Richard Irving and James Carvin	Laura Dewalt and Devon Miller

Galaxy Trucker 2013 continued where 2012 left off, with ships in pieces across the galaxy. Turnout for the heats was very similar to last year. Most participants in the heats were interested in only the base game. In each session we were able to get games off with the second expansion, but not many more than a table were looking for that. Allowing people to choose their level worked well, though it slowed the start a bit.

One thing clear from this was how dominant the better players are against less experienced competition. Some of the best players played in base game only rounds, and won with dominating scores. It does show the better players are advancing.

The semifinals used the same format as the 2012 Final, with rough roads and tiles from the first expansion. The feedback on this was quite positive, the players who had advanced were more familiar with the expansion, and the games were good.

The 2013 Final was a new format, for the first time adding the second expansion. The Henning brothers each made their second Final in a row, clearly demonstrating the best family play of the game although the Collinson sisters weren't far behind. Ashley Worley and David desJardins rounded out the table. The players used one rough roads, and ships 2/3B/4. In Round 1 the rough road was meteoric inversion. Karl built a dominating ship, full of lasers, cargo, and defense stations. Unfortunately, the word engines was not used in the previous sentence. With no engines he gave up before starting, a tactical decision good for second place at the end of the round. Nick made it through with a strong lead, at +15.

Round 2's card was a nasty surprise, that turned into metal fatigue. No one managed to finish the race, but several kills and some cargo left Nick with a commanding position, Nick 48, Karl 17, David 5 and Ashley at -16. There were several building accidents due to the tricky nature of the 3B ships.

The last round used the class 4 ships, with a rough road card of cosmic psychosis. The combination of the larger deck from Deck 4 and the evil machinations combined with cosmic psychosis made for a punishing trip as the number of chances to lose crew really added up. David got hit by cosmic psychosis in his only human cabin, and was forced to give up. Karl and Nick were also forced to give up, but suffered little damage and it didn't change their score by much. Ashley managed to sneak through to the finish, scoring 30 credits in finishing bonuses as the only finisher. But this was only enough to catapult into second place, with Nick keeping his strong lead established earlier and taking home the trophy.

The players' opinions on the Final were still positive even after the punishment, though most wanted some more time to practice with the newer elements. Thrusters were rated as stronger than expected before playing, while crubots were missed at several opportunities due to unfamiliarity.

I don't expect many changes in format if run again, but feel free to contact me with any ideas.

Dave Finberg, Dave des Jardins and Nick Ferris explore the galaxy.	Nick Henning is obviously a Galaxy Trucker kind of guy.