ships may be damaged so severely
\nthat they have only a minute chance to finish the mission. The rules cover this situation quite
\nwell by allowing a player to abort the ship’s travel and still collect credits for the goods
\ntransported, although only half of their value is paid in this case. Our experience is that such a
\nsituation happens rather often and it is therefore a good idea to know what event cards are still
\nto appear in order to be able to evaluate one’s odds of survival.<\/p>\n
Although we did not receive the final production version of the game we can already say that the
\ncomponents’ quality, print and graphics are of excellent quality and support the sci-fi theme
\nvery well. The only minor quarrel we have is that the players colours and goods are identical in
\nour version, something which could easily be avoided.<\/p>\n
We enjoyed playing “Galaxy Trucker” very much and all of us agreed that it offers a
\nlot of replay value. Building a good ship that matches the threats of the upcoming space mission is
\ndefinitely a challenge and fun at the same time. The time control of the building phase is truly
\ningenious and works excellently. Luck certainly plays a role in the game, but it is not predominant
\nand players always have the feeling to be in control. In those cases where the events cards are
\njust too disastrous to one’s ship players may briefly think to be hit by bad luck but quickly
\nrealize that their ship had an unnecessary structural weakness, which they will avoid in the next
\nround. As the game only lasts about one hour (once all players know the rules) there is plenty of
\nchance to improve ones shipbuilding abilities. And I am sure that players long for a revenge after
\njust one game played.<\/p>\n
“Galaxy Trucker” is a very enjoyable game and definitely one of the best sci-fi games
\nI have played since a long time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
author Vlaada Chv\u00e1til publisher Czech Games Edition released 2007 players 2-4 playing time 60 Minuten rating Galaxy Trucker previewed by Aaron Haag Games using a sci-fi theme are usually not considered to be mainstream products and sometimes only cover a niche market. In the past games like “Merchant of Venus” by Richard Hamblen, “Buck Rogers” … Galaxy
\nTrucker<\/span> weiterlesen →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spieleabende"],"views":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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