Galaxy Trucker (2021)

O Dunny Boy The Pipes Are Calling!

Galaxy Trucker sees you build a spaceship from the components found in a sewerage system suppliers’ warehouse and fly it to the other side of the Galaxy. What could possibly go wrong? Well quite a lot actually : Pirates, Slavers, Meteors, Epidemic and Sabotage to name but a few. All will take chunks out of your ship and crew. Will you have enough left to make it to the journey’s end and be filthy rich or will all your hopes and dreams go down the pan?

Piece In Our Time

Galaxy Trucker starts with some frantic real-time action as you and your fellow pilots all scrap over scrap. There are many different component parts that can be used to make your ship : Crew Quarters, Engines, Guns, Batteries, Pipework, Shields and the all-important Cargo Holds. These are all heaped in a pile of face-down tiles in the “warehouse”.

With no set turn order pilots pile in and help themselves to parts that will make their vessel the Queen of the Skies. The only rule is that you look at one piece at a time. You turn the tile and decide if you want to add it to your ship. If not you discard it back into the warehouse but this time leave it face up so others can see it and pick it themselves..

There are rules for the piece placements. All must be connected to each other and to your starting central crew cabin. The connectors are : 1 pipe, 2 pipe or a universal 3 pipe connection. 1 and 2 pipe can only be connected to their own kind or the 3 pipe which connects to anything. There is the outline of your ship tessellated into squares and you can not go beyond the edges. Guns must have a clear space in front of them, either a blank square or the ship boundary and similarly engines must have a clear space behind them. Both for obvious reasons. Ye cannae deny the laws of physics!

Crew Quarters are for human crew but you can attach one of two different life support systems to enable them to house one of two different aliens. The geeky Orange aliens will add +2 to your Engine strength whilst the warlike Purple aliens will add +2 to your Guns

This continues through various timed stages until someone has finished their ship. They take the No 1 leader token and set a 1-minute timer for the rest to finish theirs and take the remaining positions.

Driven Potty

The Galaxy Trucker ships are now ready to launch off. To boldly go where the hand of man has never yet set foot. They’re set out in order on the Flight Board which will record their positions relative to each other and their fate will be controlled by the deck of Adventure cards. The deck size and thus flight length increase with the level of the mission and the size of the ships.

The leader draws the first card and it’s action is resolved. This can potentially affect all the ships or sometimes only the front runners. For example when Pirates attack they work their way through the line of ships until one ship defeats them (if at all) and then they are dispersed. Alternatively when landing on Planets the leader can choose which Planet to take (steal) cargo from then the 2nd has a choice until the options run out.

Actions that gain credits usually involve taking a period of time and this is marked by moving backwards a number of Day spaces on the Flight Board. Note that as there are only a small number of Actions where you blast forward and approximately three times as many Actions where you may lose Flight Days this gives the impression that your ship is moving backwards and ends the flight behind their original start position! This is just an illusion, however, for as we all know in galactic travel, space and time are relative.

Lost In Space

Other Actions can literally knock lumps off your ship. Guns and Shields can help mitigate the damage particularly if you’ve got the green, tic-tac like battery cells to power them. Almost inevitably though you will lose component parts and this is where a solid well-built construction pays dividends. If a component is lost any further bits hanging off it not connected to anything else are also lost. Cargo, Crew and Batteries in affected areas are lost too (though apparently the Crew shoot off in Escape Pods so that’s alright!).

The Final Countdown

The Flight ends in Galaxy Trucker when the Action deck is played through and your credits are added up. You get bonus credits for your finishing position from 1st down to last and for having the prettiest ship i.e. with the fewest loose ends. You then cash in all your trade goods for their respective values and finally lose credits for any components that were lost in space.

Whilst the rules declare anyone who has gained credits is a winner we all know that the one who has the most is the winner-iest!

Galaxy Trucker is an entertaining game combining several elements : the real-time grabbing of parts, the puzzle like combining of components and the slower slog across the galaxy. Personally I’m not a huge fan of frantic elements (I’m quite old and slow!) so I play the first phase turn based allowing a bit more thought for the building decisions. After all this is your main bit of decision making because in the Flight section your destiny lies in the whim of the cards.

The game does not take too long, though and there is an inclination to go again to build a better ship, deliver more sanitation and truly clean up.