Tiny Epic Galaxies

1 – 5 Players

30 – 45 Minutes

Ages 14+

Designer: Scott Almes

Publisher: Gamelyn Games

Overview

Tiny Epic Galaxies is a game of space colonisation where players compete for points by acquiring planet cards and upgrading their empires. To set up the game, players take all the pieces of their chosen colour, including a galaxy mat. They place two ships in the centre of their galaxies and all the other pieces in the spaces indicated on the mat. Then, shuffle the deck of planet cards and deal out a row of cards equal to two more than the number of players, or six in a five player game. Keep the deck in the centre of the table next to the row of face up planet cards and place the control mat and seven action dice within easy reach of all players. Finally, each player gets two secret mission cards, chooses one to slide facedown under their galaxy mat, and returns the other unseen to the box.

Each turn consists of rolling and activating action dice. Players start the game with access to four of the seven action dice, but can acquire more by upgrading their galaxies. At any time during your turn, you may pay one energy to reroll any number of dice that have yet to be activated. The first reroll each turn is always free. After you have activated a die and completed the associated action, all other players have the option of following that action by paying one culture. Once you have activated all the dice you want to utilise, you don't have to activate all your dice, play passes to the next player.

There are six possible actions on each die: move a ship, acquire energy, acquire culture, advance colonisation: diplomacy, advance colonisation: economy, and utilise a colony. Moving a ship allows you to move one ship from its current galaxy mat or planet card to another planet card. You may also return a ship from a planet card to your galaxy mat. When you move to a planet card, your either stand the ship up on the planet itself and active the planet's ability or lay the ship down at the start of the colonisation track, thus beginning your attempt to acquire that planet card for yourself. When you acquire resources, either energy or culture, you gain one of the resource you are acquiring for each ship on a planet card that has the matching symbol. Ships on your galaxy mat allow you to acquire energy. Advancing colonisation moves a ship one space forward on the colonisation track. Whether you need to use diplomacy or economy to advance you ship is signified by the last space on the planet's colonisation track. The first player to reach the end of the colonisation track adds that planet to his or her galaxy and draws a new planet card for the centre play area. Utilising a colony allows you to use your galaxy's action (upgrading your empire) or the action of one of the planets you have successfully colonised.

You gain points by upgrading your empire and colonising planets. The first player to 21 points triggers the end game. Play then continues until all players have taken an equal number of turns. After this, each player totals their scores, adding in any extra points from completing secret mission cards. The player with the most points wins.

Gameplay – 8

It might seem like Tiny Epic Galaxies is solely a luck based game, since  the available actions each turn are dictated by what you roll. However, the ability to reroll your dice and follow other players' actions greatly mitigate the luck involved. Rarely, if ever, will you have a turn that is completely wasted by bad rolls. Instead, there is typically so much you want to do on your turn that the dice actually help narrow down your choices. The follow mechanic also ensures that everyone is engaged at all times, provided they still have culture to spend. The races for colonising planets are intense, as you never know if your opponent will snatch if from under you even outside of their turn. All of this combines into a fast paced, exciting game.

Quality – 6.5

Overall, the component quality in this game is good. Each planet card has unique artwork and a unique name, the dice are marbled and engraved, and the player pieces are all wooden. The production of the box is absolutely stellar. It is thick and sturdy and no surface is wasted. The lid doubles as a dice tray and the inside of the box contains rules for planet actions. The empire, energy, and culture tokens, however, are only of average quality. Each is a unique shape, but their shape does not really correspond to their role in the game. The culture token in particular is a poor design, because it is cylindrical and could roll off the table easily if knocked over. While the cards and box are great quality, the tokens hold the game back from getting a higher overall quality score.

Replayability – 7.5

Tiny Epic Galaxies is very easy to teach, and is therefore easy to get to the table even with new gamers. There are 12 secret mission cards, so your end game strategy will change from game to game. There are also 40 different planet cards, so you won't ever make it through all of them in a single game. The addition of a single player mode, where you play against one of five rogue planets ranging in difficulty from beginner to epic, means you can also play the game alone. Nevertheless, there are still only a few ways to gain points, so your overall strategy won't change between plays.

Portability – 8.5

The box for Tiny Epic Galaxies measures around 120mm x 178mm x 41mm. At this size, it easily fits in a small bag, but not quite in your pocket. The game comes with a few bags to put the pieces in, which keep everything perfectly organised during transport. I admit, however, that I used some of my own, smaller bags to keep each player colour separate for ease of setup. The box is really sturdy, so I have no concerns about the contents getting damaged during travel. Also, the dual use of the lid as a dice tray means you don't have to worry about losing dice off a small table. Even at five players, the game still fits easily on a small table.

Overall – 7.6

Tiny Epic Galaxies is a great game! It is easy to play on the go, especially with lower player counts, and may end up living in your bag rather than on your shelf.