The difference is that in Race the phases are always done in the same order so you can risk power combo turns if you can guess what your opponent will pick. With this style of action selection, that works like Puerto Rico, your plans can more easily be disrupted if the phases don't happen in the order that you want. It is why they usually have to add incentives to actions that are passed over more often in order to balance it out and make sure the game doesn't degenerate into everyone drawing the whole deck.

Another bonus for NF consideration: no need to buy and maintain hundreds of card sleeves that you would want for RFTG, along with the hassle of dealing with a tall slippery stack of sleeved cards. Nice to avoid that hidden cost of card games when board games manage to use only cardboard tiles ♥️.

So glad you like it Tom, usually means that I’ll like it. Roll is top 20 for me and I like Race a lot too. Should have this puppy by Thursday.

All that's missing now is a San Juan / Puerto Rico dice game.

The box cover is so meta :P A bunch of space people look at a hologram of a world tile from thw game... Wait what?

Thanks for the video, I didnt know about it, now I want to get and play it :). Who knows, we might even do rules video for it. Love Roll for the Galaxy and Puerto Rico. So looks like this game is for us :)

This seems interesting to me but I’m not sure if I need it when I already have Race & Roll. This seems a little more strategic maybe? So that’s a plus I guess.

"Put the starting planet in the hole" Someone at the publisher is getting fired right now.

As a big RFTG fan. This is an interesting moment, on one hand, I do love how they recycled the art and main concepts of RFTG, and turned them into a board game because I love that game. But on the other hand, they are just so similar... which makes me don't want to try... I really love the components, the round plant, the cube like product, all make sense for RFTG theme, but...man, it is just really like RFTG the BG, which makes me wonder if I really want to have it in my collection... But I do want to play it if the others have it...

This reminded me so much of Eminent Domain with a board. I love EmDo, but I'm not sure I'd play this one.

So, instead of having to spend valuable cards you now have neutral credits. This makes strategy easier and less tense, but maybe also less exciting. Card game was more elegant with multi use cards. Also as someone mentioned, here phases don't appear in order, so it is harder to anticipate some phase at some point to combo.

I'm looking forward for the expansions of this...

Please tell me this comes with player aids????

Even though I cringe every time at the component drop, to see a Dice Tower video without it seems....lacking....

I would prefer to see a bit more discussion regarding player count scaling in the Dice Tower reviews as I almost exclusively play two player. That aside, great review as always.

Tom I'm not a fan of RFTG or Puerto Rico but love Roll For The Galaxy. So would you recommend this game for me?

It seems just like RftG the Board Game. Not bad, but I really don’t see how it is “different”. Mind you, I love RftG, so it’s not a bad thing.

How does this compare to Empires of the Void?

Looks too much like RftG... Have not played this, but I get the sense that this gives much of the same vibes that the card game gives. And while it is not bad, it is kind of the same thing in a slower package... And that is never a better thing when it comes to board games. If they find out a way to push the envelope with expansions beyond the card game it could be worth getting and it would seem to have a bit less of the random card draw issues the bade game had so it could have its moments. The thing is that we have played the card game to death and still like to pull it out from time to time, so something more different would be in our sights more than this. Have not played this one, but am very familiar with Race and Roll and Puerto Rico...

Looks like they've changed cards to tokens, and this is the main difference.

How has RftG never been star wars or star trek reskinned?!

I love this mechanism (action selection + bonus). San Juan is perhaps the simpler game that uses it. Is there a heavier modern good game (not Puerto Rico) that uses it but is not a symbology nightmare? This sea of colored geometric objects (circles, hexagons, rhombuses, etc) can’t be the best way to design a game.

Need those Ressource cubes for race the clearly superior game :)

Puerto Rico... in Space!!!

Why don't you talk about Jump Drive?

When you start seeing points instead of the theme, it kills the game for me.

1a. Roll for the Galaxy, 1b. New Frontiers, 3. Race for the Galaxy. I much prefer NF and Roll better than race.

Alien Frontiers on a galactic scale?

Well, it's much easier for a card game to become a "full fledged board game" when it simply reimplements an existing board game and just lends it it's theme. Still not sure how this is legal, probably because Rio Grande owns both IPs, but it's astonishing that Seyfarth isn't credited as a co-designer. This game is basically Puerto Rico.

Meh. I still prefer Roll for The galaxy. Iconography isn't as daunting as Race and this looks like race......uhm…..the board game. lol. My issue with race was the iconography this looks no different. Roll for the galaxy was better in this case. In the end I think I will stay with Roll and am looking for Puerto Rico.

It’s starting to wear on me that the designer keeps recycling the same old art for every iteration of this game. Especially for the price of some of the expansions or base games he has done in the past I expect new art.

That cover is so bad. What is that woman doing?

Great game. Nice components. Absolutely atrocious box art.

I cannot believe they recycled art for a third time. Lazy as hell. Particularly the reuse of the bland background/border art. Zzzzz. Missed opportunity. The box cover art says it all.

thx Tom, having both Race and Roll, as well as Puerto Rico, i’m not going to buy this one.