Crimson Channel

RFTG Reflections

09/20/20

Over the past two months, I’ve become very attached to a Eurogame called “Race for the Galaxy” (RFTG). It’s an engine builder where you choose actions, assemble a “tableau” of sci-fi-themed cards, and ultimately try to score more victory points than your opponent(s). I discovered the game, along with a sizable community of players, on Board Game Arena (BGA), and within just a few plays I was hooked. From July to September, I played 1000+ games during nights and weekends and advanced from total newbie taking eons to read every card description to fifth-best player on the ladder. In this article, I’d like to share some reflections from my journey, in particular lessons learned both in and out of game. I hope that the first part of this post can be of interest to anyone who cares at all about improving at board games or the idea of moving up a ranking system, and that the second part of this post can be of interest to any RFTG players who want a second perspective on good gameplay.

I will admit, before I share the following vainglorious screenshots, that this is to some extent a bragging, presumptuous post. I am writing this article largely as closure to my experiences, and that closure was made possible by the surpassing of my laddering goals. I wanted top ten, I got top five, and part of the purpose of this post is to record that feat. So yes, I am rather proud of my ELO, and for the sake of etiquette (and groundedness!) I probably shouldn’t be. (I had one lucky run! I’m not even the #1 player on the ladder! Etc. etc.) But at the same time, I expect that the declaration of my BGA ELO will lend some credibility to my playing tips and import weight to the description of my journey. In every story you want a climax, and the climax here is the attainment of top five.

(Screenshot of my rectangle from the table creation page.)

(Originally my ELO of 635 put me at sixth place, but then somebody got knocked out of the top five and I got bumped up without having to do much extra work. I was definitely having a lucky night.)

Contents

1. First: Why Play RFTG?
2. Tips for Laddering and Life
3. Tips for Playing RFTG
4. Closing Remarks / Going Forward

First: Why Play RFTG?

Before I continue, let me try to sell RFTG to any readers who don’t already play it. As I mentioned, RFTG is a game where you’re racing to put together the best “engine” of cards, and by that I mean one that will efficiently generate both more cards (income) and victory points. In RFTG, the cards themselves are currency that you use to place other cards onto your tableau. Each card has its own set of powers, like providing discounts or producing new cards, and the main barrier to entry is learning what each of the ~100 cards do.¹ The other big component of RFTG is phase selection: there are seven different types of phases, like “explore” (to get new cards) and “settle” (to place “world” cards), and at the start of each round every player chooses phases simultaneously and in secret. Then everybody gets to perform all of the phases that were chosen (by anyone at the table).

I’ve left out a bit, but here’s a really great video explanation of the game for anyone who’s interested. I may have borrowed some stuff from the video in my own explanation above.

So what’s the big deal about this game?

• First, it’s fast. Unlike a lot of other Eurogames – especially the ones with humongous boards and lots of little pieces, like Terra Mystica or Root – one game of RFTG will typically take five minutes if both players know what they’re doing.² So it’s a lot less commitment to start up a game of Race for the Galaxy than, say, a game of Stone Age. Of course, one game might lead to another, which might lead to another, which might lead to another…

• Second, it’s got a cool theme. I guess that’s pretty subjective, but if you like futuristic sci-fi space themes, and/or franchises like Star Wars or Star Trek, you’ll probably feel pretty drawn to this game’s setting. At the very least I think it lends itself to better and more varied stories than Puerto Rico or Tokaido.

• Third, it’s good with two players. Personally, I think it’s one of the best two-player Eurogames out there. The “two-player advanced” (2PA) version, where each of the players selects two phases each round, allows the game to move faster than it does with three players, and it’s not zero sum – everyone builds their own tableaus, and interaction comes in the form of predicting and using opponents’ phase choices (while simultaneously preventing opponents from taking advantage of the phases that you choose). In general, for a healthy competitive experience I prefer the neatness of two-player games to the chaos of 3+ player games where collusion, seating order, and different levels of experience can throw things into disarray.

• Fourth, even though there’s a nontrivial amount of randomness involved, the best players will usually win. By aptly maintaining income, you can for the most part manage the luck factor. So even if it’s a game highly dependent on card draws, it’s also a game highly dependent on constrained-optimizing for a productive engine and taking into account what your opponents are doing. For me, that makes it very much worth playing.

• Fifth, there’s a large amount of variation from game to game, to the point where each one feels like a new experience. There are a number of different strategies that you can pursue (produce/consume, military, development/world spam, trade…³) depending on the cards that you end up seeing. Just the other day, I was playing with someone who went full-on alien, and they noted in the chat that they had never gone for all-aliens before.⁴

• And sixth, it’s just a fun simulation for (/escape from) life, like most board games. Collect income, accumulate points. Manage your resources. Play the most synergistic cards possible. Is that your kind of game? If so, you could be playing RFTG two minutes from now.

Tips for Laddering and Life

This is the part where I present a bunch of unsubtle and possibly contrived-sounding life lessons that I took away from RFTG laddering. Perhaps it will help you move up your own ladder. :)

1. Learn from the masters.

• If you really want to get better, study the decisions that the best players make. For RFTG, I believe this is the best training possible. BGA has a replay system that allows you to step through games at your own pace and from the perspective of one of the players. Use it. Review the games of players who are better than you. Step through them, predicting all of the better player’s choices before they make them (which phases will they choose? which cards will they keep?), and check yourself by hitting the “next” button. Do your best to understand why they make each of their decisions.

• It’s like a supervised learning process, behavioral cloning where you’re guaranteed to stay close to the expert trajectory and obtain a tremendous amount of high-quality feedback.

• I liked to review mathew1122’s games, because I think mathew1122 is easily one of the best active players on the site and is able to win very consistently at the base game. Also, he (?) speaks English, which is nice.⁵ Thanks, mathew1122!

• If you don’t believe that there are dozens of subtle choices over the course of a game that can sway the entire outcome, try running through one of mathew1122’s games and see if you make all of the same calls with regard to phase selections, card placements, and discards. I’m guessing you will differ in quite a few spots.

2. Loosen up a little.

• I seem to win more when I don’t care as much about winning, which is perhaps paradoxical intention coming out in full force. Maybe nonchalance allows me to go for bigger payoffs.

• Also, don’t dwell on a bad hand. Sometimes the cards just don’t go your way. I have often found that when I lose, I lose multiple games in a row. I’m not sure whether that’s because of my cards/opponents or if I actually play on tilt, but the latter is certainly possible. Again, there are a lot of choices that need to be made, and small differences in psyche could affect those choices and send you down variations that aren’t as likely to win. So basically I advocate for keeping a cool head. I think that it might help to care less about your ranking.

3. Train with people who are at least as good as you.

• You’re probably not going to get much out of wrecking noobs. You want to play the highest-ranked people available. This is the best for improvement purposes, and likely also the best for laddering in a risk/reward sense. You won’t get very much ELO for defeating someone with a significantly lower rating than you, and there’s always the chance they begin the game with Industrial Robots, Public Works, Investment Credits, Interstellar Bank, and Galactic Federation. That’s why I recommend you start your own table and restrict access to “Strong players and above.”

4. Have an intimidating profile picture.

• Always give yourself an intimidating profile picture. It scares your opponents and makes them play worse. The picture also gives you extra confidence. I recently hypothesized that I get better results when I play with an intimidating profile picture. To test my theory, I played 30 games with an intimidating profile picture, and 30 games with a cute and cuddly profile picture. The intimidating one went 27-3; the cuddly one went 19-11. Statistically significant? Not at all, but what’s the harm in changing your profile picture to the Terminator right now?

Tips for Playing RFTG

This is for people who actually play RFTG; others will probably not get much from this. For the record, I mostly play the base game, so I only endorse these tips for 2PA base. The later expansions make more strategies viable (and are also a lot of fun, so I recommend trying them out too).

1. Income (and hand management) is king.

• If there’s any idea that really pushed me to the top, it’s this: getting/seeing/having a lot of cards is everything. You mitigate “luck” and win more consistently by maintaining income⁶, especially at the start of the game when you need to find a good direction for your engine. The easiest way to get cards at the start of the game is to settle a windfall and trade.

• When I broke 600, I was focusing on the following two goals: (1) “follow an income-heavy strategy” and (2) “be able to play something for any phase that my opponent chooses”. If I didn’t have a good play for a develop or settle phase that my opponent was likely to select, I would seriously consider +1+1ing instead of just going with the phase that I would have played if it were a solitaire game.⁷

• Example: it’s early game, and you have one or more of the low-cost development trifecta⁸ in hand. However, you have nothing that you can settle and you think your opponent will choose settle. If you +1+1, you can maybe get a settle off on your opponent’s phase choice. There’s also the chance that your opponent develops and you get to play your low-cost development anyway.

• You don’t need to play a card every time you possibly can. If it will prevent you from being able to play a valuable card later, don’t do it. If it’s unlikely to be useful, probably don’t do it. If it’s going to deplete your hand and leave you helpless in the beginning of the game, almost definitely don’t do it.⁹ It’s okay to pass on placing cards sometimes.

• Conversely, don’t try to hold on to all your possible plays. If you get a good card in the beginning that isn’t going to power other plays (like Galactic Federation) or be almost assuredly useful (like New Economy with a non-military/non-world-spam strategy), it’s okay to use it as money. For example, I often don’t bother to hold on to Galactic Renaissance if I get it in my initial hand, even if I think I might go for a produce/consume strategy. I’d rather get my engine going ASAP than stymie it for a turn or two just so I could preserve a card. As long as I can get my income set up, there should be other good cards to play later.

• Terraforming Robots/Colonists and Public Works are good because they allow you to replenish your hand while placing worlds or developments, without necessarily needing to explore or trade. They are income cards. Note that there are also discount cards (e.g. Investment Credits). In general, I prefer income in the beginning and discounts in the end (when you just want to make sure you’re able to play your cards).¹⁰ One difference is that with discounts, you won’t get new cards with your plays and you’ll eventually have to obtain some income somewhere. Also, you might not always make full use of the discount: Investment Credits is 100% useless if you’re placing, say, Contact Specialist on your own develop phase. But Public Works is not, and will in fact replenish your play entirely. The upside of discounts is that they help ensure that you can actually play a card in the first place.

• A good way to place an expensive development early on is to develop and trade. I often try to put down Galactic Federation this way.

• Especially toward the beginning, I’ll generally prioritize a paycheck guarantee over pushing a weak point. For example, instead of developing or settling twice when my opponent is low on cards, if that would deplete my hand and leave me with no quick way to get new cards, I might develop or settle just once and then produce (for my windfall world, preferably in the case where my opponent doesn’t have a good production option and isn’t likely/able to settle), so that I can trade a good on the next turn and make sure that I still have a full hand.

• My biggest takeaway from watching mathew1122’s games is that he’s really good at making sure he always has cards coming in. Maybe not coincidentally, I came to this realization on the night before I had my big ascension to fifth, and, as I mentioned before, I was thinking “income strat income strat” while I skyrocketed up the ladder.

2. It isn’t a single-player game.

• At the start of each round, think about what your opponent is going to do, and what they want to do. Look at their tableau, and the number of cards in their hand. Choose your phases accordingly. Obviously you want to choose phases with better outcomes for you than your opponent(s) now (e.g. the opponent has nothing they can play), in the near future (e.g. you’ll still have cards afterward), and further out (e.g. the cards are useful for your engine).

• Just because you have a good card doesn’t mean you need to choose the phase to play it. You might be able to piggyback on your opponent’s phase choices. For example, you can play a cheap development like Investment Credits on your opponent’s develop choice. It’s awesome when you have a good play for every phase your opponent chooses.

• Knowing what phases your opponent needs (and denying those phases to them) is part of familiarity with the game. For example, you usually don’t want to settle for opponents who are going for produce/consume, but maybe if they have two different types of production worlds and no consume powers, you’ll realize they’re looking for a develop so that they can play their Diversified Economy.

• RFTG is all about using your opponent’s phases and not letting them use yours. Example of the former (using your opponent’s phases): you have Diversified Economy and a third new type of production world in your hand. If it were just you, you would need to develop and settle in order to guarantee that you got both of them down before starting your produce/consume cycle. But it’s not just you, and if you think your opponent is going to develop, you can settle and produce and get your cycle started one turn earlier than you would have been able to otherwise. Examples of the latter (not letting them use yours): spamming develop or settle when your opponent has no cards. Producing when they don’t/won’t have production worlds. Consuming when they have no goods.

3. When in doubt, go for produce/consume.

• Produce/consume is probably the de facto best strategy in the base set. If you don’t have any alternative strategy glaring at you from your early hands (e.g. military, or development spam), you generally want to aim for a produce/consume engine. Set it up as quickly as possible. Don’t waste turns forcing the placement of cards you don’t strictly need for your cycle (like low-cost developments), unless there’s nothing better to do and they won’t impede an upcoming play. For example, if you have the development trifecta and Diversified Economy, and your worlds are already set up, don’t double-develop. Just develop (for Diversified Economy) and produce, so that you can get things started. Of course, this is all assuming you’re making meaningfully more than your opponent in the produce/consume cycle.

• If you’re behind in produce/consume, and you won’t be able to catch up by also producing/consuming, you probably don’t want to go for it. Ideally try to spam developments or high-value worlds and end the game before they rack up too many points.

Closing Remarks / Going Forward

I told myself I’d stop laddering after I had achieved a top 10, 600+ ELO. But I think I underestimated how fun this game would continue to be. So I probably won’t stop playing completely. Just for the most part. The main problem is that RFTG has been taking away from time that I could have spent on traditionally more “productive” activities, like writing or programming.¹¹

Here’s the other thing. RFTG is fun on its own, but it was really the idea of getting better, and having a numerical rating, and seeing myself move up the rankings that drove me to play so many games. And, as it was with Pokemon Showdown back in the day, I’m realizing after the fact that my ranking doesn’t ultimately mean much to me. Moreover, it’s not like I can think of anyone else in my life that cares about my RFTG ELO. So why did I spend all this time cultivating it?

A gloom descends upon me. It was stupid to make a post like this, really, born out of excitement at achieving one of the highest active ELOs on an irrelevant online ranking system, following a run that only held together because I didn’t get unlucky. Can I truly attribute the success of that run to skill?

I tried so hard and I got so far and in the end it didn’t even matter. Maybe this post was just me clutching at that fleeting feeling of glory, at my own sense that it did matter, at the hope that it was impressive… Maybe, looking at my history, this was all just a new hollow effort of a boat beating on.