Tiny Epic Galaxies – Review

Designer: Scott Almes

Artist: William Bricker and Benjamin Shulman

Publisher: Gamelyn Games

Number of Players: 1-5

Duration: 30 mins

I was lucky enough this week to get my hands on the latest game in Scott Almes Tiny Epic series. This is the third game that Scott Almes has brought out with Gamelyn Games under the Tiny Epic banner. Although none of the games are thematically linked, they are all small filler games that are designed to be as compact as possible. Tiny Epic Galaxies is no different.

Every player starts with their own planet mat, which gives you the stats of what you are able to take advantage of on your  turn (or sneakily on your opponents turn, which I will get to later). At the start of the game you start with the basic four dice and 2 space ships. As you upgrade your galaxy you get access to more dice and more ships to be able to explore planets.

The dice that you get each have six different actions on them, which you can use on your turn once only with the option of a free re-roll for any unlocked (unused) dice.

Pictures taken from Kickstarter

The object of the game is to be the first player to 21 points, which at the start of play seems quite a daunting task, however that quickly ceases to be a concern once you get the correct set of dice rolls to help you move your spaceship and colonise planets.

And here is the really really neat thing about this game that is a game changer and pretty unique. Your opponent gets the opportunity on every locked dice to “follow” you and copy that action. Not copy, by doing exactly the same thing as you just did, just copying the action dice and doing their own thing.

Pictures taken from Kickstarter

This mechanic I feel has a slight flaw, as well as being pretty brilliant. We found in the couple of plays that we had over the weekend that there is normally a run away winner, if they are able to quickly get on a Culture planet and get the ability to use culture points to follow their opponent. However, this didn’t seem to stop us playing “just one more game”. The good side is that no one is ever not doing anything. You are involved in the game even when it’s not your turn. So there is no sneaking a look at your phone while the other player is having a think about what to do.

There is obviously a large element of luck in the game as there are dice involved, and like all dice games you are going to get frustrated when you just can’t seem to get the roll you want. But you do get the option to change the face of one dice in the converter zone which means you will always at least have one dice that you want on your turn.

This game is still on Kickstarter and has absolutely smashed its goal target, and is already receiving a rave reception from BoardGameGeek. If you haven’t played a Tiny Epic game yet, this one is a great starter.