From: www.cardboardmechanic.blogspot.com.au
Galaxy Trucker
So, my first critique falls to the most recent games I've acquired and certainly one of my favorites, Galaxy Trucker by Vlaada Chvatil and published by Rio Grande Games. SUSD have a great play through with the expansions here.
The Game
2-4 Players
60 minutes
Age 10+ (probably lower)
Expansions: yes, lots, to many to list here.
It's quite a simple game. There are three rounds with two phases each.
Each rounds starts with you grabbing face down tiles to try and build a ship that combines cargo holds, crew compartments, lasers, shields and engines. There are different types of connectors and different configurations for modules so it becomes a kind of crazy jigsaw. If you can't use a piece you place it face up for all to see and take. This round is loosely timed, with the round ending after players have grabbed their position markers after finishing and the last timer has run out. These markers start your position on the board. You also get to look through the cards that will be played during the second phase, but they get shuffled before they get played.
The second phase of each round is where you flip cards over to tell you what event is occurring to your ship. It can be combat, meteor storm, picking up cargo from a planet, taking an abandoned space station even a epidemic which wipes out crew under a condition or several others. Each of these events forces you to use up resources, lose position on the board, and at the worst (and most often), destroys your ship.
The round ends by tallying up your cargo credits, bonus' for position and best looking ship then subtracting the cost of lost modules. You then get a different template board for the next round (bigger or different configuration) and start again. This goes on for 3 rounds (or 4 if you want) and a the end the person with the most Credits wins.
The Mechanics
There are no tricky mechanics here. The first phase is a hectic grab for jigsaw pieces as you decide how to set out your ship and what modules you need. Do you fit a double engine and an extra power cell to run it or two single engines, if you can find the connections. Do you fit another cargo module or some more lasers. Do you rush through to get first position on the board or have you got enough engines to overtake in dead space. Why has the bloke across from you got a ton of cargo but few lasers? Why has the girl next to you got a heap of alien crew compartments? Better look at the cards again... wait... times up.
The second phase you have little control over except for your decisions on what cargo you pick up, if you use your crew to take station and a few others, but you choose in the order you are on the board so its first in best dressed. The damage is decided by dice roll and its not uncommon for entire sections of a ship to go floating off into the deep dark after that last connecting piece was taken out by a large asteroid. Some cards will pit players against each other through comparison over who has the most crew/laser strength/etc. Over all choice is somewhat limited in this phase, mostly determined by the choices you made in the first.
The Play
Because the game is played in two quite different phases I will look at each one individually.
Phase 1: Tile McGrabbiness.
I think the big question I need to ask first is "Is this fun?". Yes. This phase is fun. Throughout I find myself watching the timer, the other players evolving ships, flipping tiles and checking that what I'm looking for isn't already flipped. It feels like time gets compressed as you rush to get everything you need in before someone decides to flip the timer or grab first position.
It's tactile. Not in the way that there are well produced items to fidget with, but the whole round relies on you grabbing at tiles and flipping them over. You are active as you reach across the table and everyone is a flurry of movement. This amount of activity and movement seems fairly rare in games.
It creates an energy and adds excitement to the game. That excitement carries over to checking out each others ships at the end of the build phase and comparing just how stupid your ship really is. I feel attached to my creation by this point and am excited to see just how fast it will disintegrate in a meteor storm.
You feel time pressure. The timer is counting down. You can't really tell how far along your mates are but you still have to figure out how to fit a shield and close of those open connectors. Then someone flips the timer and everyone starts eyeing off the position markers. Do you keep building or go for position? Do you have time to check the cards for phase 2 or should you be grabbing for those single engines?
Again this creates energy and excitement. The pace feels forced on you but you only go as fast as the quickest player.
There is competition for parts. Suddenly all the universal-connector engines are gone and you are cursing across the table at Johnno who has the fastest ship in the universe. Then all the crew compartments are gone except for the left facing ones, when you only have connectors on the right. And my GOD why do I keep flipping over single hazardous cargo holds, I NEED DOUBLES!
Scarce resources are a common part of eurogames but rarely do you have to physically snatch them away from your competitors with such a finite time to do so. Again this creates energy and excitement while forcing you to improvise on your plan, giving ownership to the tangled mess of a ship you just created.
Phase II: A road paved with broken dreams.
Is it fun? Yes, but because it is part of a larger game. Without the ownership of the ship... ship... and the excitement built from the first round this would be a very mundane exercise in card flipping. Therefore my main point for phase two is:
Personal investment reigns supreme. You think you are doing well and you should be but Johnno raced ahead of you in the last 'open space' so you missed out on the good cargo. Now speed is a factor in a 'combat zone', and although you are bristling with lasers you cop a massive shot to from the left which blows away a critical module scattering cargo and crew across the galaxy.
This combines with the unforgiving nature to grant broken dreams. I know, is this a Thing? Yes it is. It's a theme that shows up in many games, especially ones like Pandemic, where the best laid plans are destroyed by a ruthless game A.I. Is this a Good Thing? Only when all players suffer the same. A game that can ruthlessly dismantle a players strategy while leaving everyone else untouched quickly becomes frustrating and the game is blamed for a loss rather than bad tactics or even just bad luck.
In Galaxy Trucker everyone suffers the same. The only time there is a difference is during a 'combat zone' but even then the victory criteria are available to view during the build Phase to work towards.
We recently played a game where it was pretty smooth sailing. Most cards were cargo or open space with a couple of meteor showers and a combat zone. Every thing went pretty well, lots of cargo was gained and much Credits earned. And you know what, it was boring. There is great joy in watching your mates's well crafted ship disintegrate beneath them, right before your own. The pleasure is in the mutual misery and the smack talk that happens between.
Conclusion
The build is exciting and the journey gives you something to build towards. The journey works because you can exalt in the misery of others, right before you are dragged down with them. It is tactile, has time pressure and mild competition which creates personal investment in something that the game will chew up and hand back broken dreams.
Overall its a bit silly, a bit cartoony, and comparisons of others ships highlight the absurd. The focus is not on well thought out strategy and deliberate planning but a rushed grab for resources then a frantic, short, flight to squeeze the most Credits you can.
I'd call this a party game. It works best with a happy crew that are willing to smack talk, insult and role play their way through the game.
