Race for the Galaxy logging

Warning: Geeky post coming. Read on at own risk.

I have played more than 380 games of Race for the Galaxy now, this being my most played game ever. My second and third most played games are Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper and Carcassonne, both at 200+ plays. I wrote about how I log my plays of Race for the Galaxy some time ago. See the second half this blog post. Now my logging method has evolved further.

FYV[4] cards 19 (13), special 10 (1 - new galactic order), chips 2 = 31 (mostly military)
HCS[1] cards 23 (11), special 5 (1 - galactic federation), chips 1 = 29 (military)

This above was the notation that I used in June 2008. It started with the player initials (FYV), then start world in square brackets (4), then points from cards (19) and number of cards (13), then points from special 6-cost development cards (10), number of such cards (1), name of the cards (New Galactic Order), points from victory point chips (2), total points (31), comment on strategy used (mostly strategy).

Soon afterwards, it changed to this:

HCS[3] cards 27 (12), special 20 (gal imp 11, seti 9), chips 0 = 47 (military)
FYV[0] cards 11 (12), special 21 (new eco 9, min lea 6, mer gui 6), chips 30 = 62 (rare element consume)

I dropped the count for 6-cost development cards, since I was going to list down the names anyway. I didn't use the full names anymore. "gal imp" instead of "Galactic Imperium". "seti" instead of "Galactic Survey: SETI". "seti" was the only 6-cost development card that I abbreviated in a different way from all others.

HCS[1] cards 8 (9), special 9 (gf5, fta4), chips 19 = 36 (consume)
FYV[3] cards 18 (12), special 11 (seti), chips 5 = 34 (military)

Later on, I abbreviated the 6-cost developments names further. I only used the initials. "gf" = "Galactic Federation". Good thing that none of them had the same initials. Only "seti" remained as "seti". Not "gss". And if a player only has one 6-cost development, I don't list the individual points for the card, since it will be the same as the total points. E.g. seti above.

After the expansion Gathering Storm came out, I needed to record points from objectives too.

FYV[1] cards 19 (13), special 7 (ngo), chips 3, objectives 11 = 40 (mostly military)
HCS[0] cards 12 (9), special 0, chips 12, objectives 8 = 32 (settle, some consume)

I used this notation above for quite some time. I recorded a summary of the game score (e.g. "fyv40, hcs32") in one cell in Microsoft Excel, and then I inserted the breakdown as a cell comment. Recently I made one dramatic switch. I had one burst of many plays of Race for the Galaxy with Michelle, and I suddenly felt I needed to simply this notation further. I don't bother with inserting as comment anymore now. I just squeeze everything into the cell. This is now my latest notation:

fyv45, hcs 28; fyv10-14(14) is10 seti9 6 6, hcs2-16(12) gf6 1 5

fyv54, hcs23; fyv11-41(15) 0 0 13, hcs2-9(6) gf10 ngo4 0 0

It starts with winner initials (fyv) and score (45), then other players and scores (hcs28). After that the breakdown: player initials (fyv), start world (10), points from cards (14), number of cards including 6-cost development cards (14), initials and scores of 6-cost developments (is10 seti9), points from VP chips (6) and points from objectives (6). I have dropped the total points for 6-cost developments (even if there are more than one played). If there is no 6-cost development, I just put a 0. See second example above. Also I don't bother to repeat the total score in the breakdown anymore.

Hmm... I just realised that the last two examples that I had randomly picked showed Michelle completely slaughtering me.

1 Jan 2010. My tableau at the end of a game. I had six (!) 6-cost developments, which I'm very sure is a record for me. I had an unusualy big gap between basic military strength and military strength for Rebel military worlds. 2 vs 8. I was able to settle the 7-defense Rebel Homeworld. My total score was 65!

And guess what... Michelle scored 66pts and beat me. She went with a consume strategy, and scored all 34 victory point chips. Nothing particularly amazing about her tableau it appears, but actually the cards she earned when consuming was a big help, and Deficit Spending (top right) allowed her to discard unwanted cards in exchange for VP chips. In hindsight I probably should have tried to end the game one round sooner. Not sure whether I could have done it even if I had wanted to though. She consumed 12pts on the last round.