Galaxy Trucker!?

I just got to play Galaxy Trucker for the first time at the local gaming thing. I didn't even really know what it was before, but it looked interesting so I joined in a game and I was really surprised at how much fun I had.

It's pretty much a race to pick up the most goods the fastest, and not get totally destroyed by asteroids and/or pirates. Each round, you build a ship out of tiles with different stuff on them, like lasers, cargo holds, or crew cabins.

For a Eurogame, there is a lot of ways to get raped by random events in a Talisman-esque manner. When you get attacked, you roll dice to determine where you take a hit on your ship; sometimes, your ship can be split in half and you end up with negative money after the round!

Also surprising for a Euro, you don't have much control over what happens to you once you launch your completed ship. You just flip the cards, make a simple desicion on some cards, and roll the dice when you get blasted.

It's also got little plastic dudes and aliens and battery thingies you stick on your ship. The resources are generic little wooden cubes though.

The way the last round of the game went, one guy didn't take enough crew, so he was eliminated from the round when he ran into slavers who took everyone. They took some of my crew but left a couple guys. My brother, who packed few engines (putting him last) but LOTS of firepower, blasted the slavers and salvaged their ship for extra cash. I was in front, giving me first pick at planets with valuable resources, but also getting blasted by pirates and stuff before my brother came and destroyed them. Though he had the slowest ship and missed out on the resource rich planets, he won by a large margin.

Funny thing, the same "discerning gamers" who complain about Talisman and pretty much any other game with dice being too random and unforgiving, seem to like Galaxy Trucker and say "sure it may be way random, but it's fun to just go out and see what happens!"

Anybody else play this game? What do you think?

Yes, not your typical Euro... not a Euro at all for that matter. I consider it a kids game that adults would love to play.

Not sure why cubes are a problem... you are a "trucker" these are crates of goods. The overall production and art is top notch.

Wow, the way you describe that is just like a story, and one you'll remember. Maybe I need to try this. I kept getting it confused with "Space Dealer", which does NOT look like a ton of fun to me.

Yeah, Branham keeps telling me to try this one...I don't know, I'm REALLY not a fan of puzzle mechanics...but it looks kind of interesting, and I like the concept. It sounds like the theme is there, but does it turn into people staring at their ships trying to optimize things? That would kill it right there.

Michael Barnes wrote:

Yeah, Branham keeps telling me to try this one...I don't know, I'm REALLY not a fan of puzzle mechanics...but it looks kind of interesting, and I like the concept. It sounds like the theme is there, but does it turn into people staring at their ships trying to optimize things? That would kill it right there.

Galaxy Trucker is like building the best snow fort before a snowball fight. You know it going to get all blown to hell, but it's about having the biggest nub left when it's all said and done.

Michael Barnes wrote:

Yeah, Branham keeps telling me to try this one...I don't know, I'm REALLY not a fan of puzzle mechanics...but it looks kind of interesting, and I like the concept. It sounds like the theme is there, but does it turn into people staring at their ships trying to optimize things? That would kill it right there.

Don't get turned off by the "puzzle" phase of the game. GT implements this mechanic well and it totally fits in with the theme. As a low-budget independant contractor you have to make your ship out of whatever junk you can find/use in the warehouse on short notice. GT presents this time pressure in the form of sand timers. Each round has a different number of timers depending on the size of the ship to be constucted. While you want to build the most survivable ship you can, the timers make sure AP dosen't set in. Also all the players draw their components from the same pool, so there's a race amongst the truckers for parts. Build too slow and you could get screwed out of vital components. Build quickly and you can preview the events that will transpire during the race and then choose your starting position. (First isn't always the best place to be) If the timers expire before you finish, you fly whatever junk-heap you've built and pray.

Skill is a factor during constuction. At first you're just trying to learn how to build a leagal ship with proper connections. Once that's mastered, the system allows you to persue different design philosophies as to what constitues the "best" ship. (gun heavy, engine heavy, lots of cargo holds, etc...)

Overall I like GT a lot. It's like getting 2 games in one. The first is a timed constuction puzzle while the 2nd part is a AT version of Cannonball Run. Ever play Lego wars as a kid?

-Will

OK, I'm willing to give it a shot now and nobody has the damn thing in stock. Bah!

MWChapel wrote:

Michael Barnes wrote:

Yeah, Branham keeps telling me to try this one...I don't know, I'm REALLY not a fan of puzzle mechanics...but it looks kind of interesting, and I like the concept. It sounds like the theme is there, but does it turn into people staring at their ships trying to optimize things? That would kill it right there.

Galaxy Trucker is like building the best snow fort before a snowball fight. You know it going to get all blown to hell, but it's about having the biggest nub left when it's all said and done.

Well put.

The timers help a lot, I think. There simply isn't time to stare at your ship and calculate odds. You just grab the stuff you think you'll need and slap it together where it will fit.

Michael Barnes wrote:

Yeah, Branham keeps telling me to try this one...I don't know, I'm REALLY not a fan of puzzle mechanics...but it looks kind of interesting, and I like the concept. It sounds like the theme is there, but does it turn into people staring at their ships trying to optimize things? That would kill it right there.

I played it once and found it to be light and fun.

Because of a player's ability to start the timer and usher in the end of the ship building phase, it becomes more of a race against time to build something that'll hopefully stand a chance against the multiple types of threats that you'll be traveliing through. So our game was not just an exercise in optimization -- we were trying to get done quickly and start the timer, hoping to screw our opponents into launching with ill-prepared ships.

As noted, the actual ship travel doesn't provide many decision points -- you're mainly reacting to what happens to your ship. But we laughed at each other's misfortunes and slowly crumbling ships.

Beer and pretzels fun that should be classified as AT or at least hybrid. I look forward to playing it again.

pronoblem wrote:

Yes, not your typical Euro... not a Euro at all for that matter. I consider it a kids game that adults would love to play.

Not sure why cubes are a problem... you are a "trucker" these are crates of goods. The overall production and art is top notch.

Definitley not your typical Euro. It could probably safely be considered a hybrid of sorts. A puzzle game with some Euro qualities and some AT qualities.

I don't mind the cubes at all; it's just that they're a contrast from the cool plastic bits that represent the aliens and crew. The do fit nicely into the cargo holds on the ships, which is cool.

Aarontu wrote:

I don't mind the cubes at all; it's just that they're a contrast from the cool plastic bits that represent the aliens and crew. The do fit nicely into the cargo holds on the ships, which is cool.

I have an idea. Take the cargo bits from Container (A boring piece of crap with all the fun of a doctoral thesis) and chop 1/4" off the ends. Now you'll have small textured cubes that look the part. And you can rest easy knowing that no hapless soul will ever lose 2 hours of their life to that particular copy of Container again.

-Will

Maybe the cargo cubes could be designated something a bit more specific.

Like, green cubes are alien plant-matter exports, so you could paint little biohazard symbols on the side of them. Red cubes are enriched fissionable materials; you could paint metallic frames around the cube and add a little radiation symbol. Something like that, anyway. Just ideas.

No damn wonder I can't buy this game...RGG only had 200 copies of it. Apparently more are coming in June. But $75 retail? That's kinda steep for something like this...

Galaxy Trucker is Czechtrash.

And I'm not sure if this game was yet released for the American market. If you import the game from Europe it'll easily cost you $75.

But the game is only around 30 Euros in Germany. Okay, this is much with the dollar being so weak, but for someone living here 30 Euros is really inexpensive for a boardgame.

I've played this 4 times now and don't really like it. I thought long and hard about why...I mean its got a lot of cool things going for it and its funny as hell to see some ones ship disintegrate from a well placed meteor. What it comes down to though is a few minutes of hastily assembling a ship then 10-15 minutes of having things happen to you. The choices of picking up cargo don't seem that compelling. Mostly, its hoping that whatever your weakness(s) you ship has doens't crop up.

I'm delighted about the innovative design and the gameplay is going to delight some people- but not me. If it hits the table, I'll pass.

Steve"NotTrucking"Avery