Race for the Galaxy RftG
Worlds await! Colonize, develop and conquer, taking advantage of others' choices.
In the card game Race for the Galaxy, players build galactic civilizations by playing game cards in front of them that represent worlds or technical and social developments. Some worlds allow players to produce goods, which can be consumed later to gain either card draws or victory points when the appropriate technologies are available to them. These are mainly provided by the developments and worlds that are not able to produce, but the fancier production worlds also give these bonuses.
Number of players: 2 - 6
Game duration: 6 mn
Complexity: 4 / 5
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Play Race for the Galaxy and 917 other games online.
No download necessary - play directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Rules summary
Theme
Players control competing civilisations exploring space, discovering planets to conquer or settle, building an economy by consuming a planet's goods and building developments. The object of the game is to earn the most victory points from planets and developments played in their tableau, from consuming goods, and from bonuses from special developments.
Phases
- 2players: select two phases per round.
- 3+players: select one phase per round.
- Only selected phases are played, in phase order.
- I Explore: draw keep
- II Develop: play by equal to its cost.
- III Settle:
- play by equal to its cost.
- play with sufficient military force.
- played gain .
- IV Consume: exchange for using consume powers.
- Select / with .
- Select with power.
- powers must be used completely e.g. if 1 is consumed with a power, the power must be used twice more if possible.
- V Produce: gain on each without .
Phase bonuses
Bonuses for selecting a phase:
- I Explore: +5 +0 draw +
- I Explore: +1 +1 draw + keep +
- II Develop: cost
- III Settle: gain for settling
- IV Consume: $ exchange 1:
- Novelty
- Rare Elements
- Genes
- Alien Technology
- IV Consume: ×2 gain ×2
- V Produce: gain on one without .
- I Explore: may select both +5 +0 and +1 +1 = draw + keep +.
- II Develop: may select twice.
- III Settle: may select twice.
- IV Consume: may select both $ and ×2 = trade 1 and use all powers.
- V Produce: may select once only.
- Most cards have powers for certain phases which can be used from your tableau.
- A duplicate card may not be played on the same tableau.
- Discard down to at round end.
Game end
- At round end (including discarding) when a tableau has ≥12 cards face up or there are remaining.
- Cards in each tableau gain equal to the hexagon number 553.
- The player with the most is the winner.
Tiebreak
- Most + .
Expansion: The Brink of War
Prestige
- Gain for placing a card with (next to its cost).
- Gain from card powers e.g. during IV Consume.
- Note: IV Consume ×2 does not double .
Prestige leader
- Gain the Prestige leader tile for the most at phase end or immediately after the leader spends .
- gained each round is counted as being on the tile and transferred to the leader's personal supply at round end with + .
- on the tile at round end does not gain .
- A tie for Prestige Leader does not gain any at round end.
Prestige bonus
- Once per game each player may use their prestige bonus for a search or action bonus.
Search
- Costs and happens before any other phase.
- Select a search category.
- Either take the first matching card or blindly take the second matching card.
Categories
- or (ignore temporary and specialised military).
- 11 or 22.
- 11 or 22.
- .
- or .
- for ≥ 2.
- 5+5+.
- .
- or defence powers (only with takeover rules on).
Action
- Costs for one enhanced phase bonus.
- 2players: second selected phase is selected as normal.
- I Explore (+5 +0): draw , combine with (keep +).
- I Explore (+1 +1): draw , combine with (keep +).
- II Develop: cost.
- III Settle: -3-3 and +2+2, for settling .
- IV Consume ($): + + 1.
- IV Consume (×2):
- V Produce: + up to 2.
Game end
- Each is worth 1.
- Game end is additionally triggered if any player has ≥ at round end.
Expansion: Xeno Invasion (with Invasion)
- The Xenos are invading! In addition to expanding your empire, you must defend it from the Xenos.
- Standalone expansion played only with the base game.
- All Explore phases have the 'mix with hand' power.
- Settle is already selected in round 1.
- Xenos attack in round 3.
- After discarding down to , each player gets an Invasion card with the strength of the attacking Xenos.
- Players with a higher military vs Xenos get higher values.
- To defend, military vs Xenos + defence vs Xenos must exceed (not just tie) the Invasion value.
- Settle powers may be used for extra military force.
- Each player has a Bunker with for +2 defence vs Xenos.
- Defenders gain 1 or 2 (weaker players get more)
- Non-defenders select to be damaged .
- Damaged lose , are worth 0, and have no powers or keywords, but still count towards tableau size.
The invasion has 3 waves. Wave 1 and Wave 2 are 2 rounds each (2players: 1 round each). Wave 3 is until the end of the game. Invasion strength is a random value:
- Wave 1: -1 - 4
- Wave 2: 0 - 7
- Wave 3: 3 - 9, your base military + 3/4/5
Produce changes
- At the start of Produce, each player may contribute to the war effort to gain 1 / and reduce the Xeno repulse value by 1.
- Repair with by , 2 or using a repair power.
- V Produce: Repair: Instead of gaining on , repair 2 with .
Game end
5 awarded to:
- Greatest Admiral: largest military vs Xenos.
- Greatest Contributor: most contributed to the war effort.
Additional game end conditions:
- Xenos are defeated: the combined military vs Xenos of all players matches or exceeds the Xeno repulse value. No final invasion happens.
- All players fail to defend twice.
- No player gains Greatest Admiral or Greatest Contributor.
Note:
- Military vs Xenos: for settling worlds with Xeno, contributes to defeating Xenos, counts when determining strength for invasion cards.
- Defence vs Xenos: only counted when defending each round.
New worlds
Race for the Galaxy: New Worlds Promo adds 6 new start worlds that can be added to any game (base game or expansions).
- 221 Star Nomad Raiders
- 221 Industrial Robots
- 221 Galactic Trade Emissaries
- 221 Terraforming Colonists
- 220 Abandoned Mine Squatters
- 221 Gateway Station
