Even thought my wife and I just played Race for the Galaxy, we were so impressed by the first couple of games that we had to try it again. The game is really interesting, and even just a couple of plays show that there are some deeper strategies to attempt, so we decided to try the "two-player advanced" set up.
Normally in Race for the Galaxy, each player chooses only one phase cards per turn, and each of the selected phases is played with those players who chose it getting a special bonus or benefit during that phase. In the two player advanced game, each player chooses 2 phase cards per turn. This changes the dynamic of the game quite a bit. Now, not only can you potentially have 4 different phases occur during a single round, you can also potentially have the ability to develop or settle twice. My thought after playing the "basic" game (one phase card per player) was that this would make the game go faster and require a bit more planning. My thought after playing the advanced game is that I was right.
The first game pitted my Alpha Centauri against her Old Earth. I lucked into getting a few good rare element and military worlds in my opening hand, but that was where my luck began and ended. I did some development of my tableau while my wife started slowly, and eventually I had some really good military power out. So I started to explore (+5) for military worlds and developments, to see what I could come up with. Meanwhile, my wife began to settle a number of production worlds. Turn after turn, I sought out well-defended and valuable worlds, but despite drawing 8 or more cards per turn, I was unable to find anything at all. Nothing that would help me score points based on a military of 6 came up. Even after exhausting the deck and reshuffling. And while my horrible luck stymied my attempts to get points, my wife developed a Diversified Economy and started to beat me on points and card advantage. Perhaps I relied too much on a strategy that wasn't working, but her goal of a produce/consume engine was clear early on, and by the time it was clear that mine wasn't working, I was already so far behind on VP chips it was all the hope I had left that something would eventually happen. Needless to say, I was trounced.
We played again. This time I got Epsilon Eridani to begin, and my wife had Earth's Lost Colony. I expected that this would mean another produce/consume engine. I was wrong. I began with a strategy of playing a ton of developments, as my opening hand had Public Works and Investment Credits. I figured that I could use the advantages of those cards to get more cheap developments, and eventually find cards like Galactic Federation and other expensive developments. I was hoping I could outpace my wife's ability to score points and end the game quickly. It didn't quite work that way. Unfortunately for me, while I was completely unable to get a military strategy to score any big points in the previous game, she lucked into a few early military powers which allowed her to settle, settle, and settle a little more without spending her cards. Outpacing her was impossible. And the points she commanded from both military worlds and producing/consuming x2 once again toasted my feeble tableau.
I was a bit frustrated with the whole thing. The random draw was against me in the first game, preventing me from getting any really valuable military worlds until it was too late. And it was against me once again in the second game, delivering into my wife's lap the military worlds that I couldn't find with a map and GPS coordinates in the first game.
It was frustrating, but I know it sometimes happens. That's just how games with random cards are. Just before we played Race for the Galaxy, we played Dominion a couple of times and I basically destroyed her. Sometimes, fortune swings the other way. Regardless, I didn't "not enjoy" the games. I was just a bit frustrated that they didn't quite go how I had planned. Better luck next time, I'm hoping.
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