Race for The Galaxy: Alien Artifacts

This and the base set of Race for the Galaxy is an incredible game. It will provide you hours of enjoyment. You will become addicted. Fantastic 2 player game. My wife and I love it. No smashing the other player. Interesting and tactical.

The orb expansion can be amusing, but it makes it feel like youre playing two different games at the same time. There can be a lot of possibilities to consider in the placement of the orb cards, and this really slows the pace of the game. The orb does add another significant dimension of strategy (and luck, for that matter) to the game. The extra start worlds and other new cards are a nice addition to the standard game, even without using the orb.

Race For The Galaxy expansions are weird. Instead of adding different card combinations or maybe another set of planet types... they decide to add crazy mechanics with each expansion. This expansion is about doing missions and although I havent played the expansion yet... it seems to be completely different experience than the original Race concept. Each expansion focuses on adding new mechanics that seem to take away from the base games fun and originality. I bought this expansion for the cards. It came with a 6th player orange set of cards. It also came with a lot of starting planets and other game cards. They can be used in the vanilla version of Race... which is awesome.

My son loved it.

Alien Artifacts is a decent expansion, but apparently doesnt play well with the other expansions for the game. If you are just looking for more cards for your RftG deck, this might be what you are looking for with 46 new cards. Added to this expansion is another mini-game that can go along with the main game. You will have meeples exploring an Alien Orb. What they find will add to your score and abilities in the main game. Many dont like this however as it lengthens the game and can tip the balance out of whack. If you explore the most, you will usually win the game. It takes away from the quick paced card game and adds a layer many dont like. But ...its optional, so having it isnt a game breaker. The cards for the main game are good, with a couple that might be a little over powered. But without the Orb game Alien Artifacts adds the most cards without adding more mechanics to the game like some of the other expansions.

My family loves Race for the Galaxy and all the other expansions weve purchased, but well never play this one again. It turns race for the galaxy into a traffic jam. Instead of the simultaneous play we enjoy, this new element turns part of it into individual, slow play as its complicated and confusing knowing where you can place your pieces.

I was really excited to try this expansion, as Race for the Galaxy is one of my husbands and my favorite games to play together. We play the game a lot, so I was excited that this would be a bit of a refresh for us, jettisoning the other expansions weve accumulated so far and injecting some new elements of gameplay. Unfortunately, we found the new elements to be confusing/overly complicated, and more importantly, unnecessary for winning the game. It was easy to ignore the new elements and play the game as if it were still just the base set. Im sure some players have gotten this expansion really figured out and can do cool things with it, but adding it in has made us less likely to play the game. I definitely prefer The Gathering Storm expansion to this one.

This expansion can only be used with the base game. It is not compatable with expansions 1, 2, & 3. There is also a secondary board/card game in this expansion that bogs down the quick game-play of the normal game flow otherwise. As a stand alone expansion with the base game it is fine and should be added to the collection.

A fantastic addition to the game.

I only use the cards from this game, not the orb subgame. I love Race for the Galaxy--perhaps my favorite of the 150+ games in my collection. I wanted something to add to it and these cards are pretty good. They arent overpowered, which is nice, and they blend reasonably well with the base game. They tilt things toward aliens and significantly towards military strategies. Im not sure how frequently I will use these cards...the base game is more balanced in the sense that military is a good but not dominant strategy. Still, these add an interesting little flavor that changes the game a little and gives you some variety if you have played the base game a lot.