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Roll has grown on me. When I first played it I liked how all the game mechanics fit together and the nice decisions about building your tableau and generating enough income, but it just seemed kinda random - too random really. Not so much about the dice; I like the way the different dice work quite a bit. It was more about the tile draws. Sometimes you get nice, synergizing tiles and sometimes you waste turns of exploring trying to find something that remotely works. The card game has the same thing of course, but you cycle *much* more quickly in the card game and see a lot more cards. In Roll, the homeward combo plus your initial tile draws can make a huge difference; good matches and you can just start playing, otherwise you may still be digging for something, anything, after everyone else already has an engine going. I've been saddled with Space Pirates plus Epsilon Eridani a couple times, and it's a terrible combo - no dice into the cup initially, no production world, and a very poor early-game money generation power, when money is so critical. It makes to tough to win. Given all this, I think the explore action is a little pricey and there aren't enough exploration-booster tiles in the bad. Also, the iconography is not great. After the crisp, clear Race for the Galaxy design, Roll for the Galaxy is a bit of a muddled mess and you end up having to fall back to the text, which (of course) is too small and not readable enough. Still, I think this can all be true - it probably is - and the game can still be quite fun, even very good - which I think it probably is. Like Race, sometimes you don't get the cards, and it's a game about managing and coping with a quickly-changing playing environment, one where you not only have to manage your own stuff but take advantage of everyone else's actions. The dice management strategies are related to, but quite different from, Race. The game is streamlined, plays quickly and easily, it's great that there is so much simultaneous plotting and so limited downtime (a recurring bugbear for dice games). There is a lot to like. I suspect the balance probably isn't quite where it should be, but it's close enough to make for a fun game. Strategy Note: Early game income is of course the key. You have to do everything in your power to get some kind of income engine going early, at the expense of any kind of long-term strategy. You can develop strategy once you've got the means to support cycling enough dice to give you options. Just a random note: Race was really terrific as a 2-player game. Roll is just OK, and is much better multiplayer. 3 or 4 is probably the sweet spot. 5 is fine too.
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