What in the actual....? But nothing in the description said second edition, correct?
Would you share the product link?
Well, this is the main link on Amazon.. Race for the Galaxy Card Game https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YLAOEW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_E02SBb6EJ417E
I think Race for the Galaxy ($23.49) is a better game on many fronts than Puerto Rico...and cheaper too...while reimplementing the same ideas!
Pandemic is a really group dependent game. You will find many groups that have 1-2 people who cannot stand co-op games in general...which will really bum people who like this...and this co-op in particular...as it has few bounds to make it so everyone acts independently. It's more like a 1 player game with multiple characters...that you can choose to play with multiple people.
One of my favorites, here's the Smile Link:
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B000YLAOEW/
And CCC:
https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/B000YLAOEW
Median price is around $25
Race for the Galaxy is a card game that plays like a rendition of 4X games. You have a hand of actions you choose two of each turn, and reveal simultaneously with the other player's choices. Based on these actions that are universal to all players, you get to play certain cards from your hand of game cards and gain resources from the cards you've played. It's a game won based on victory points, but the end of the game can be triggered in a couple different ways. While you're not directly interacting with the other player, it's really important to try and guess their strategy and know how close they might be to ending the game. This also ties into action cards, because the actions you choose also give your opponent the option to use that action as well, but with reduced efficacy. Example: the person who plays the "Develop" Action will get to play a development card from their hand at reduced cost, and their opponent will have the option to play a development as well, but for full cost. Both players draw from the same deck of cards, and cards from your hand are actually discarded for costs to play other cards. That way even drawing something worthless for your personal strategy that game has a potential use. The game ends when players have taken all the VP chips, or someone has 12 cards in their tableau (twelve total developments and worlds played from your hand).
The base game is pretty cheap, sitting at slightly under $25 on Amazon, and comes with a nice stack of cards. The game has expansions which serve two purposes: adds more cards to the deck and introduces a new game mechanic. You can buy an expansion and use the cards without introducing the new mechanic, there will just be some symbols and references on cards you ignore, and this is what I've done for the most part. In fact each expansion comes with a few cards that integrate the next expansion's added mechanic, and the booklet says to ignore them for now.
The Gathering Storm is the first expansion and adds more cards and players and a solitaire variant against an "AI". The second expansion, Rebel Vs Imperium, adds another player, more cards, increases the functionality of military and adds hostile takeovers (an interaction between player's tableaus). The Brink of War is the third expansion and adds Prestige, which is almost like another form of VP/resource, and another player.
The fourth "expansion" called Alien Artifacts, isn't supposed to be played with the others and is only to be paired with the base game, as it can be used to pretty much play a different game with the map tiles that come with Alien Artifacts. Most of the cards can be added to the universal deck, like with the other expansion, to be honest though.
The thing about Race for the Galaxy and Dominion is...you are mostly playing by yourself. There is really nothing you can do to ruin it for the other players (other than taking 10 hours a turn).
The only interaction in Race for the Galaxy (base game, I don't know anything about the expansions) is the action you pick for the turn is executed by everyone. But, you can't deny them the action of their choice. If you've played Puerto Rico, it's kind of like that except everyone can pick the same action in the same turn.
Dominion is another game that is mostly playing with yourself. You are building a deck, and your turn is influenced by what you draw. There are cards that force other players to do things, but they should know that those cards are available and you playing them whether you mean to or not is part of the game.
Both of those games can be played 100% solo too if you would rather learn how to play before jumping in with more experienced players.
The thing about these deckbuilder games is...the only real person you can ruin the game for is yourself. If you pick a bunch of cards that just don't do anything, your turns will be super lame and you might actually find the game boring or dumb. But, your first time through, you probably have no idea what cards 'do nothing'. These are things you learn while playing.
tl;dr
Race for the Galaxy is $25 on amazon. Pick it up and play the solo variant if you want. It's a really fun game and plays quick enough that you can do a few in one night as you get the hang of it. Can also play it solo
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Here are two card games that pack well and available on Amazon Prime.
Complex - Race for the Galaxy
Casual - Sushi Go
That's weird, i'm UK but when I checked a few days ago it was ridiculously expensive!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rio-Grande-Games-RGG301-Galaxy/dp/B000YLAOEW
Now it's £34
Race For The Galaxy supports 2-4 players in the base game.
Race For The Galaxy: The Gathering Storm (Expansion #1) adds a 5th player and also includes rules for solitaire play.
Race For The Galaxy: Rebel Vs. Imperium (Expansion #2) adds a 6th player.
It's a card-based game. There's no board. It's very simple to learn, but the strategy is incredibly deep for a card game. Play time is around 30 minutes.
Each expansion adds some new play options on top of the base game rules but a LOT of people just use the new cards from the first two expansions and continue to play using the base game rules.
This is currently my all-time favorite game.
Race For The Galaxy supports 2-4 players in the base game.
Race For The Galaxy: The Gathering Storm (Expansion #1) adds a 5th player and also includes rules for solitaire play.
Race For The Galaxy: Rebel Vs. Imperium (Expansion #2) adds a 6th player.
It's a card-based game. There's no board. It's very simple to learn, but the strategy is incredibly deep for a card game. Play time is around 30 minutes.
Each expansion adds some new play options on top of the base game rules but a LOT of people just use the new cards from the first two expansions and continue to play using the base game rules.
This is currently my all-time favorite game.
Edit: I wanted to add that while there is some text on a few of the cards, the vast majority of them are purely icon-based. Some people complain that the iconography on the cards makes the game difficult to learn, but I'd argue that it's exactly the opposite. Once you understand the basic icons, it's pretty easy to figure out how the more complex cards work.