Board Game Friday: The Newest (used) Game in my Collection!

Happy board game Friday here at Nachos Grande.  We are now at the final Friday in February and I've maintained the "board game Friday" theme thus far in 2023 so I see no reason to stop now.  Luckily, in the past week I did acquire another new-to-me game so that's what I plan to show off today.  The game in question?  None other than the classic Race for the Galaxy.

Race for the Galaxy is a game that I've never played but one that I hear a lot about from many people.  The game is fairly old by board game standards (my edition is from 2007) and yet I still see Race for the Galaxy on various people's Top 20 Board Games of All-Time lists today!  That's reason enough for me to want to try it.  

The game itself is for 2-4 players and promises a playtime in the 30-60 minute range.  For my money, that's a perfect length for a board game.  

From boardgamegeek.com, here's the game description:

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.

At the beginning of each round, players each select, secretly and simultaneously, one of the seven roles which correspond to the phases in which the round progresses. By selecting a role, players activate that phase for this round, giving each player the opportunity to perform that phase's action. For example, if one player chooses the settle role, each player has the opportunity to settle one of the planets from their hand. The player who has chosen the role, however, gets a bonus that applies only to them. But bonuses may also be acquired through developments, so you must be aware when another player also takes advantage of your choice of role.

As I said earlier, I got this game used from eBay and one of the perks of my purchase is that the previous owner had already sleeved all of the cards in the box.

I'll have to report back once I actually get this game to the table, it's definitely too advanced for my son yet so I'll have to find some other willing participant to race around the cosmos with me!