First galactic impressions

The newest games are always the shiniest, there is no doubt about that.
And 🚀 Transgalactica sure shines bright, thanks to the striking Edu Valls artwork! 🤩 It borders a bit on weird to be honest, but it is definitely striking. 

Transgalactica is designed by Daniele Tascini, which is sure to get the attention of any euro-aficionado. 😉 The core of the game is worker placement, with 8 action spaces on the main board. Whenever a player sends a Captain to an action, everyone else can then follow that action if they have a spare worker - however these secondary actions are less effective. 🧐 After use, actions are blocked for the round, making this follow mechanism quintessential! ☝️

Actions allow you to move around the map to place down Outposts onto different planets 🌕 to gain their power, or you could go up on 5 different tracks 📊, all of which are useful. Most notably the 🔬 Technology track gives you access to the 9 randomly chosen tech cards for all kinds of ongoing bonuses (but of course you shouldn’t neglect the other tracks either). Resources are seemingly always tight so the ⚙️ Production and ⛏️ Mining actions are something you are always happy to do. The ♒ Omni action copies any other action, which is essential to do actions more than 5 times in a game!

Of course there are lots of little bonuses to claim and unlock, and there are personal and public objectives to strive for. 👍 All the little stuff that makes euros so enjoyable. 😁

Based on our first 2-player impressions, Transgalactica is quite interactive - and we’d recommend playing it at higher player counts (it accommodates up to 5 players). It felt also quite tight and unforgiving in the early game, especially with only 2 players. I am sure the dynamic is quite different with more players.

The game is good but not without faults unfortunately. 😕 The first edition rulebook has a bunch of mistakes and ambiguity, so some basic questions will come up in your very first games that aren’t clarified in the rules. I’d certainly recommend giving the game a go - if you happen to be at the UK Games Expo on the weekend, that might be the perfect opportunity! 🙃