Is New Frontiers, PR without the Colonialism stigma?
I suppose - I mean, there are space colonies, and all kinds of space opera tropes and all the uplift races that you can conscript. But it generally goes down easier when you’re doing it with science fiction tropes.
If I enjoy playing Puerto Rico, but don’t necessarily enjoy playing Race for the Galaxy, do you think I’d enjoy New Frontiers? Which game is it more like?
Which part of Race for the Galaxy don’t you like, because it’s almost the same game as Puerto Rico already.
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If you plotted Race for the Galaxy and Puerto Rico on a graph, the exact midpoint would be New Frontiers.
But seriously, this is a good, detailed rundown of why you may or may not like New Frontiers as a non-fan of Race for the Galaxy: A Comparative Analysis of New Frontiers and Puerto Rico (with a cursory mention of RftG) | New Frontiers
This is only true if you ignore colonists, military, ‘windfall’ plantations, boats, the governor that unceremoniously rams you to the back of the turn order, the trading house, consume powers, and especially the incredible impact of ordered/simultaneous versus variable/sequential action selection that uncomfortably bind you to the other players in two completely different ways, ie. the entire game. New Frontiers has some things from both games.
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I don’t like all the cards in Race for the Galaxy. I like that in Puerto Rico there are a limited amount of actions that you can take and that they don’t change.
I hate trying to decipher all the iconography in Race. I also hate that as someone who hasn’t memorized all the cards, I will pretty much always lose the game to someone who’s familiar with the different cards and will hunt through the deck to try and find the specific card that they’re looking for to make their point generation machine work.
I also hate how Race for the Galaxy is so divorced from its theme. When I play, I want to do cool space stuff. The theme and the mechanics are so divorced in Race for the Galaxy that you might as well remove all the card names and illustrations. The theme in Puerto Rico might be problematic, but at least it’s better connected to what you’re doing in the game. I can visualize how the actions I’m taking are building my plantations and making them prosper.
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The actions in New Frontiers are analogous to Puerto Rico - Settler and Mayor are merged and then re-divided between Explore and Settle. Builder is Develop. Craftsman is Produce. Captain is Consume. (these are the familiar RftG roles, albiet closer to their Puerto Rico cousins - developments are Puerto Rico-like, and worlds are Race for the Galaxy-like. Unlike RftG, they are displayed and drafted (like plantations) instead of drawn (like cards).
Unrelated (with 500+ games of experience) I never, never, never hunt the deck for a specific card in Race for the Galaxy. Calling explore “too much” is the easiest way to lose a game by giving your opponent free cards (would you give your opponents free dubloons in Puerto Rico just because you got one more dubloon than them?). Knowledge of the cards is highly valuable, but it is the knowledge of their relationships that is important. It is important to know that 2 military is exactly enough for a green military uplift card. It is important to know that novelty production worlds are plentiful and novelty windfall worlds are not. It is important to know that alien military cannot be placed with a contact specialist, but a contact specialist is ideal for collecting a bunch of uplifts without miltary (theme in RftG mostly emerges from these kinds of relationships). It’s important to know rare-goods production worlds have a high percentage of terraforming keywords that synergize with terraforming developments etc.
The cards in Race for the Galaxy jerk you around and force you to play the hand you’re dealt… New Frontiers doesn’t really do that.
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Thanks for the in-depth answer. It seems from your description that I might enjoy New Frontier. When I get home and can access BGG, I’ll check out that link you provided.
All the stuff in the last part of your post are exactly why I don’t enjoy Race for the Galaxy. There are just too many cards that do too many things and I can’t remember them all, and about 3/4 through a game, when I finally figure out how to build a point generating machine, I’m so far behind that I might as well not be playing.
Also, thematically, Race for the Galaxy just isn’t enjoyable to me.
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Yeah, I probably overdid my nerd-out on Race for the Galaxy there… you don’t get to 500 plays without being a little fanatical. 
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Fair point 
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True. But you also do have a reasonable low-tier heuristic from theme alone. Things that feel like they should work together in a galactic space opera by and large do. The narratives drive early heuristics better than people give them credit for.
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Picked up Tigris & Euphrates, Nations and Concordia on a recent trip to the US. Now that I’ve gotten back to Asia, finally had the chance to pull out Nations and give the solo variant a try just to get a feel for the game. I didn’t score very well but it’s made me even more excited to get it to the table for a multi-player game.
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Concordia is one of my favorite games. It’s so simple and elegant but also relatively deep.
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I kept hearing people raving about it so I decided to pull the trigger and pick up a copy. Can’t wait to play it.
I love Concordia, but I’ve had two DRASTICALLY different play experiences. The first time I played it I was playing with casual boardgamers and everyone made decisions quickly and had fun. I introduced it to a more serious group who are competitive and they agonized over every card play each turn turning it into a grinding slog. I think I just need to play it with my Brass gaming buddies who are more used to making imperfect economic choices and learning the game through multiple playthroughs.
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I’ve been in situations like that before and, I kid you not, I’ve actually introduced time limits for how long people have to take their turns. Don’t let analysis paralysis ruin your game night.
When there are a lot of long turns in a game and lots of waiting, I blame the game first before I blame the players. I do eventually blame the players, though. If I can take my turn fast, then I can start harassing other people who don’t.
I think I would’ve normally its not an issue for my normal play group, but it was with my pastor and his wife which are both VERY competitive about boardgames, particularly strategic euros.
I’m also super interested in the expansions for Concordia, but just haven’t gotten it to table enough to justify expansion costs.
The turn resolution is really quick. You play a card and do said thing on card, that’s it. The complexity is that you start with a hand of all the cards and play them down until you refresh the hand with a card designed to do that AND in the many ways to get VPs to win in the end. But all of the VP paths are pretty equal in my limited experience. Its more about going for what is best for you based on past actions and the board state vs. Victory point path X is superior to Y every time.
I’m sure there’s a rym/scott solved VP path that has an edge but its not blatantly obvious in my few playthroughs so far. I’ve had equal success being the wine mogul as being diversified or the guy with all the roads or the guy with a trading house in every territory.
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If all you do on your turn is play a card, then it’s the player’s fault. Just fucking pick one.