Galaxy Trucker Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Galaxy Trucker, a real time board game published by Czech Games Edition. Galaxy Trucker will have players building a spaceship in real time and then trying to see how much money they can make on the the trip.

It’s hard to believe that Vlaada Chvátil’s Galaxy Trucker first debuted back in 2007. Back then, real-time games weren’t as ubiquitous as they are now—especially in modern gaming. Yet this frantic game of tile grabbing and shipbuilding has clearly stood the test of time. Since its launch, Galaxy Trucker has spawned a number of expansions and different print runs. Yet today, our hastily designed ship has been given a fresh coat of paint and a few tweaks under the hood. Once again titled only Galaxy Trucker, this 2021 version promises to be the best and most streamlined version of the game yet. Is it? Let’s find out!

In Galaxy Trucker, you and your fellow players will be competing for the most money as sci-fi long-haul truckers… in space. Galaxy Trucker is a game of two parts that will have you building your ship and then seeing how well it performs.

In phase one, players will be constructing their ships by hastily grabbing tiles from a literal pile of them in the center of the table. There are a variety of different components that you might choose: canons, cargo pods, crew modules, engines, batteries, and shields are all options. How you attach and which of each component you choose will depend on what strategy you are going for. Want to carry a lot of cargo? Fill up on pods. Want to fight off pirates, load up on guns. Unless you take the time to scout the decks, you won’t know what hazards lie in store for you.

Once everyone’s ship is finished (there are timers to flip once the first player has built