Duncan McGregor	Rodnet Bacigalupo and Emily Blanck

The seventh RFG tournament was a HMW (heats most wins) tournament for the second year in a row. Most games were 4-players, with the occasional 3-player as necessitated by players on hand. This year, the new Alien Artifacts expansion was played in the Final. Otherwise, there were two base game heats, two heats with The Gathering Storm, and semifinals using the Rebel vs Imperium expansion.

Heat 1 started at the wee, borderline unreasonable hour of 9 AM on Wednesday with 13 mostly 4-player tables. Defending champion John Riston lost his first round by 3 points, likewise 2011 champion Aaron Fuegi went down on a tiebreaker to Kathy Stroh. Four-time champ Rob Renaud won his match with 53 points and a margin of 15, the largest of the first heat. Nick Kiswanto, perennial laurelist, also earned his first victory. Heat 1 also saw an interesting game involving three players, Emily Blanck, Chris Kreuter, and Chris Kizer all splitting up the military tech and worlds and giving the win to Chris Bert, who played a produce/consume strategy. Jason Levine, a 2013 finalist, and Otis Comorau had an exact tie for first, which caused the GM some worry due to a lack of specification in the tournament structure about ties in the tournament rules, but it ended up being irrelevant.

Heat 2 followed an hour later with another remixed set of 13 mostly 4-player tables. Defending champion Riston earned his first victory. Fuegi again had a disappointing second. Derek Glenn, Rob Renaud, Nick Kiswanto, and Adam Sigal all won their second games. Adam Sigal did so with a rather impressive 20-point margin.

Heat 3 started at the again obscene hour of 9 AM on Friday. The Gathering Storm, the first expansion to the game, which introduces goals and the fearsome cards Terraforming Guild, Alien Toy Shop, and Improved Logistics was the official version for Heat 3. None of our previous double winners played in this heat, perhaps content that their two wins would almost certainly advance them to the semis. There were only ten full 4-player tables this early. Mark Crescenzi, who dominated the tournament last year only to fall a few points short in the Final, made his first appearance with a comfortable 8-point win. Thomas Tu earned his first win with a nail biting victory on tiebreak over Scott Saccenti. Riston earned his second victory and likely entrance to the semis, nearly doubling his closest opponent, 62 to 34. Luke Koleszar and Emily Blanck also earned their second victories.

Heat 4 proceeded immediately after Heat 3 ended. Brothers Thomas and Tim Tu both won their second heat in four tries, qualifying for the semis, as did John Ratanuprasanpura. Thomas's win was by tiebreaker. Keith Dent won his second heat of three, losing only to Renaud in Heat 1. Rob Renaud and Luke Koleszar both won their third heat in as many attempts. Mark Crescenzi was edged out of a victory by 2 points by Christopher Bert, thereby just missing the semis. Conversely, Nathan Twigg won his second heat of the day to advance.

15 multiple game winners, and a single lucky qualifier with only one win qualified for the semifinals, which used the Rebel vs Imperium expansion and played four 4-player games on randomly drawn tables. Defending champion Riston won his return trip to the Final by a comfortable 9-point margin over Tim Tu. Derek Glenn squeaked by John Ratanuprasanpura on a tiebreaker, while earneing five of the six goals in the game. Keith Dent passed his semifinal test over Nick Kiswanto in dominating fashion, with 78 points to Nick's 49. Renaud beat Thomas Tu in a close game, 60 to 55, in which Thomas pulled off a nice 6-point consume 2x that he called with no consume powers on the table. Renaud fell into the trap and called the needed develop for Thomas to unleash Galactic Genome Project, but despite the gutsy blind consume, it was not quite enough to beat Renaud's rampant developments.

Our four finalists gathered to play the new Alien Artifacts expansion without the orb module. Renaud and Riston had a fair amount of experience with the expansion, but both Glenn and Dent would be at a disadvantage, playing it for the first time in their inaugural Final appearance.

Rob choose the jack of all trades Epsilon Eridani as his starting world. John picked Alpha Centauri, Derek took Old Earth, and Keith was the only player to take a new homeworld, with Alien Artifact Hunters. AAH allows players to consume an Alien good for 2 VP, and both see and keep an extra card on explore.

Rob and Derek opened with a dev, while John and Keith exploited their homeworlds with a trade and explore +1, respectively. Both Rob and Derek put down Interstellar Bank, which let them draw a card before the development phase. Derek played Investment Credits, which grants a -1 discount to develop. The game was perhaps headed for a development war. Keith played Genetics Lab and John missed the develop. John traded his brown good for three cards.

Turn 2 saw dev from all players except Keith, who again called an explore +1. Rob developed Scientific Cruisers, an expansion card that grants +1 military, a -1 discount to settle, and a consume power for two cards. John developed Replicant Robots and Keith put down Space Marines. Derek furthered his development powers with Interstellar Bank. At this point, Derek's opponents must have been worried about his combined development powers, which can be very strong when stacked.

Rob and Keith explored on Turn 3, Derek settled, despite his power in the dev phase and his lack of settle abilities. John, the only player with a world capable of storing goods, called produce. Rob settled a 2 defense uplift world, John settled New Vinland for free, giving him a production world with its own consumption, a nice world to have to complement Alpha Centauri, especially early. Derek put down Space Port, and Keith played Comet Zone. Now Rob is the only player without any production worlds, which could bode poorly.

On an uneventful Turn 4, as expected, most players traded, with the exception of Keith, who called another explore +1.

Turn 5 saw a trade from Keith, a dev from Rob, a settle from John, and an explore from Derek. Rob played the fearsome Galactic Federation on the develop, putting him in a very strong position, as he already had Interstellar Bank. John played Consumer Markets, hinting that' he'd probably go for a blue production strategy. Both Keith and Derek developed Mining Conglomerate. Keith settled Jumpdrive Fuel Refinery, putting him at two brown production worlds, ahead of Derek with his newly settled, singular brown Bio-Hazard Mining World. John also settled a brown production world. Rob settled New Survivalists, finally getting a production world.

With Rob's advantage in the dev phase, and all of his opponents production abilities, he jokingly tried to convince each of them that the other would produce, rendering them free to call whatever phases they desired. Unfortunately for Rob, John called produce, while the other players explored. Rob would ride his Galactic Federation/Interstellar Bank combo for the rest of the game, consistently calling dev. On the dev, he built Galactic Investors, which drew two cards after a successful develop, and drew a card for each 5+ cost dev on the tableau, putting him in firm position to win. In a fight to keep up in the dev war, Derek also built the Galactic Investors. John built Terraforming Robots, and Keith placed Trade League, which will guarantee him good card flow in a produce/consume game, and scores additional points for his Mining Conglomerate and Genetics Lab.

Turn 7 saw another explore from Keith, dev from Rob, a consume 2x from John, and a trade from Derek. Both John and Derek missed the develop, while Rob built Galactic Expansionists, which is another 6 dev that scores for 6 cost developments and draws a card on dev. At this point, Rob can build a 6 dev without even diminishing his hand size. Keith follows with Galactic Survey Seti, which is a solid all around 6 dev that mostly rewards building worlds rather than devs but also synergizes with his rampant exploration.

Unfortunately for the produce/consumers, produce was not selected on Turn 8. John and Derek both settled, a result neither is happy with. Keith continued to pound explore and Rob expectedly developed. Rob built New Galactic Order, increasing his military to 4. John again missed the dev, Keith buillt Wormhole Prospectors which also rewards trade powers, and Keith threw down more explore powers with Research labs. Rob settled Mercenary Guild, John settled Galactic News Hub, which allowed him to consume two blue goods for 3 VP, Derek built Galactic Survey Headquarters, a 2 cost blue production world. Derek conquered an uplift military world. Now both Rob and Keith have 10 card tableus.

John called the one-turn-too-late produce, Rob developed, Derek settleed, and Keith explored +1 once more. Rob developed dropships and conquered the Rebel Outpost to end the game. John developed Scientific Cruisers and settled Tourist World, giving him a glut of consumption, but no more turns to reward him for it. Derek developed Mining League and settled the Alien Fuel Refinery. Keith had no 6 dev (maybe he should have explored +5ed instead) and put down Consumer Markets and Star Nomad Lair.

When the points are tallied, Rob Renaud wins the seventh Race for the Galaxy tournament (his fifth championship, and sixth Final table) with 45, ahead of Keith's 34, Derek's 31, and John's 20.

Julianne Mason	GM Rob Renaud and his co-finalists.