Observing the night sky

Our first impressions of 🪐 Galileo Galilei weren't overly positive. That is mostly thanks to our overly high expectations after seeing the intriguing theme and the exceptional art, and knowing the game was designed by Tomas Holek, who also made 📡 SETI, our favorite game from last year. It wasn’t until our second game that we started enjoying Galileo Galilei more. 🙂

See, this game is not about crazy engine building and endless combos, it’s much slower and more methodical. You gather dice with a value of 1 and gradually increase them, eventually spending them to observe constellations 🌌 and celestial objects 🌒 (your main source of victory points).  Once you use them you’re often back to square one, and you have to cultivate your little dice pool again. Actions don’t give you much at first, but that makes even the smallest bonus feel like a win. With the right expectations, the game becomes very enjoyable. 😉

The action selection is cool, reminding me of games like Woodcraft or Praga Caput Regni. You spin your telescope 🔭 around, choosing an action combination to perform. Some actions stay where they are, others shift after use like a conveyor belt. There are many tracks to advance on: four universities 🎓 where you can claim bonuses and upgrade end game scoring for yourself, plus a library 📚 made up of observation cards you gathered, extending four rows where you can move book tokens to activate bonuses. Like I said, each little thing you get feels like a lot! 😊 Then you have the inquisition tracks. 😱 ✝️

Inquisitors are the primary obstacle in the game - fitting for the theme. Many rewards include getting an inquisitor, which is not very good for you. 😬 But you can convince them, moving them along the track of your player board. You have to do this, or they’ll hit you with massive point penalties in the end. Timing of the persuasion effects is crucial, as your reputation can take a dip in the process, so you have to prepare and combine them carefully. It’s quite the puzzle in itself… but that’s a topic for another post. 🙃