Race for the Galaxy: Rebel vs. Imperium - First Reactions

As the game my gaming group plays most often, I had high hopes for this, the 2nd expansion of the base set for Race for the Galaxy. I have played a handful of times, and only the two-player version thusfar, but I wanted to share some initial thoughts, as well as cards that seemed to improve with this expansion.

First, I think developing in general has improved significantly. With the new start world (Galactic Developers) that comes with the Interstellar Bank power of drawing a card on develop, as well as two new six-cost developments which improve the phase (Galactic Bankers & Pan-Galactic Research), and most of all - the R&D Crash Program, developing can get out of hand in a hurry. For example, in the 2nd game I played with the new cards, I was able to pair Investment Credits with a Crash Programmed Galactic Federation, and paired that with Pan Galactic Research the following turn. This enabled me to develop 6-costs for 1 measly card, and my last 7 plays were 6 cost developments (Final Score: 85!). Granted a lot of things had to go right for this to happen, but it was still indicative of the new increased power of developing.

Military has obviously been buffed, as there are tons of new cheap ways to get out early military. Most notably, the two start worlds (Imperium Warlord & Rebel Cantina) allow for military acceleration, and the Mercenary Fleet development can easily put a military player to the power they need to be for the rest of the game. In our group, the most sought after cards seemed to be Space Marines and Drop Ships for the military accelleration. This expansion adds 10 cards that boost military at a cost of 3 or less. Also the two new military six-cost developments are very powerful as end game targets, especially paired with any of the existing military six costers.

My first reaction to the "takeover" mode of the game is that it is cumbersome and takes away from some of the elegance the game has which makes it so appealing. This is just a gut reaction as I haven't personally tried it. All in all, I like what I've seen thusfar, and am looking forward to some game plays with a group of 3+.

MORE TO COME. I SWEAR.

-Andrew