Galaxy Trucker – Rio Grande Games
2-4 Players; ages 10+
1 hour to play
$75

Galaxy Trucker is a great game with a good amount of chance involved, making it a fun board game for all.  In Galaxy Trucker, each player is an intergalactic trucker who has to get their ship and as much cargo as possible across the galaxy while racing against the other players.  The player who can earn the most space credits (money) by the end of the third race is the winner.

Each game round consists of a two basic phases – build and race.  In the build phase, players work in real time to build their ship. Players scramble for ship pieces (tiles) such as cargo holds, cabins, lasers, shields and engines, and place them on their card to design their ship.  Don’t worry, there are some rules (such as only touching one tile at a time) to keep things reasonably organized.  Once players have completed their ships (the first round you can take as long as you want, in later rounds players are forced to finish within a minute of the first player done), then the race begins!

For each race there is a small deck of cards that represent what is encountered during the race.  Things such as planets to pick up cargo, space pirates who attack your ship, meteor swarms that smash your ship to pieces, and open space where you gun your engines to try to get ahead, are all examples of events you might encounter.  Once all the cards are resolved, the race is over and money is handed out.  Then the players return all their ship pieces to the pile, get a new ship card (bigger and better!) and it all starts again.

The game is well designed to bring new players into the fold easily (the first race is very basic, then additional rules are added for the second and third) and with a rule book of only 16 pages it isn’t too overbearing to read and teach.

I would classify this game just beyond a “gateway game”.  If your players are into games, this is a good one that while involving plenty of strategy – your best laid plans can quickly end with poor luck during a meteor swarm.  Great for an evening of fun, entertaining, and low pressure gaming for those who are into board games.

One last note: Don’t be intimidated by the price tag!  I know $75 is a lot for a board game, but there is a large amount of quality game components in that box, and those experienced board gamers out there will see the justification of the price when they open the box.

To listen to a detailed game review of Galaxy Trucker, check out The D6 Generation Podcast – Episode 23.

Hive – Gen42 Games
2 players; ages 8+
20 minutes to play
$30

Hive is a head to head game that can easily be described as a game with elegantly simple rules with deep chess-like strategy.

Each player has a tile set consisting of 11 tiles made up of 5 different insects (1 Queen Bee, 3 Grasshoppers, 3 Soldier Ants, 2 Spiders, 2 Beetles), each with it’s own style of movement. The object of the game is to get your opponent’s Queen Bee completely surrounded before he does the same to you.

In this game, the playing pieces actually form the play area as they are brought in a moved around (called the Hive). The game begins with each player having all their tiles in reserve, and on your turn you can bring another tile into the game or move tiles that are already in the game. The unique movements of the insects create for some very diverse strategies and options making each game very different from the last.

Another great feature of this game is the playing pieces themselves. These are nice heavy tiles that are easily portable and washable, which means you can take this anywhere (I’m sure mine will get some play during vacation on the beach) without worrying about ruining your game.

There is also an expansion tile set called The Mosquito which brings even more devious tactics into the game.

I can’t even begin to express my fascination with this game – it brings many elements together that I like in a game, not least of which is quick, relaxed head-to-head style play with a monstrous replay factor (most of the time several games in a row are played). This is a must have for a game collection that includes two-player only games

TransAmerica – Immortal Eyes/Winning Moves
2-6 players; ages 8+
30 minutes to play
$30

TransAmerica is a railroad building game where players work to connect their five U.S. cities through the quickly expanding network of train tracks. The game rules are elegantly simple, making the game not only easy to learn, but allows new players to be competitive on their first game.

The game takes place over several game rounds. In each round players are randomly dealt five cities, one from each major area of the game board, which they must connect to their main hub before the other players are able to connect theirs. On each game turn a player simply adds two tracks to their network to get closer to their goal. As networks connect and then build off each other, the game round comes to a quick but intense finish. The players then score points (or rather, lose points based on how far from reaching their goal they were), the board is cleared, and a new round is started. Game play continues until one player “goes bust”, and the player who managed to lose the least points is the winner.

With it’s easy game mechanics, short play time, and the interesting blend of competitive and cooperative elements TransAmerica is easily a must have for any game collection. It ranks in my top 5 games that bridge the gap between non-gamers and euro board games. I have yet to play the game with anyone (gamer or non-gamer alike) that has given it anything but a thumbs up; quite often we end up playing several games in a row.

There is also a TransEuropa version that lets you make connections throughout Europe.

Note: Originally published by Rio Grande Games, this is currently listed as out of print on their site. It is currently published by Winning Move Games and/or Immortal Eyes Games. Either way, it is available at Gamers Haven and even comes packaged with a neat game expansion.