I love Race for the Galaxy and have both TGS and RvI. Takeovers are one of my favorite additions to the game, even though they can cause tremendous point swings and sometimes infuration. In two games that I played recently takeovers determined the winner in quite different ways. Both games were two-player advanced and they both involved playing takeover power cards late in the game.

Game 1. I pursued a military heavy strategy and my opponent was more balanced, but placed military worlds with the use of Contact Specialist. When I drew the Rebel Alliance, I knew the rest of his game would be tough... Because I had a large military, plus a number of rebel worlds, and he had an Imperium card, the takeovers commenced. He had played about 3 or 4 military worlds, but had a very small military since CS was used to settle them, and by the end of the game I had taken all of them. The largest was the Rebel Base (6-cost). Once I played Rebel Alliance, he had no chance. I even strategically sniped worlds that had goods on them that he was planning on trading.


Game 2: My opponent (same guy) pursued a military heavy strategy and I focused on consuming. I had about a +2 military and had placed a couple of small military worlds. On the second to last round, my friend called settle twice. I had planned on settling at least once, and then settled a second time, mostly for the good that I could consume on the final turn. It happened to be a rebel world, though...
And on the last turn, develop settle and consume were called. He developed Imperium Seat and promptly tookover my little rebel world. He ended up getting the point for the world, 2 points for it being rebel and another point for consuming the good. The very good that I planned on consuming! I lost out on the 1 point from the world and the two points I would have gained from consuming the good.

In the end, the point swing caused by the takeover was 7 and he won by 3 points.

So, late game takeovers can be deadly. So much so that you really need to be careful when you're deciding to play a Rebel military world or an Imperium card, especially against an opponent with a strong military. When you ally with one side or the other, you better be prepared for the backlash!

I love Race for the Galaxy.

It could be significant early game too...

It most definitely could be game changing in the early rounds. In fact in my first example above the takeovers started about halfway through the game. Really, takeovers can be significant at any time.

In my second example above, I would have been better off not settling the rebel world at all. I would have missed out on some points, but he would have missed out on more points and I think I would have won. So, it's obvious that you don't want to settle worlds that you know can be taken over, but sometimes you need to be careful settling those types of worlds due to the off chance that they could be taken over later.

Also remember another game where someone II-ed Imperium Lords last turn. Another player II-ed Rebel Alliance. That 1st player cursed, while the other player let out a "Yes!". Having low military-str b/c the 1st player was using a pfmw (pay-for-military-world) power to get military worlds in, such as Rebel Stronghold. Last turn there was also a III and low and behold, he lost Rebel Stronghold.

Ouch for player 1. Awesome for player 2! Based on this example I can see why some people dislike takeovers, though. That's a 22 point swing in one turn! I'm sure that would frustrate a lot of people.

Could player 1 have won if hadn't settled Rebel Stronghold?