It’s a game that’s only slightly larger than an actual deck of cards. How big could the game be?
The answer is no surprise, it’s in the name: Tiny Epic Galaxies.
I think I picked this up during the pandemic. Like a lot of people, my wife and I were sequestered alone in our apartment and just sitting and watching TV day-in-day out seemed a little pointless. We were still in the phase of “if we’re going to be cut off from the world, we might as well try to enjoy it”. And I think I was window shopping on Amazon for new games to play when this one somehow surfaced.
The price was right. I think it was only €30. And it could be delivered in a day or two. What the hell?
The funny thing about the game is that you’re not really sure how much potential it holds until you’ve actually played a game. I mean, it’s a few color coded mats, each representing a civilization, a deck of cards, each representing a planet to be colonized, a handful of dice, and a bunch of markers including ones to signify your civilization’s progression and space travel prowess.
And there’s not a whole hell of a lot more than that!
But what it does have are a series of mechanics that, when strung together, allow players to do almost anything they want to do so long as they can manage the cost.
Here’s a quick example of the gameplay cycle… You’re the starting player, you roll the number of dice your civilization advancement level allows you to. This gives you your actions. You can use a dice to enact diplomacy or cultural sharing or space travel or to harvest resources. Enough diplomacy or cultural exchange, and a planet might join your civilization giving you additional actions you can do with your resources. You spend your dice and then the next player goes. And round and round it goes.
But what if you don’t get the dice you need? You can re-roll every die once. What if you still don’t have what you need? You can spend a resource on a re-roll. And what if you still don’t have it? You can sacrifice two dice to turn one onto any facing you want. Additionally, there’s a “follow” mechanic where you can choose to follow another player’s action with your own of the same by spending a resource. So, lets say they’re harvesting energy, you can choose to do the same by spending your resources. Same with space travel, same with civilizational actions. It’s incredibly flexible.
One of the things I like most about the game is that all your points are right there on the mat. As you upgrade your civilization, you can now see how many victory points its worth. Every planet has a victory point value. Point scoring at the end of the game, despite everyone having a few extra goals to try and accomplish (“Have the most culture planets,” for example) takes minutes. So does set up and tear down.
My wife and I have played it a lot. We’ve taken it with us on trips because it’s such a light package. And it’s a great two person game. But, like a lot of games, it gets more interesting when more people are involved. There are more people to follow. More planets to try to colonize. More civilizational actions that can be taken. It’s really just a great game.
Would I recommend? Hands down. If you’re not actively playing it at home, toss it in your suitcase. Then if it rains on a trip, you’ll always have something fun to do.
