Galaxy Trucker

As a board game geek, and one who has convinced their spouse of the value of playing board games, we have played a lot of games. This game was different to so many games in so many ways.

First off, the instructions were a crack-up to read, and the writers definitely had a fun time writing them. We laughed while we read the rules, and it started the game off on in a fun mood for those playing. There were a few areas that the rules were not entirely clear on and we had to just make a house-rule, but overall the rules were clear once the game was started (it even tells you in the rulebook to just start playing and you'll understand it better).

As for the game itself, the concept was unique and fun, and the way the game is played is unique and fun. There are three rounds of play, and each round gets increasingly more complex. The basic premise of the game is to build a ship with component pieces, and then try to succeed at 8 different random adventures. By the time you have all gone through the eight adventures (There are quite a few different adventures, so each game will be different out of sheer randomness), you total up the amount of cash you have. After doing this for three rounds, you total up the amount of cash you have and see who wins.

The randomness in the game comes from the random components you pull to build your ship in the beginning of each round, the adventures that are drawn each round, and how everybody else does building and surviving adventures.

That is a quick summary, but the game offers fun for different types of game players - from speed that helps you build your ship faster (offering different advantages) to strategy (how you can mess up other players or help yourself depending on how you choose to get do the adventures drawn) to some elements of luck ("please don't roll a 7 in this meteor storm since I'm out of batteries and have both of my rockets connected to the battery component in row 7...").

Overall, we spent a good deal of the night laughing and just having fun. Any game that can make you do that gets an 'A' in our opinion. While not perfect, and we have only played it a few games, it is definitely different, fun, and something we are looking forward to playing again!

I'm a fan of European strategy board games like Stone Age, Puerto Rico, and many others. The games I like tend to have a bit more strategic depth than most, so when I saw the name "Galaxy Trucker", it sounded campy and silly and so I avoided it. What a mistake! In fact, it *is* campy and silly, but it's so hilariously funny that you'll be too busy laughing out loud to mind the fact that there isn't a lot of deep strategy involved. I finally played the game last night at the urging of a friend, and immediately bought my copy and started writing this review that same night - it's that good!

The game consists of three increasingly difficult races across the galaxy, each of which takes 20-30 minutes. Before you can race, you need a space ship. But you don't simply get a ship pre-made; you have to construct your own ship out of spare parts. Think "Star Control 2" meets "Pipe Dream". In other words, you get a stream of random ship components and must try to assemble them as best you can under time pressure. Ship components are square tiles, each of which have a function (crew quarters, engines, weapons, etc.) and 1 or more connections on their edges. Some tiles are "dead-ends" (having only 1 connection) making them better suited to the exterior of your ship, while others branch out making them better for the interior of your ship. But, you'll likely get them in the wrong order and have to improvise how you deal with them. Do you reject them and risk another player taking them, or do you put them in storage and risk paying a penalty for not using them? Or, you might get precisely the ship component you want but it has the wrong type of connection. Doh! Unlike Pipe Dream, there are multiple types of connections, and adjacent tiles must have compatible connection types. It is acceptable to leave connections exposed to outer space, but doing so makes your ship more vulnerable. Overall, the ship-building portion of the game strikes the perfect balance between possibilities and difficulties.

Next is the audit. Players check each other's ships for illegal tile placement (and get a good chuckle over how dorky all the ships look). If ship components are not placed correctly, the player must remove components (of his/her choice) until the ship is legal, and must pay a penalty for each scrapped piece. One friend had to remove a quarter of his ship due to a mistake at a critical internal joint, losing his entire forward facing gun batteries! If this sounds like a bummer, it's got a huge silver lining: everyone, including the victim himself, had a great time and couldn't stop laughing about it. This reveals another great strength of Galaxy Trucker: it's the most fun you'll ever have losing a game. In fact, it might even be more fun to lose dramatically than to win. The game is lighthearted enough that you have fun either way, and besides, there's always the next race, when you get to start over with a fresh ship.

The third and final stage is the race itself. Each race consists of a sequence of random events, some good, some bad. You might have to fly through a combat zone, or face pirates, slavers, or meteor showers. Or, you might find planets or derelict ships with treasure to plunder. The player in the lead gets first pick of any treasures you find, but will also be the first to face the pirates and slavers. My personal favorite event is the meteor shower. Each player must survive a barrage of ~8 meteors of different sizes coming from different directions. This frequently results in important components flying off your ship and exposing critical interior sections to outer space. One friend lost half his ship to the worst possible meteor strike, which again just meant that we all couldn't stop laughing about it. If you make it past the finish line (no easy feat!), you get points for what place you come in, plus, there's a bonus for the finishing player with the least damage.

Being a fan of science fiction, I kept being reminded of the pod racing scene in Star Wars 1: fast, furious, with danger around every corner. But science-fiction fandom is not required to enjoy this game. Casual gamers will also likely enjoy Galaxy Trucker for its unique tile-laying gameplay design, which bears some similarities to Tetris and Carcasonne.

Lastly, I will point out two less obvious benefits of this game. There are no individual player turns, which means that all players are actively engaged and having fun all the time. Also, the theme of mayhem and the game's lighthearted nature encourage variability and experimentation via house rules. For instance, maybe give each player a set of hidden tiles they don't have to share, or barter tiles with friends, or auction some tiles, or make the race longer, or add your own race events. You can also get more official options via the game's expansion set, which increases the maximum number of players to 5. (The base game supports 2-4, and plays best with 4 - more people to laugh at and with.)

The game has very few downsides. Rules sticklers may not be totally happy, as several rules are hazy. This isn't a serious problem though because most ambiguities can be easily clarified with a logical house rule, and besides, it fits well with the game's lighthearted nature and openness to variation. Lastly, the game is expensive relative to other board games, and Amazon usually doesn't have the best prices on board games, so you may want to shop around for a better deal.

Galaxy Trucker (GT) is a hilarious light strategy game that is as much fun to lose at as it is to win.

The basics:
1. GT is played over three rounds. At the start of each round, players have a board with a ship outline (different each round) that has their bridge of their ship at its core. Players then simultaneously reach over to a pile of tiles that show ship parts and try to build their ship quickly. Each piece has a different function from carrying cargo and passengers (both human and alien) to engines, shields, and weapons. This is done as quickly as possible as everyone is looking to build their ship with all the components they want while making sure everything connects properly (any components that aren't connected properly fall off and the player pays a penalty).

2. After all the ships are built, the ships are placed in order of completion on a track (it is a bit of a race at this point). The ships then face various random events from pirates to planets that give resources that can be sold off if the ship makes it to the end. Planets and other events that offer some sort of payout come with a delay penalty (players taking the payout moves backwards on the board). Some of the events are "open space" which allows the players to move forward a number of spaces equal to the number of engines their ships have. The detrimental events (pirates, asteroids, etc.) include a bit of luck as dice are rolled and the corresponding ship part is affected, which could cause a loss of a portion of the (or even the entire!) ship.

3. Those ships that survive all the encounters then place at the end of the race and collect the payout for arriving in their designated spot (1rst, 2nd, 3rd, etc.), sell cargo, and pay for any lost portions of their ship.

4. After the 3rd round, the player with the most money wins.

5. The game seats up to 4 people but an expansion can be bought that adds a 5th player.

Thoughts: This is a hilarious game! The rules are written with a humorous twist and are a delight to read. During the game, people will be saying things like "don't hit my engines!" as the dice are rolled to see which parts of the ship are affected. It is a laugh riot even to lose during a round. For example, one player in my gaming group just got horrible rolls that just drilled a hole right through the center of her ship, blowing it up! Another situation was when 1/2 the players were taken out by slavers (have to hand over 5 crew or abandon that leg of the race)! During ship building, you are trying to figure out what you need to get your ship (do you go for that extra engine or more cargo space?) while everyone else is grabbing other tiles. There is no right answer, since you can't build a ship that will handle every situation (not when you're competing with other players trying to equip their ships to the best of their abilities).

Bottom Line: A hilarious and light game that requires some strategic thinking but not much. After a couple plays, this was a "must get" game for me. If you enjoy this game, I'd highly recommend the expansion which adds new events plus allows for some new nasty surprises for your ships to face.