Galileo Galilei

How do astronomers yodel?

Galileo Galilei! This is a game in which we play bearded astronomers and try to observe as many constellations as possible. To do this, we will use our telescopes, which will always point upwards. Our efforts will be hindered by something no one expected…

Mechanically, we are dealing with an action rondel, which is presented in the form of a moving telescope. There is one important rule here: “always up.” The landing place of our telescope will determine what actions we can perform during our turn.

The main source of points is observing constellations. To do this, we will use our dice, whose values we will increase, change colors, combine into other colors, but we will never roll them. Unless, of course, we get help from Astrocat.

In Galileo Galilei, there are also euro tracks that will give us point multipliers for various aspects of the game. There are also books that are tracks, but with bonus actions. Something for railway enthusiasts who don’t ride trains.

There is also another interesting twist that has significantly increased my list of positive observations…

Why was it worth observing out this title?

Simple and easy rules

The game is so simple that it takes literally a few minutes to explain. The instructions are well written, so much so that one might say that the sky was clear.

Fun to the quadrant

Collecting dice and increasing their values in many ways is very satisfying. On top of that, there are quadrants that allow us to accumulate bonus actions that help us in the game. The tracks, in addition to scoring, provide us with small bonuses, and everything somehow combos very nicely with each other.

Teaches and entertains

Galileo Galilei teaches and entertains. The instructions are full of information about our astronomers and their discoveries. It’s a small thing, but I like it when a game teaches us something interesting.

Astronomical theme

The theme fits the gameplay, and our immersion is enhanced by the movement of the telescope and the constellations featured on the cards.

Speed of light

What surprised me was how fast the gameplay is. Our games for 3-4 people lasted literally an hour. No one expected that. The players’ turns are sometimes so fast that you don’t even have time to think about what you want to do next.

Because of this speed, I enjoyed playing in every squad. And by the way, it didn’t matter how many players there were, because everyone did their own thing anyway.

Astrosolo

As for the solo game, it is easy to play, but extremely difficult to win. The Automa definitely does not slack off in its efforts to beat us. This is definitely helped by the fact that it does not pay attention to the color of the dice for its actions and is quite random, making it difficult to predict its moves. Has anyone ever beaten it?

Star of the show

The star of Galileo Galilei is definitely the Inquisition. Observing the constellations may expose us to a visit from church hunters. When we put them in our furnace, they don’t do anything yet. However, when we are forced to bribe them, we move them onto the hot track, reducing our reputation. We can prepare for this situation by spending quadrants, which can reduce our losses. This is where all those cool combos I mentioned earlier come in. In general, inquisitors are a hindrance that we have to watch out for so as not to lose too many points. Because they can really hurt the final result in a very negative way. I really like this mini-game with them.

Asymmetry

Once we’ve played a few games, it’s worth playing with the asymmetrical abilities of our astronomers. Each of them has a special ability that affects different aspects of the game. Galileo can observe a little more. Giordano has his own personal furnace. Copernicus can improve his library by adding new pages with bonuses. However, Kepler is the most interesting to me. His power gives us a unique action tile that allows us to do tricks with other tiles. It significantly changes the order of options in our turn.

Summary

Galileo Galilei is a good, medium-weight Euro game that focuses on atmosphere and fast gameplay. I treat it more as a filler game that I have a lot of fun with. I love all the little combos I can make with the tracks and quadrants. Additionally, after a few games, I can’t imagine playing without the astronomers’ abilities anymore. The game is definitely better with them.

Final verdict: Galileo Galilei is Astronomically good fun!

[Game provided by Galakta]