Trashdome - Galaxy Trucker VS RoboRally

WELCOME TO TRASHDOME!

This is part of a series of bloody matches to the death. Show support for your favorite game so it will do better in the fight. You can support it by writing why you think its the better game and more importantly by betting on it. End your first post in this thread with the title of the game you're placing a bet on (i.e. voting for) so its clear to me when reading it later. You have until Friday when I tally the bets and declare the winner. Counting expansions or not is entirely up to you just as playing with them or not is. I will reserve my bet for any tie-breakers.

Although you should be familiar with both games, there is no rule that says you have to have played both of them. The only rule in Trashdome is this;

Two games enter! One game leaves!

This is an interesting matchup as both are games which involve a tremendous amount of inherent chaos, from which they get much of their entertainment value, and both of which feature a timed orders phase.

However it's not a hard one for me to pick. In RoboRally, unless you're careful about the track you pick the chaos can quite easily get out of hand and the game can start to drag and become boring. In Galaxy Trucker this simply never happens - the game can regularly be relied to finish within an hour while everyone is still having lots of fun.

I also suspect there's more strategy to GT, although it does take considerable nerve under pressure to get your orders right within the time limit in RoboRally. The timer in GT is more of a nudge to get things done quick than an actual binding time limit.

Vote for Galaxy Trucker.

I don't think you really understand the concept of chaos in a game Matt!

But I will concur with your vote for Galaxy Trucker.

the*mad*gamer wrote:
I don't think you really understand the concept of chaos in a game Matt![/quote]

When I first read that comment, my browser was slow and didn't download the image for several seconds, so I had no idea what you were on about! Makes sense now though

I absolutely hate ROBORALLY. I think it is the rock bottom of the AT canon, and never has there been a game better suited to right-brain nerds than it. I'll never forget the night I bought the game and we played it for the first time. A friend of mine said it was the worst night of his life.

The player-driven chaos in the game isn't fun, it's just annoying. I love PDC. But in ROBORALLY it's just a big bore after a couple of turns. There's many better "program your move" games out there at this point, let's bury this board game version of R5D4 right here and now.

GALAXY TRUCKER is a great game. I think it's a smart design, I like the puzzle element, I like the adventure element, and I like the concept a lot. I think it's a great model for an RTS board game. The expansion is pretty good, but I think it's misleading that it's for five players- there's only enough tiles for five if you use the whole thing, you can't really just play the base game with the "fifth wheel". Some of the add-ons increase nastiness and interactivity, which is always good.

So no doubt, GALAXY TRUCKER is brining this one all the way home.

I haven't played Galaxy Trucker, but I looked at the reviews and comments a while back when I was thinking about buying it. I have played more than a dozen games of RoboRally.

Galaxy Trucker doesn't interest me. The ship-building part sounds okay, but the decisions seem obvious and the resolution is random.

RoboRally is very, very tactical. You know where you want to go, but your ability to get there is limited to the cards that you draw. But those cards usually offer reasonable choices, and except for not knowing exactly where your opponents will go, you have a decent amount of control over your destiny in any given turn. Resolution of the cards is fun and sometimes even exciting on the trickier maps when your opponents are near. However, the game can really bog down with even one player with Analysis Paralysis, so you should try to use a timer. And it's not unusual for one player to get really far ahead of the pack, so try to design race checkpoints that require players to double back or otherwise cross paths with the slowest players.

(Btw, when Richard Garfield first met with Wizards of the Coast, RoboRally is the game that he pitched to them. After his pitch, they asked him if he had any other games that he was working on, and then he showed them Magic: the Gathering. Fortunately, this TrashDome is not Magic vs. RoboRally.)

I choose RoboRally.

Another vote for GALAXY TRUCKER.

Robo Rally does have the right elements, but the map design is just missing from the game. It takes an experienced player to design a map that is fun. (Generally one or two boards, and a lot of path crossing.) Otherwise, racers space out quickly and the game just dies.

A list of starter maps has been missing from every edition. Even the wimpy Amigo one without lasers.

So if anything, a no vote for Robo Rally because THEY DIDN'T FINISH THE GAME!

Galaxy Trucker. Way more fun. RoboRally always dragged for me, even with a timer.

vote: Galaxy Trucker

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! [ship is ripped in half by asteroids]

Never played Galaxy Trucker, though I would like to.

I own and enjoy RoboRally, so it gets my vote.

moofrank: The AH/Wizards of the Coast edition, thought generally considered the worst edition (plastic robots and such), does in fact have a list of about 16 starter maps ranked easy, medium, and hard and demonstrating basic map-building concepts.

Roborally is somewhat fiddly, and not in a good way. It also tends to suffer from the problems already enumerated here. Still, I've had more good games of it than bad. Maybe I'm a right-brained nerd, but this is my favorite "programmed move" because you'll so often be trying to make the best of a lousy hand. Also, the whole idea of running around a factory full of pushers, crushers, and conveyor belts brings to mind a lot of the old cartoons I used to like as a kid. It's a bit like a trip to the Acme factory.

Galaxy Trucker combines all the things I dislike about Euros with all the things I dislike about AT. The first half of the game is a stupid optimization puzzle. Make sure you get your storage tiles on there, your lasers too. Did you get some astronauts in there? Ooops! Too few batteries... This is, of course, all done multi-player solitaire style, with all the players silently hunkered over their own ship, flipping over tiles all willy-nilly just to find one stupid conduit piece.

The second half is a pretty typical wind-up toy sort of AT game, where you set up your stuff, draw cards, and watch what happens. This is the sort of thing I don't usually like in AT games, although it can make for some exciting games full of surprise and tension. Of course, there's none of that here, because you're able to look through the deck, so the only surprise is what you failed to remember.

It's not a bad game, and it's at least original, but I don't really like it.

Vote: Roborally

Funny. Tanga just turned up with Warhamster Rally today. Nice timing.

WR started as a different game, but kind of changes some of my issues with Robo Rally.

1. The two included fixed maps are tiny oval (and figure 8) races.
2. You only plan 1 move ahead using Blue Max-ish card templates.
3. When you shove someone, it can send them off in a completely different direction.
4. Players can affect other players anywhere on the board. You have a limited set of action points.

Downsides:
The game is harder and more puzzle-y than RR. The action point actions are tricky to get the hang of.

The theme is a serious paste-on.

No Powerups. (I'm pretty sure every racing game should have power-ups. Alas, I didn't realize that then.)

I'll second most of Uba's arguments.

I'm not the best at Galaxy Trucker (I tend to take too long to see connections or wait for the perfect piece)...but it is FUN. Fun to build and fun to have blow up. Now--if we could have our lasers blow up other people---that could be fun too.

VOTE: Galaxy Trucker

This should be a total ass kicking

Roborally is a classic example of a game that sounds great on paper, but totally fails in execution.

Robots? Check!
Carnage? Check!
Cool art? Check!
Fun? *Crickets*

After you get over the new game sensation (For me that was 30 minutes) you realize you're trapped at a table with a boring, repetitive soul sucking exercise. Your only hope is that either the beer will run out and you can volunteer to make the run, or a table flip. Seriously I've given this game several tries and each time I just wanted it to be over by the 3rd turn in. Garfield has done much better work than this.

On the other hand Galaxy Trucker is a breath of fresh air. It showed that Eurogames can be chaotic, non-sucky and most importantly fun. With GT, Vlaada Chvatil proved that he is the man to watch when it comes to eurogame design. He's not afraid to take chances and work outside the box.

Vote: Galaxy Trucker by a mile.

-Will