Race for the Galaxy - Tips & Strategies

You should always have cards in your tableau that give you cards or vps when a certain phase occurs. This way you gain something even in phases you haven’t chosen and the additional free cards or vps may give you an edge over your opponents.

Regardless of what kind of synergy you may find between your first hand and starting planet, make sure you don’t marry a strategy from the start. Race for the Galaxy doesn’t allow that level of strategy control, which in my opinion is a real problem with the game.

If you find that you have a card or two that may work off of each other and are cheap/fast to play, go for that, but be ready to abandon that strategy on the next hand or the one after. The longer you try to hold onto something that isn’t happening, the more likely you’ll lose the game.

I’ve only played this strategy with RFtG and RFtG: The Gathering Storm, and am not sure how well this would work with any of the other expansions.

The Strategy

This strategy is broken up into three main phases. At the beginning of the game, build up a strong military force. I generally do this using 1-4 cost developments to start and then whatever powers I can get from the planets I settle. After a military power of 5-6 is reached, start settling alien planets. Try to go for production or windfall, as you will want the goods for their trade value. Here is where the risk in the game comes. You want to try and find some certain cards. It’s nearly impossible to find and play all of these cards, so I’ve listed them in order of importance:

Imperium Lords
Alien Tech Institute
Galactic Imperium
and Lost Alien Battle Fleet

The high cost to develop Imperium Lords and Alien Tech Institute may require you to accumulate some cards from the consume or trade phases before playing them, however, once these cards are added to your tableau, you’re pretty much finished building . Obviously, the more alien cards you have in your tableau at the end of the game, the more points you will score.

Notes

Some good starting worlds for this strategy:

Epsilon Eridani
New Sparta
Damaged Alien Factory
and Doomed World

(Doomed World is a good starting card here because it can allow you to settle a more expensive alien world early in the game. Just make sure that you get rid of it before the game’s end.)

I’ve found this strategy to work very well as a lot of the alien planets require military power to settle them.

Don’t worry about not having many victory points while playing, you will make these up at the end of the game.

I generally go for cards at the beginning of the game such as:

Expedition Force
Drop Ships
Deserted Alien World
and Alien Rosetta Stone World

Also, I’ve found it to be very beneficial if you can have either Public Works or Interstellar Bank in your tableau as well, as this will aid in playing 6-cost development cards later in the game.

Alien tech resources have the highest trade value in the game, so the consume phase is a great time to pick up extra cards and allows you somewhat of an opportunity to “search the deck” for key cards.

Sometimes in the game, if I am playing against a produce/consume strategy, I’ll try to add a card like Alien Toy Shop or Deficit Spending to my tableau as soon as possible, as it gives me an opportunity to earn a few victory points on the side during consume phases. However, remember that the goal of this strategy is to use the produced goods to get more cards and doesn’t focus on earning victory points in-game. This is also a good addition late in the game, if you already have all the cards you need in your tableau and want to earn some extra points before ending the game.

There’s also a link here that talks about some other uses for Alien Toy Shop and Imperium Lords it also is a good source for learning how the cards work together (in the first two expansions) and for putting together your own game strategy.

If you get a good 6 value card in your hand, start building to maximize its effects as soon as possible. You may not be able to play it right away, but you can put the supporting infrastructure in place. Of course, you also need to hold on to that card until you can afford to play it. This may take some doing, and some rounds where you don’t build, but it can pay off big.

You should always play at least 1 (if not 2-3) 6-Development cards during a game. Use the bonuses and powers on the 6-Devs you have to dictate what your strategy will be, rather than trying to fish for a specific 6-Dev later in the game. It doesn’t guarantee a win but I find it pretty hard to win without at least one of these cards in play.