Battlestar Galactica

[CheddarLimbo]

I haven't seen a thread for this amazing game yet, and I wanted to put it out there. This is a tremendously fun tactical co-op game. You don't have to be a loyal fan of the show to enjoy it (but it makes the great thematic elements that much better).

I picked it up for about forty bucks a few weeks ago at Borders and we've played 3 times. Once with three people and twice with five. We tried once with six, but didn't finish the game. The only downside we've seen is how long the games take - we've yet to finish one in under three hours.

The human players act as officers and politicos of the fleet and work together to manage resources, resolve conflicts and gather skills while trying to shoot down enemy ships and ward off their Cylon attackers. The humans can only win if they're able to jump enough times to reach the planet Kobol.

The great twist here is that at the beginning of the game (and again at the halfway point) each player is dealt a Loyalty card (or cards) that assign them the role of a human or a Cylon. The rules of the game prohibit you from actually revealing the cards, so everyone is a suspect, and you have only your word and your actions to define you to your teammates.

The Cylons have the job of interfering with the fleet and subverting the humans' efforts in order to take them all down. They move and act as humans until they choose to reveal themselves so you never know who's really on your side.

When the Mission Specialist chooses to head through the asteroid field, is it because it's the lesser of two bad paths, or is she trying to weaken the ship's defenses? And what about that Engineer? Why hasn't he fixed the FLT yet? Cyclons could show up any minute. Sure, he says he doesn't have the cards to play yet, but that's what a Cylon would say, right? Maybe it's time we declare Martial Law so we can round these toasters up!

The social aspects of this game are amazing, and the way the rules allow Cylon players to work against the humans in secret are brilliant and elegant. You need a good poker face, a diplomatic tongue and a sharp eye to win. The game takes a little while to get used to but once everyone is familiar with the mechanics a game can be completed in about 2.5 hours, but it means everyone's going to have to move at a pretty fast clip. What seems to slow us down is all the guessing, second-guessing, and wild accusations made after each player's turn. We're developing some serious trust issues in and amongst our group. :D

So, has anyone else tried it? Anyone else totally in love with this game?

[royaldoy]

I haven't seen a thread for this amazing game yet, and I wanted to put it out there. This is a tremendously fun tactical co-op game. You don't have to be a loyal fan of the show to enjoy it (but it makes the great thematic elements that much better).

I picked it up for about forty bucks a few weeks ago at Borders and we've played 3 times. Once with three people and twice with 5. We tried once with 6, but didn't finish the game. The only downside we've seen is how long the games take, we've yet to finish one in under three hours.

The human players act as officers and politicos of the fleet and work together to manage resources, resolve conflicts and gather skills while trying to shoot down enemy ships and ward of their Cylon attackers. The humans can only win if they're able to jump enough times to reach Kobol.

The great twist here is that at the beginning of the game (and again at the halfway point) each play is deal Loyalty cards that assign them the role of a human or a Cylon. The rules of the game prohibit you from revealing the cards, so everyone is a suspect, and you have only your word and your actions to define you to your teammates. The Cylons have the job of interfering with the fleet and subverting the human's efforts in order to take them all down. They move and act as humans until they choose to reveal themselves so you never know who's really on your side.

When the Mission Specialist chooses to head through the asteroid field, is it because it's the lesser of two bad paths, or is she trying to weaken the ship's defenses? And what about that Engineer? Why hasn't he fixed the FLT yet? Cyclons could show up any minute. Sure, he says he doesn't have the cards to play yet, but that's what a Cylon would say, right? Maybe it's time we declare Martial Law so we can round these toasters up!

The social aspects of this game are amazing, and the way the rules allow Cylon players to work against the humans in secret are brilliant and elegant. You need a good poker face, a diplomatic tongue and a sharp eye to win. The game takes a little while to get used to but once everyone is familiar with the mechanics a game can be completed in about 2.5 hours, but it means everyone's going to have to move at a pretty fast clip. What seems to slow us down is all the guessing, second-guessing, and wild accusations made after each player's turn. We're developing some serious trust issues in and amongst our group. :D

So, has anyone else tried it? Anyone else totally in love with this game?

I was fortunate enough to play this back in August when a friend got it early from GenCon. Since that time, I have played this game about 10 times and each time has been a great experience. We played yet another game of it last night (4 people) and for the very first time I finally got to be a Cylon. I had a blast and won in the end on an oversight by the humans who could have won the turn before by jumping early.

It amazes me how well balanced this game is. In the ten or so games I have played, there has been only one true "blow out" by the Cylons. All the other games have really come down to the wire.

The atmosphere this game generates is bar none to any game I have ever played. While it's not my favorite game, it is by far the most engaging and hands down the best game to come out last year!! If you haven't played it, do yourself a favor and give it a go.

[mrbistro]

Easily the best game of 2008. I love it.

[Jim]

Any game that gets beer spilled on it has to be a great game. :D

Jim

[Onacara]

I got to play a game of this at GenCon and we had a blast. It might have been the alcohol, or the scantily clad anime chick in the room or just the group I was playing with but all I know is it was fun.

Unforetunately I do not have a gaming group here to play these kind of games with so my copy of the game remains in its box :-(

[CheddarLimbo]

Unforetunately I do not have a gaming group here to play these kind of games with so my copy of the game remains in its box :-(

That's the saddest thing I've ever heard. Feel like driving to Texas? :D

To the topic...I've noticed that each time we play, the strategy is markedly different - which I love. It means that each time you never know what the symptoms of Cylonic activity will be. There seem to be both humanly and Cylonic justifications for just about every action as far as I can tell.

[NC_Hero]

I got to play my first game of this last weekend (Feb 7th).

All I can say is...What a great game!

The Cylon accusations started in a friendly joking manor at the beginning of the game...some players even accused themselves of being a Cylon. :)

By mid-game, resources were low, tension was palpable and, I could not wait to throw Adama in the brig because well...I KNEW he was a dirty Cylon traitor! We had a heated argue..ahem...debate about it and I gained little support (or so it seemed) but, I managed to get Adama confined to the brig with the help of a secret ally.

I learned after the game that the other cylon on board thought I was a cylon so, she supported my attempt to throw Adama in the brig. :rofl:

Anyway the humans made it to Cobol and eked out a win against the Cylons (Starbuck and Adama)...Mostly because the Cylons were too covert. They should have revealed themselves and sabotaged openly before the last jump to Cobol. But, this was the first time playing this game for our group so, live and learn.

Viva La Humans!
(unless I am a Cylon next game)

[darkmantle]

I played it for the first time a couple weekends ago. Such a great game, so simple to play and pick up the rules, but every person might play the cylons diffently, so there are very few "I am possitive he is a cylon". In our game we lost one step away from making our final jump to earth. Still, pretty good for a first game considering the President was a cylon the whole time. None of us knew how powerful the Quorum cards were and didn't think twice when he never played any. Lesson learned. Can't wait to get in and play it again.

[Jim]

I played it for the first time a couple weekends ago. Such a great game, so simple to play and pick up the rules, but every person might play the cylons diffently, so there are very few "I am possitive he is a cylon". In our game we lost one step away from making our final jump to earth Kobol. Still, pretty good for a first game considering the President was a cylon the whole time. None of us knew how powerful the Quorum cards were and didn't think twice when he never played any. Lesson learned. Can't wait to get in and play it again.

Fixed.

Yeah, there are very few ways to be sure somebody's a cylon. Even when somebody gets to check a loyalty card, the only person who knows for sure is the person who checked, because they might be telling everybody else something different.

Jim

[darkmantle]

Got in another game, this one went much worse than the first. We barely made it more than half way through the game. We got to the sleeper agent phase, and then lost before we made any more jumps. We were actually doing well in every way except Moral. We had plenty of food and fuel, and somehow had even more population than we started with, but apparently we were very sad about that... Anyway, still love the game.

I was thinking, since the bad guys are supposed to try to hide the fact that they are bad guys, or at least not make it obvious, a fun social experiment would be to have a 4 or 5 player game, and secretly give everybody a "You are a Cylon" card. So we are all bad guys, but we all think that at most there could only be 1 other one besides ourselves. How confused would people get, how many accusations would be thrown around knowing that whats happening doesn't make sense. I'd love someone to try it and am sure something funny would have to come of it.

[Lord Pyre]

I got to try this at a local convention. It was a blast! I immediately suspected two people of being Cylons (There were five playing), and it turned out the other two were! Our admiral used the last of our fuel up right at the end!

[SuperflyTNT]

Is anyone looking for a copy of this? I have a copy that is MINT, PRISTINE. I am looking to trade.

[Cavalier]

Played BSG with lonewolf and some others this past weekend and I must say, I love this frackin' game! We got 2 complete games in (I was a Cylon in both games). The tension, decision making, bluffing, trying to figure out the other guys' bluffs, etc make this an amazing gaming experience.

[hex706f726368]

Played BSG with lonewolf and some others this past weekend and I must say, I love this frackin' game! We got 2 complete games in (I was a Cylon in both games). The tension, decision making, bluffing, trying to figure out the other guys' bluffs, etc make this an amazing gaming experience.

Who was your cylon companion in the second game and did you thwart those lousy humans again?

[Cavalier]

Played BSG with lonewolf and some others this past weekend and I must say, I love this frackin' game! We got 2 complete games in (I was a Cylon in both games). The tension, decision making, bluffing, trying to figure out the other guys' bluffs, etc make this an amazing gaming experience.

Who was your cylon companion in the second game and did you thwart those lousy humans again?
It ended up being Mrs. lonewolf and John:twisted: (as a sympathyzer). He didn't want to fight for our side, but he eventually got in to it. The toasters one the second game as well. We actually started another game that got restarted/redealt. I was dealt the Cylon card all three times right out of the chute!:shock:

[hex706f726368]

Wow, new rule, first turn, get Cav in the brig!

[Cavalier]

Wow, new rule, first turn, get Cav in the brig!
http://fc54.deviantart.com/fs31/f/2008/236/f/9/Cylon_Smiley_by_moogleman.gif

[lonewolf]

Wow, new rule, first turn, get Cav in the brig!

The humans got the short end of the stick in that game. Cav's wife got to look at his loyalty card, but decided not to tell the rest of us that he was a Cylon? She was a human, but didn't tell us?????? Then James, who is new to the game, decides to mix it up a little and throws in some negative skill cards despite being a human. John and I both starting counting cards and looking at the colors and determine that Cav is the Cylon and that James or Cav's wife is also a cylon. I throw James in the Brig and then later John got to look at Cav's wife's loyatly card and determined that she was a human. Both of them were clean, just playing wrong! James pointed out that he got thrown in the Brig just because he was having a little fun and not because he was a cylon. I told him that he got thrown in the Brig for being a little stupid and acting like a Cylon. We were so far behind by that point that we didn't have a chance.

It was a great game. Both games that day were great!

[Cavalier]

Wow, new rule, first turn, get Cav in the brig!

The humans got the short end of the stick in that game. Cav's wife got to look at his loyalty card, but decided not to tell the rest of us that he was a Cylon? She was a human, but didn't tell us?????? Then James, who is new to the game, decides to mix it up a little and throws in some negative skill cards despite being a human. John and I both starting counting cards and looking at the colors and determine that Cav is the Cylon and that James or Cav's wife is also a cylon. I throw James in the Brig and then later John got to look at Cav's wife's loyatly card and determined that she was a human. Both of them were clean, just playing wrong! James pointed out that he got thrown in the Brig just because he was having a little fun and not because he was a cylon. I told him that he got thrown in the Brig for being a little stupid and acting like a Cylon. We were so far behind by that point that we didn't have a chance.

It was a great game. Both games that day were great!
http://fc54.deviantart.com/fs31/f/2008/236/f/9/Cylon_Smiley_by_moogleman.gif

[darkmantle]

I have yet to win this game. The 3rd time I played I was finally a cylon. From the beginning, I subtly sabotaged what I could, but one of the guys playing had played I think he said 37 games or something like that. He new how to exploit everything. He intentionally brought one resource barely in the red so it would be 3 on 1 instead of 2 on 2 with the sypathiser. He set it up where they played most skill checks face up. Anyway, I still did pretty good. In hind sight there were 2 different times I could have one if I would have just remembered what actions I could take. I was Helo and I could have changed one of the decisions that would have brought food to 0. And another time if I would have remembered to play my "you are a cylon" card I could have damaged the ship, it needed 1 more damage and it they would have lost. I hate losing due to forgetting stuff like that, but it was still a very close good game.

[Cavalier]

BSG is now mine. http://fc54.deviantart.com/fs31/f/2008/236/f/9/Cylon_Smiley_by_moogleman.gif

[Cavalier]

<Pardon the double post>

Just finished a game with my wife and 10 year old. Once again I was dealt the Cylon card from the start of the game. Humans lost at a distance of 6 with a loss of all morale. http://fc54.deviantart.com/fs31/f/2008/236/f/9/Cylon_Smiley_by_moogleman.gif

[Oogie_Da_Bruce]

Finally played my first game of BSG and OMGs, it was such a blast!!!

For those who don’t know much about the game system, it hinges on a couple things:

1. Anyone can be a Cylon. At any time. And they will try and stop you. At any cost.
2. There is an anonymous bidding system to pass skill checks. Cards are played face down and may help or hurt the skill check. There are always 2 random cards in play for a skill check.
3. The best chance the humans have to get home is to figure out who are the frakin’ toasters and throw them in the brig.
4. Cylons may reveal themselves at any time. Once they reveal themselves, they can use Cylon bonuses to stop Galactica.
5. There are many ways to stop the humans but only one way for the humans to win, and that is getting to Kobol.

Those are the basics. There is a lot more, and it may seem daunting at first, but after a few rounds, the group will be moving pretty quick.

------------------------------------------

BSG the battle report.

Burt as Apollo, our ace pilot (and the only one of us who had played BSG before)
BigJim as Helo, our other pilot extraordinaire
Boom as Chief Tyrol, our engineer
Oogie Da Bruce as Admiral Adama, Military Command
SlikkRikk as Gaius Baltar, President

The following takes place on Saturday March 28th, 2009 between the hours of 3:00PM and 7:00PM:

Burt explained the basics and we were on our way. Jim spent the whole first round relaxing at the bar (Helo doesn't come into play until the round two). We asked a bunch of questions and fumbled our way through the first round.

Slowly, as we began to get a better handle on the rules, we began to question everything, and everyone.

“We need this fixed… Right Chief?”
“That the best jump card you could play, Admiral?”
“I’m watching you, you Gods Damned Toaster.”

I’ve been playing games with Boom and BigJim for nearly 5 years now and I’d like to think I could read them. I was pretty sure Boom wasn’t a Cylon and it was too early to tell if Jim was since he didn’t play the first round. I’ve only been playing with Rikk for the past year and was watching him a bit closer. Burt was the wildcard as this was the first time I’ve played with him.

So Boom and I had a feeling about Rikk, that he might be a Cylon, I’m not really sure what he did to deserve the accusation, maybe it was the shifty eyes, maybe it was because he wasn’t drinking beer, who knows, but Boom and I decided to grab our torches and pitchforks and go after the President. We stripped him of his title and threw him in the brig. Boom was the new President. And I was Admiral. I could live with that.

But as the game when on , Rikk repeatedly claimed his innocence (like any good toaster would) and started pointing out some of Burt’s inconsistencies. I got a chance to look at Bert’s loyalty card and he was, in fact, a Cylon. I knew this to be true, but would the rest of the crew believe the Admiral?

They did. And we got the points needed to spring Rikk from the brig and lock up that dirty Cylon, Bert.

“But who’s gonna stop all the raiders that are bearing down?” Burt had put on an early display of piloting and wiped out a squad of raiders on his own.

We lost precious time. We were hurting. We put the wrong guy in the brig. And it was still early in the game.

But once we put Bert in the brig things started going a little better for humans. We began making jumps, beating skill checks and were generally a happy bunch. Till the second round of loyalty cards came out. Any of the remaining humans could be a Cylon, except me. I, at least, knew that. But Who was it?

Burt knew we were on to him and that we weren’t going to let him out of the brig so he outted himself as a Cylon and began using the Cylon recourses to make our lives harder.

As time went on a little more, I began to trust boom again, but couldn’t put a face on Rikk or Jim. I asked them both time an again about where their loyalty lied. Rikk pleaded his case and I heard it. But Jim… Jim didn’t. He just sat back in his chair, drank his beer, and said, “Hey, I’m doing my job.” And that was it. Each turn, each action, each subtle move he made, I was watching. I accused Jim of being a Cylon and he didn’t deny it. “You’ll see.” was all he said.

So Rikk played a card that would let him throw anyone in the brig. He said he thought I was Cylon, Me or Jim. I could have played some cards to stop the arrest, but I said, “Go ahead; prove to me you’re not a Cylon. Make the right choice.”

And he chose me!!! ME!!!!

WHAAAAAAAAT!!!!!! Im no Cylon. That’s it, he was the Cylon and I knew it!!! I had to figure out a way to get out of the brig and take care of that fracker.

Rikk laughed and said that he really wanted to throw Jim in the brig. My heart began to beat again at a normal pace and I laughed. Haa haaa, good one… you got me. At least my suspicions were confirmed… IT WAS JIM!!!

Or was it? While Jim was in the brig, I still had my suspicions that Rikk may have been the Cylon. So I kept up conversations with Jim.

“Give me something, Jim. Anything. Make me believe you’re not a Cylon.”

“You will all pay for what you did.”

That sure as hell didn’t sound like a good response. Maybe we did make the right decision. Well at least we don’t have to worry about who the Cylons are anymore. Let’s just get to Kobol.

We then escaped a Cylon swarm and were only one jump away from victory when Rikk starts to laugh.

“I’m revealing myself as a Cylon! And I was one from the beginning!!!”

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT????? From the beginning!!! But you gave up the other Cylon player? Why… How… Crap!!!! Sorry Jim.

AHHHHHGGGHHHHHH!!!!

Boom just shakes his head… I didn’t think it was Jim.

Why didn’t you say something sooner? And Jim, why didn’t you say… say something???

The two Cylons were laughing and plotting. The humans were close to death on almost every scale, but Boom, Jim and I weren’t giving up.

We had a little luck with the cards and move a bit closer home, till the Cylons played a level 23 skill check (very difficult) that would end the game for us. So we threw everything we had at it. Everything. We had no cards left. Was it enough… well…. It was!!!

There were a few other obstacles thrown at us, but somehow we made it. We jumped to safety with next no recourses, moral, and minimal populations, but we did it!!!

What a great game!!! So great in fact, we ended up talking about the game all night and even on the drive home. Can’t wait to play again.

[SlikkRikk]

Or was it? While Jim was in the brig, I still had my suspicions that Rikk may have been the Cylon. So I kept up conversations with Jim.

“Give me something, Jim. Anything. Make me believe you’re not a Cylon.”

“You will all pay for what you did.”

Hahahahah! What a great report Oog! :shock: It was fun reliving that. I made my wife read this so she could understand why I came home so happy that evening!

Just thinking of Jim's "denial" kills me every time.

ps - after much reflection I'm picking this bad boy up for my birthday along with the AT-43 set Boom talked me into. ;)

[Cavalier]

:thumbsup:
Great game report, thanks for sharing. I frakkin' love BSG: tBG, the suspense is great and the gameplay is a blast.

A couple of nights ago we played the full co-op variant and even knowing there were no toasters out to get us, the game was intense and lively (we drew several Cylon Attack cards early in the game and got pounded by Raiders and Basestars and Centurian landing parties).

[lonewolf]

I frakkin' love BSG: tBG, the suspense is great and the gameplay is a blast.

I finally decided at the most recent game day that we weren't going to play BSG because that is all we play anymore!

[royaldoy]

While I consider this game to be the best of 2008, I finally found myself getting burnt out playing it. I have logged in about 15 games of it and I think I have had enough for awhile. Of course if I had the opportunity to play it with a different group of people it would take on a new life for me again.

[boom]

One of us had to snag that game. Glad you stepped to it, Rikk. I was laughing about this game while explaining to my wife at breakfast yesterday and was, just now, laughing out loud while reading your report, Oog. Frackin' Rikk! We almost had that turkey, but he played a great game of deception, outted his comrade to further his cause, and was dealt a great hand by BIGJIM acting completely GUILTY when accused. He even started to turn red, for pete's sake :D. About the only good thing that came out of our Cylon MacCarthyism was BIGJIM not having to draw Crisis Cards while sitting in the pokey. We drove that bucket home on spit and determination. Great job, Oogie and BIGJIM. Humans rule!

Did I mention I love this game?8)

[BIGJIM]

Man this was a great game! Yea,me not putting up much of a fight when accuse did not help matter nor the " What and you see" or " I'll kick you butt!" didn't help but over all a fun game. Oogie a great , great report and like boom I was rethinking about the game and found my self laughing a little to loud at work. SlikkRikk I have just one thing to say " Liar!" damn Scion!

[SlikkRikk]

Hahah, the trick will be the next time we play -- the first time someone starts acting different we will know ...

[CheddarLimbo]

Hahah, the trick will be the next time we play -- the first time someone starts acting different we will know ...

It's funny, though - that's not how it works. Every time you play, people adapt a little differently, and display or hide different cues. You never know for sure, that's what makes this game so frakking GREAT!

[SlikkRikk]

Good to hear!

I hope I get Cylon again -- I think I have an idea on a better time to reveal next time. ;)

[BIGJIM]

Good to hear!

I hope I get Cylon again -- I think I have an idea on a better time to reveal next time. ;)
Death to all non - humans!!!! ;) Damn Cylon!:lol::lol:

[NC_Hero]

I frakkin' love BSG: tBG, the suspense is great and the gameplay is a blast.

I finally decided at the most recent game day that we weren't going to play BSG because that is all we play anymore!


:word:WORD! Had to take a break from BSG, like you said, it's pretty much all we've been playing. The key is to leave BSG at home when you go to a game day...and pray that no one else has a copy.

I have vowed to not play another game of BSG until April 25th. So far, I have not broken my vow.

[Cavalier]

I frakkin' love BSG: tBG, the suspense is great and the gameplay is a blast.

I finally decided at the most recent game day that we weren't going to play BSG because that is all we play anymore!


:word:WORD! Had to take a break from BSG, like you said, it's pretty much all we've been playing. The key is to leave BSG at home when you go to a game day...and pray that no one else has a copy.

I have vowed to not play another game of BSG until April 25th. So far, I have not broken my vow.
Yeah, I wish I had this problem. I don't get to play often enough to get burned out.

[BIGJIM]

I frakkin' love BSG: tBG, the suspense is great and the gameplay is a blast.

I finally decided at the most recent game day that we weren't going to play BSG because that is all we play anymore!


:word:WORD! Had to take a break from BSG, like you said, it's pretty much all we've been playing. The key is to leave BSG at home when you go to a game day...and pray that no one else has a copy.

I have vowed to not play another game of BSG until April 25th. So far, I have not broken my vow.
HA! HA!HA! Time will tell! I hear it calling you know!!!:D

[NC_Hero]

HA! HA!HA! Time will tell! I hear it calling you know!!!:D

You are such a CYLON! I hear the Brig calling your name mister...

[Cavalier]

Played last night with my wife and oldest son. For the first time ever, i was NOt a Cylon.

I wasn't quite sure how to play the game.;)

[Roland]

I played for the first time yesterday. The first half went real smoothly, the humans did well, almost passed all the crisis, all resources were blue, and we all felt pretty good about getting home. After loyalty cards were dealt again though things changed, at least on of our 3 pilots were a cylon, and we had two of them on the ropes when they revealed themselves in turn. Our resources dipped into the red, but we were two jumps form home. The admiral picks one of the 2 jump cards, we were at 7, and she drops a 3, we lost 3 fuel dropping us to one, and then the admiral revealed herself as another cylon! Apparently someone slipped an extra cylon card into the deck, and though humans lost is was definitely a fun 3 hours!

[SlikkRikk]

I know nothing.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/89994151/cylon_normal.jpg

[boom]

I know nothing.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/89994151/cylon_normal.jpg

And I know I couldn't keep a straight face to save my life once I got my "You Are a Cylon" card :lol:. I gotta work on it.

[CheddarLimbo]

You really gotta watch out when the loyalty cards are dealt. All the humans take a glance and put the card down, but sometimes the Cylon players will take an extra long time to read the details of their Cylon ability. :lol: In our first game that was an immediate tip-off.

I always tell new players to glance at the card and immediately put it down no matter what it says. If you're a Cylon, you'll just have to try to get a better look at it later on when nobody's watching.

[Bengi]

I played this game for the first time the other night. It was a lot of fun, once we got started. It took roughly 2 hours to get through 1 round as we were all trying to figure out the rules. Then it sped up a bit, but it wasn't until the end of the game that the turns started going at a reasonable pace. Every round it seemed like there was some new situation we had to clarify. We're getting together again on Wed. to play and hopefully it goes more smoothly.

Of course, we had to re-deal the cards when I asked about actions shortly after looking at my "You are a Cylon" card.

[Jim]

I always tell new players to glance at the card and immediately put it down no matter what it says. If you're a Cylon, you'll just have to try to get a better look at it later on when nobody's watching.
I've found making everyone read their card two or more times, regardless of what it is, works better. That way the Cylon player isn't trying to sneak a glance later.

Jim

[CheddarLimbo]

I always tell new players to glance at the card and immediately put it down no matter what it says. If you're a Cylon, you'll just have to try to get a better look at it later on when nobody's watching.
I've found making everyone read their card two or more times, regardless of what it is, works better. That way the Cylon player isn't trying to sneak a glance later.

Jim

That is much better, Jim. I'll adopt that from now on.

[lonewolf]

We have a 10 second mandatory stare at your loyalty card rule that seems to work.

[RichardD]

I'm going to be really sad, now.

At Spiel '08 (the big games fayre held in Essen, Germany each year) a frightfully enthusiastic young rep from Fantasy Flight Games was in the press room trying to tell me how wonderful Battlestar Galactica was. Whereupon I opened the rulebook, turned to the list of playtesters, and pointed out that my name was there (spelt incorrectly, but that's usual).

I don't know if any of our suggested tweaks made it into the final product (I suspect none did), because I have no intention of buying a copy. Put bluntly, whilst I can see why people like it, aside from the BSG licence I regarded it as inferior in every way to Shadows over Camelot. The idea's fine - a co-operative game were there's a good chance that someone is trying to scupper the team's plans. It's just that for me Shadows works better, has more tension, less luck, it's too easy in BSG to work out the mole by card-counting, and Shadows plays more quickly.

[CheddarLimbo]

I'm going to be really sad, now.

At Spiel '08 (the big games fayre held in Essen, Germany each year) a frightfully enthusiastic young rep from Fantasy Flight Games was in the press room trying to tell me how wonderful Battlestar Galactica was. Whereupon I opened the rulebook, turned to the list of playtesters, and pointed out that my name was there (spelt incorrectly, but that's usual).

I don't know if any of our suggested tweaks made it into the final product (I suspect none did), because I have no intention of buying a copy. Put bluntly, whilst I can see why people like it, aside from the BSG licence I regarded it as inferior in every way to Shadows over Camelot. The idea's fine - a co-operative game were there's a good chance that someone is trying to scupper the team's plans. It's just that for me Shadows works better, has more tension, less luck, it's too easy in BSG to work out the mole by card-counting, and Shadows plays more quickly.

I'd be interested to hear what you mean by that. Into every skill check a selection of random cards are added face down...so I don't see card counting as much of a problem.

Speaking of which...do the rest of you discuss skill check results after they are revealed? Is it kosher to ask people to "claim" their cards or does that violate the secrecy rules?

[Elstree]

I don't know how I've missed this thread! A couple of suggestions:

1) Yes, either have everyone look at their loyalty card for ten seconds, or read out loud the Cylon cards to everyone before the loyalty deck is shuffled and dealt so that anyone who gets a Cylon card already understands its power at a glance.

2) The best way we've found to speed along the game is this: You may not make accusations, ask people about their loyalty, etc. on your turn. Just move, take your action, and resolve your crisis. Leave the table talk for someone else's turn.

@ CheddarLimbo I think the rules specify in the section on the importance of secrecy that you cannot claim your specific skill cards.


And just for fun, I'm reposting a session report I posted to BGG: (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/398835)

Here's how it happened: Four player game, I'm Helo, and I'm a Cylon. Gaius Baltar, the President, gets a crisis on the first turn of the game that lets him look at someone's loyalty card, and he choses mine. He tells the other two players I'm a Cylon, and they believe him. I make my best attempt to protest my innocence, but I can tell I'm not very convincing. Doesn't matter: I'm Helo, it's turn one, I'm still stranded, and they can't brig me.

Turns go around the table. I do my best to undermine the humans on skill checks. Everyone's sure I'm a Cylon at this point so why bother trying to hide it? We fail a check and lose a point of population.

Meanwhile, I'm watching the jump track: up one notch...up a second notch...yes! My turn comes around and the jump track is on the -3. Helo returns to Galactica (“Hurrah! Helo's alive!”), goes straight to FTL Control and jumps the fleet (“Crap! Helo's a Cylon!”). Someone plays a Strategic Planning card and I make the jump roll. But I'm Helo: I use my reroll ability and fail the second one. Minus three population!

Now, since I haven't officially revealed myself as a Cylon that makes me admiral. I take a good look at our choices of destination and decide to send us into an asteroid field. I pick a civvie to destroy and happen to draw the one with two population icons on it.

So, halfway through the second round the humans had lost half their population. It was all downhill for the humans from there...

[SlikkRikk]

Hahahah! That's great Elstree.

[CheddarLimbo]

Wow, way to turn the game around Elstree!

[RichardD]

I'd be interested to hear what you mean by that. Into every skill check a selection of random cards are added face down...so I don't see card counting as much of a problem.


As I recall, it was only one or two cards added at random; given that you know who can play what colours, it's not hard to spot the Cylon *really* fast if he's not careful when he helps and when he hinders; a Cylon who tries to have the Humans fail every skill test should be spotted with relative ease.

At least, that was *my* experience of the game.

[Elstree]

As I recall, it was only one or two cards added at random; given that you know who can play what colours, it's not hard to spot the Cylon *really* fast if he's not careful when he helps and when he hinders; a Cylon who tries to have the Humans fail every skill test should be spotted with relative ease.

At least, that was *my* experience of the game.
To me this sounds like a problem with the Cylon player, not a problem with the game.

[CheddarLimbo]

As I recall, it was only one or two cards added at random; given that you know who can play what colours, it's not hard to spot the Cylon *really* fast if he's not careful when he helps and when he hinders; a Cylon who tries to have the Humans fail every skill test should be spotted with relative ease.

At least, that was *my* experience of the game.
To me this sounds like a problem with the Cylon player, not a problem with the game.

Agreed!

Being good at BSG means being subtle. If you're relentless and blatant like that you're going to get found out. The destiny mechanic is designed to give you just enough information to make wild accusations without knowing for sure what's really going on.

[RichardD]

Well, there's nothing in the rules about making sure that only *sneaky* players get to draw a cylon card!

But BSG was a game I liked the *idea* of more than I liked the actual execution, unfortunately.

[LilNewbie]

New Expansion announced:

Battlestar Galactica: Pegasus

http://images.boardgamegeek.com/images/pic496889.jpg

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=596

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/43539

Newb.

[lonewolf]

New Expansion announced:

Battlestar Galactica: Pegasus

http://images.boardgamegeek.com/images/pic496889.jpg

That is awesome, I wonder if they will be previewing at Gencon or maybe even selling.

[LilNewbie]

If not released before GC, I bet it will be there for prerelease sales.

Newb.

[lonewolf]

If not released before GC, I bet it will be there for prerelease sales.

Newb.

Do you need my address so that you know where to ship it to? :D

[Sweetcurse]

Great news.

[CheddarLimbo]

Oh snaps! :shock:

[Elstree]

This is a mixed blessing to me. The base game is already so good, but it is also already a rather long game. What will this expansion really add except more theme for fans of the series at the expense of even longer playing time? I'm sorry to say, I'm skeptical this expansion will make the game more enjoyable than it already is, and could potentially make it less so.

That said, I know I'll buy it anyway, even if just for the basestar models and the extra character cards...

[Hahnarama]

This is a mixed blessing to me. The base game is already so good, but it is also already a rather long game. What will this expansion really add except more theme for fans of the series at the expense of even longer playing time? I'm sorry to say, I'm skeptical this expansion will make the game more enjoyable than it already is, and could potentially make it less so.

That said, I know I'll buy it anyway, even if just for the basestar models and the extra character cards...

Sounds like Cylon talk to me. :p

The folks over on BGG have been enhancing the images and revealing details.

I think the Engine Room and Air lock locations will be awesome additions to the game.

[CheddarLimbo]

Played Battlestar Galactica tonight. I have now played over a dozen times and have never been a Cylon. EVER.

The second jump brought us into the Sleeper Phase and the Sympathizer became a Cylon due to our reletively high resources at the time. Two turns later, the other Cylon player revealed. With only four of us, it was devastating to have 2 Cylon turns in a row. They spent a few turns ferreting out a couple of deployment cards and one Cylon used her Super Crisis to deploy more and move the jump track back 2 spaces.

After that, they just hammered on the Cylon Fleet Activation space and kept moving Raiders through our ranks to tear up the Civilian ships until we were out of Population. :sad:

[Toad Rocket]

This thread caught my eye. I really enjoyed the new BSG series on TV and absolutely love watch the 70's reruns when I find them on tv. (Mostly because of nostalga and the hilarity of the show. Best scene ever...Starbuck playing cards with a cylon...)

Anywho. This game looks intriguing. Only problem is I have no idea who I would play it with. I dont often get to play HS as it is. Wife prefers Settles or Catan...

Sigh, woe is to me. I will need to find a way.

[Elstree]

Three things:
First, in my humble opinion, this was the best boardgame to be released last year. As many, many reviewers have pointed out on boardgamegeek, it's the perfect marriage of theme and mechanics.

Second, it shouldn't be too hard to find a regular boardgaming group in Vancouver. Try looking at meetup.com or boardgamegeek.

Third, the original series is available through Netflix on demand.

[mad_wookiee]

Played three games of this yesterday - what a blast. The Cylon player won every game - it was a rough day for the humans. The first two games were fairly tame, with not a lot of accusations and such, in part because we were playing three players and one of us hadn't played before. In the first game, the new guy (Doug) made a rookie mistake by throwing the wrong color into a skill check. The other guy (Chris) capitalized on this and brigged him, mostly because he did a bad job of owning up to the mistake. Then he brigged me too - sonofa... It was pretty much over at that point. Second game, Doug got the Cylon card at the sleeper stage. We immediately started to suspect him and brigged him pretty quickly, but we hit a tough round of crises and his super crisis finished us off.

The third game started out the same and then just went crazy. I got the Cylon card at the sleeper stage. I was playing Roslin, Doug was playing Adama, and Chris was Starbuck. I had both Arrest Orders in my hand of quorum cards and thought that if I could just get Doug to Executive Order me on his turn, I could brig them both and then have some fun since I followed Doug in turn order. I knew that he suspected Chris, so I tried to play on that a bit. I got a crisis that let me see a loyalty card, so I looked at one of Chris's cards and told Doug that he was the one that I trusted. This of course started a round of accusations that had Chris on his feet screaming at one point. But I was very careful not to accuse him directly because I wanted an out later if I needed it. The next crisis that came up gave me the opportunity to make a choice that would really hammer us or one that would help us - I forget the crisis but we would lose one resource to gain another. I chose the one that would be most beneficial to us, which really started messing with Chris's head. Then Doug decided that he was going to take the Presidency, and I thought that I had a chance to really confuse things. I started accusing Doug of being the cylon and Chris was starting to break in my favor as well. He asked why I had accused him earlier - I responded that I hadn't accused him because as he knew I didn't see a Cylon card. But I played it off as though I really believed it was him anyway, which is why I said that I trusted Doug, but that that now I was convinced it was Doug after all. At that point, he was still the Admiral, so gaining the presidency would have given him both titles. I convinced Chris to stay out of it and was able to retain the presidency. We hit a jump and Doug picked a great location, so at this point nobody knew what to think. Everyone mistrusted everyone else. Finally my opportunity happened - we had another crisis that would have put us nearly out of the game. I toyed around with blowing it but I knew they would have brigged me - I probably could have finished them off at that point but I wanted the lock. I thought that if I could just gain the trust of one of them I could get the Executive Order and brig them both. So I picked the beneficial choice again, gaining a bit of ground on one of our resources and, more importantly, convincing Doug that I wasn't the Cylon. Next turn, he Executive Orders me. Brig, brig, and my turn. One of the two crisis cards was a beast, so I picked it and failed it miserably, costing us most of our remaining fuel. Next turn I pulled the trigger on the FTL Drive and sent us into an Asteroid Field for the win. http://geekdo-images.com/images/robot.gif

Best gaming experience ever.

[Drumline3469]

Finally picked this up using my 30% off at Barnes and Nobel. Cannot wait to play!

[Bengi]

Played two games yesterday (5 players). The first game was a complete disaster, as both Cylons were revealed before the second time we jumped. I think we jumped 3 times.

The second game was much more interesting and came down to the wire. . All the resource wheels were down to 1 or 2, there were 2 boarded Cylons, ALL of the Vipers were either destroyed or damaged, the presidents ship was destroyed, all of the remaining (few) population ships were in play, ALL of the Raiders were in play, and Galactica had 4 damaged rooms.
In an unbelievable string of luck, we drew crisis cards that allowed us to jump, but didn't finish us off 3 times in a row, then activated FTL for the win. Strategic planning and a good die roll allowed us not to lose our remaining populaion. One of the only times I've seen the humans actually win. I can't wait for the expansion.

[RoninValentina]

Just lost a ridiculous game in a disappointing way.

Long game- about four hours. Had to jump four times to make the 8+ distance limit, including a huge 3-4 round delay between third and four jumps. There were five players and it took awhile to pin down who the cyclon(s) were. Turned out Boomer held both of the cylon cards. Remaining unrevealed, her trick was to just launch Raptors from the brig, send jump track cards to the bottom of the deck, then use her character ability to do it a second time- hence the huge delay. When we jumped the fourth time, we we forced to do so at the -3 Pop jump slot, because were on the verge of losing a ton of civilian ships and because we simply needed to JUMP. We failed that roll, by the way, losing 3 population. Adding in the jump cost, we had (not kidding!) 2 Fuel, 4 Food, 2 Morale, and 1 Pop remaining.

The stage was set for an epic dash to the end. With the pressure of nearly the entire cylon fleet gone, we all started using raptors ourselves to ensure jump track cards to combat the cylon strategy. We killed the couple raiders onboard, burned Investigative Committee cards like matches to ensure we passed every check, marched the jump track to to just before the blue zone. We agreed to hold a Strategic Planning card in reserve, and as soon as we could jump, to go for it. Then a crisis card with a jump track appeared- and before we could even discuss the check, Boomer used her once per game to force the -1 pop choice, and the game was over. I've lost more BSG games than I've won, but usually losing is just as entertaining as winning, but this? It was about as anticlimactic and unsatisfying an ending to this game, or maybe any, that I have ever seen.

[Cavalier]

Just lost a ridiculous game in a disappointing way.
<snip>

Actually sounds like a pretty good game to me.

[Jim]

Just lost a ridiculous game in a disappointing way.
<snip>

Actually sounds like a pretty good game to me.
Sounded good to me too.

Jim

[hex706f726368]

Actually sounds like a pretty good game to me.

Sounded good to me too.

Jim


You two sound like frakkin cylons... :p

[Cavalier]

Actually sounds like a pretty good game to me.

Sounded good to me too.

Jim


You two sound like frakkin cylons... :p
http://www.3dgladiators.com/forums/3dgpimages/smilies/cylon.gif

[Jim]

Actually sounds like a pretty good game to me.

Sounded good to me too.

Jim


You two sound like frakkin cylons... :p
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i255/jimmcm/Misc/IMG_0794-1.jpg

Jim

[Drumline3469]

We played this the other night. I really am not a fan of how even if you figure out who the cylons are, there is nothing you can do. Oh my God, we can throw them in the brig, then when they reveal themselves they don't get to knock us down one morale. It just seems like there is no point in even trying to figure out who is a cylon. The game we played, I figured out both cylons before they had even been a cylon for a whole round. We threw them in the brig, then they revealed and it's like the whole accusation process was worthless.

[Cavalier]

We played this the other night. I really am not a fan of how even if you figure out who the cylons are, there is nothing you can do. Oh my God, we can throw them in the brig, then when they reveal themselves they don't get to knock us down one morale. It just seems like there is no point in even trying to figure out who is a cylon. The game we played, I figured out both cylons before they had even been a cylon for a whole round. We threw them in the brig, then they revealed and it's like the whole accusation process was worthless.
Your Cylons suck.

[Drumline3469]

We played this the other night. I really am not a fan of how even if you figure out who the cylons are, there is nothing you can do. Oh my God, we can throw them in the brig, then when they reveal themselves they don't get to knock us down one morale. It just seems like there is no point in even trying to figure out who is a cylon. The game we played, I figured out both cylons before they had even been a cylon for a whole round. We threw them in the brig, then they revealed and it's like the whole accusation process was worthless.
Your Cylons suck.

One of them was drawing Green/Yellow the whole game and ONLY green/yellow as we had only been in the game fore on round. About 4 turns in, he throws down a card on a Purple, Blue, Red crisis. When we flip them over, there are 2 yellows and a green. Needless to say, he was in the brig the next turn. The expansion should be here tomorrow. I want my damned airlock.

[RoninValentina]

It was a good game overall, but I just didn't like the way the game was just declared over- there was nothing that could be done about it. It's not like we failed a check, or an unrevealed cylon player sabotaged a last ditch plan. It was just, "Okay, you guys lose now" and that was it.

[Drumline3469]

Sounds way better than my game. Cylons literally sat on Caprica for the entire game and the first three cards of the game were fleet cards making up almost destroyed in the first hour and we rarely got a jump card. I think we jumped twice in 10 or 11 rounds... It was just one of those games where the humans did the best they could, but the cylons got really lucky and there was really nothing we could do but sit back and watch the population fall.

[LilNewbie]

We played this the other night. I really am not a fan of how even if you figure out who the cylons are, there is nothing you can do. Oh my God, we can throw them in the brig, then when they reveal themselves they don't get to knock us down one morale. It just seems like there is no point in even trying to figure out who is a cylon. The game we played, I figured out both cylons before they had even been a cylon for a whole round. We threw them in the brig, then they revealed and it's like the whole accusation process was worthless.
Your Cylons suck.
Exactly what a Toaster would say to throw off any suspicion!

:p

Newb.

[RoninValentina]

I want my damned airlock.

Frakkin' this. Would have solved our game problem too. I'm certain if Boomer had revealed, we would have won the game. We lost to attrition in the worst way possible.

[Bengi]

Boomer used her once per game to force the -1 pop choice, and the game was over.

Was she still unrevealed at that point? That's pretty crazy. I'm thinking she was still unrevealed because once you reveal, you can no longer use the character abilities.

[RoninValentina]

Boomer used her once per game to force the -1 pop choice, and the game was over.

Was she still unrevealed at that point? That's pretty crazy. I'm thinking she was still unrevealed because once you reveal, you can no longer use the character abilities.

Yeah, she was unrevealed and locked in the brig from the sleeper phase on. But in the base game, there is no way to force a cylon to reveal, so character abilities can really be devastating, since you usually can't do anything about them.

[Drumline3469]

Boomer used her once per game to force the -1 pop choice, and the game was over.

Was she still unrevealed at that point? That's pretty crazy. I'm thinking she was still unrevealed because once you reveal, you can no longer use the character abilities.

Yeah, she was unrevealed and locked in the brig from the sleeper phase on. But in the base game, there is no way to force a cylon to reveal, so character abilities can really be devastating, since you usually can't do anything about them.

Yeah. Luckily I get my airlock tomorrow. :neener:

[Bengi]

Boomer used her once per game to force the -1 pop choice, and the game was over.

Was she still unrevealed at that point? That's pretty crazy. I'm thinking she was still unrevealed because once you reveal, you can no longer use the character abilities.

Yeah, she was unrevealed and locked in the brig from the sleeper phase on. But in the base game, there is no way to force a cylon to reveal, so character abilities can really be devastating, since you usually can't do anything about them.

I guess abilities can be devastating, but not as much as super crisis or cylon's having control of their ships and stuff. If I'm a human and a cylon player wants to just chill in the brig and hope that they can use an ability, I'd be happy with that. I'm surprised that you lost to that.

[RoninValentina]

Not ever being able to jump is a huge drain on resouces.

[Drumline3469]

So I was talking to my buddies, and we were thinking about setting up a game of BSG in which we all twitted/blogged throughout the game so that others could see what each one of us was thinking and follow along with the game, or go back and read it later. Would anyone here be interested in reading such a thing, or are we all just over-excited people who think too much of ourselves?

[Sweetcurse]

You kiddin'? I'd love to see that!

[Elstree]

Do it! Worst case, it'll just flop. Make sure to post here the twitter feed link and a start time at least a day in advance so we can be sure to follow!

[CheddarLimbo]

I think BGG has some kind of download that lets you create "screen shots" of a game in progress for just that purpose...

[Drumline3469]

It looks like I can easily create a Twitter group and then just everyone would #BSG and they'd all go to the group. Then I could host the group on twitterfall.com. That seems to be the easiest way to do it. I'm still toying with logistics, but I'll definitely let you guys know as far in advanced as possible.

[RoninValentina]

We've been playing BSG so much lately I started leaving it in my car rather than home and I just found out that one of the box corners is now completely torn all the way up the seam. I'm not happy about that at all. :grumble:

[Jim]

We've been playing BSG so much lately I started leaving it in my car rather than home and I just found out that one of the box corners is now completely torn all the way up the seam. I'm not happy about that at all. :grumble:
Do what I did. When you get the Pegasus expansion, move everything into the base set box bottom, and use the Pegasus box top.

Jim

[RoninValentina]

Best. Solution. Ever.

[Jim]

Best. Solution. Ever.
Just don't keep it in your car unless you first put it in another box. :D

[SuperflyTNT]

We've been playing BSG so much lately I started leaving it in my car rather than home and I just found out that one of the box corners is now completely torn all the way up the seam. I'm not happy about that at all. :grumble:
Do what I did. When you get the Pegasus expansion, move everything into the base set box bottom, and use the Pegasus box top.

Jim

Jim is a box :ninja:. And Mrs. Jim probably thinks so too! :quarter:

[Pilgrim]

Played my first game last night with five of us. Amazing game. People are begging to play again. Only one cylon player - the other cylon card was the only one not dealt! Humans won - BARELY. We had 3 pop left, and chose to make the emergency jump at -3. It came down to a roll of the dice. SUCCESS! Oh the drama.

Questions:

1. How is Pegasis expansion? Bottom line: is it worth acquiring at some point?

2. Can a person in the brig use actions besides trying to escape the brig?

3. If a crisis card gives a fail option of, say, losing 3 skill cards or losing 1 morale, and you only have 2 skill cards in your hand, can you empty your hand and take that option, or do you have to take the -1 morale?

[Drumline3469]

Played my first game last night with five of us. Amazing game. People are begging to play again. Only one cylon player - the other cylon card was the only one not dealt! Humans won - BARELY. We had 3 pop left, and chose to make the emergency jump at -3. It came down to a roll of the dice. SUCCESS! Oh the drama.

Questions:

1. How is Pegasis expansion? Bottom line: is it worth acquiring at some point?

2. Can a person in the brig use actions besides trying to escape the brig?

3. If a crisis card gives a fail option of, say, losing 3 skill cards or losing 1 morale, and you only have 2 skill cards in your hand, can you empty your hand and take that option, or do you have to take the -1 morale?

1. Definitely worth the 25 bucks it costs on Coolstuffinc.com. We really only use the Pegasus 1, and the new characters. The New Caprica stage seems really superfluous.

2. We play yes. Such as the president can use Quarum cards.

3. That's what we did. We had several in a row where one of the options was "Admiral Discards All Cards" and the admiral didn't have any so we did that one.

[RoninValentina]

Played my first game last night with five of us. Amazing game. People are begging to play again. Only one cylon player - the other cylon card was the only one not dealt! Humans won - BARELY. We had 3 pop left, and chose to make the emergency jump at -3. It came down to a roll of the dice. SUCCESS! Oh the drama.

You didn't do something right here. When the sleeper phase occurs, all loyalty cards in the deck you prepared before the game should be dealt out. There are four Cylon cards, choose the appropriate number at random and mix them into the loyalty deck. Note that you must add 1 additional Not Cylon card if Gaius Baltar is present, and one for Boomer is she is present.

4 players - 8 Not Cylon cards, 1 Cylon card, and a sympathizer card added in during the sleeper phase.

5 players - 10 Not Cylon cards, 2 Cylon cards, no sympathizer.

6 players - 12 Not Cylon cards, 2 Cylon cards, and a sympathizer card added in during the sleeper phase.

After the sleeper phase, all players should have 2 cards. Boomer and Gaius will have 3 each.

[CheddarLimbo]

Played my first game last night with five of us. Amazing game. People are begging to play again. Only one cylon player - the other cylon card was the only one not dealt! Humans won - BARELY. We had 3 pop left, and chose to make the emergency jump at -3. It came down to a roll of the dice. SUCCESS! Oh the drama.

Questions:

1. How is Pegasis expansion? Bottom line: is it worth acquiring at some point?

2. Can a person in the brig use actions besides trying to escape the brig?

3. If a crisis card gives a fail option of, say, losing 3 skill cards or losing 1 morale, and you only have 2 skill cards in your hand, can you empty your hand and take that option, or do you have to take the -1 morale?

Yeah, it sounds like there was a problem with how you built the Loyalty deck...

I can't speak to Question 1, but...

(2) Yes, a person may still use actions of their title and Character, but I don't think they can still use actions from Skill cards.

(3) Yes, you may discard less than the required amount if that's all you have. This is clarified on the FFG page in the FAQ.

In other news, we played last night:

The Humans were able to brig one of the Cylons early and force the limited reveal, the other Cylon (the current Admiral at the time) switched on during the sleeper phase and revealed a few rounds later.

Their Super Crisis cards were played with perfect timing causing us to stall out in the middle of 2 Cylon deployments, and once we lost, like, 7 Civilian ships, the second Super Crisis blew up Colonial One and the last of our Morale along with it.

[Jim]

4 players - 8 Not Cylon cards, 1 Cylon card, and a sympathizer card added in during the sleeper phase.

5 players - 10 Not Cylon cards, 2 Cylon cards, no sympathizer.

6 players - 12 Not Cylon cards, 2 Cylon cards, and a sympathizer card added in during the sleeper phase.

There is something wrong with this. According to the rulebook (page 6 of the rules (http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/Battlestar_Galactica/bsg_rulebook_web.pdf), at the start of the game, in the base loyalty deck there should be:
3 players: Six card deck (1 x "You are a Cylon," 5 x "You are not a Cylon")

4 players: Seven card deck (1 x "You are a Cylon," 6 x "You are not a Cylon")*

5 players: Ten card deck (2 x "You are a Cylon," 8 x "You are not a Cylon")

6 players: Eleven card deck (2 x "You are a Cylon," 9 x "You are not a Cylon")*

(* - with the sympathizer card being taken care of at the sleeper phase)

On a related note, here is my new pumpkin for this year:
__x56zF-7Uo

Jim

[Elstree]

Yes, if you had an extra card left over then the loyalty deck was built incorrectly. However, note that these instructions...
4 players - 8 Not Cylon cards, 1 Cylon card, and a sympathizer card added in during the sleeper phase.
5 players - 10 Not Cylon cards, 2 Cylon cards, no sympathizer.
6 players - 12 Not Cylon cards, 2 Cylon cards, and a sympathizer card added in during the sleeper phase.
After the sleeper phase, all players should have 2 cards. Boomer and Gaius will have 3 each....assume that you have both Boomer and Gaius in the game. If not, then you need to reduce the number of "Not Cylon" cards appropriately. These instructions...3 players: Six card deck (1 x "You are a Cylon," 5 x "You are not a Cylon")

4 players: Seven card deck (1 x "You are a Cylon," 6 x "You are not a Cylon")*

5 players: Ten card deck (2 x "You are a Cylon," 8 x "You are not a Cylon")

6 players: Eleven card deck (2 x "You are a Cylon," 9 x "You are not a Cylon")*

(* - with the sympathizer card being taken care of at the sleeper phase)...are correct for the beginning of the game if Boomer and Gaius are not in play, but note his footnote that in a 4 or 6 player game you will be adding the Sympathizer card before the Sleeper Phase.

All of this just underscores how confusing building the Loyalty Deck can be. Building the deck correctly is absolutely critical to playing the game. If you screw it up, then you can completely ruin the two or three hours people have invested in the game when the mistake is discovered. Furthermore, mistakes building the Loyalty Deck are usually impossible to correct later in the game so take the time to make sure you do it right from the beginning.

The best thing to do is to follow the instructions on page 6 in the "Creating the Loyalty Deck" box, step by step every time you play the game. Then pass the deck and the rule book to a second player and have them double check that you have built the deck correctly. After ruining a couple games with a flawed Loyalty Deck, we've made this our standard practice.

Another good habit is, after dealing out loyalty cards (both at the beginning and at the half) to have all players look at their cards for a slow silent count of ten. This insures that whoever has a Cylon card has time to read their reveal power. Otherwise it can be a dead giveaway who the Cylon is if after dealing out the cards four people have put theirs down on the table and one player is still reading.

Regarding your questions:
1) Yes, Pegasus is worth buying. The new characters, the Pegasus locations, the Cylon Leaders, and the new skill cards are all tons of fun. I can't speak for the New Caprica locations, as I've yet to play with that option. I'll just say that that phase seems like a lot of tedious repetition after all the hard work of just reaching New Caprica.

2) The limitations of being in the Brig are those listed on the board: "You may not move, draw Crisis Cards, or add more than 1 card to skill checks." In practice this means that you cannot use Actions associated with board locations (other than the Brig Action) but may use Actions from other sources, including Skill Cards, Quorum Cards, or Character Sheets.

Also note that if you pass the Brig skill check you get to move to any location, but you do not then immediately get to take the action associated with that location. (Moving from the Brig location just shows that you are no longer in the Brig.)

3) Yes, per the FAQ you may discard fewer cards than required if that exhausts your hand.


While I'm at it, here are a couple of other mistakes that we've seen new players make more than a few times:

Number of Actions: If you are Executive Ordered by someone you may either move and take an action, or take two actions without moving. However this sometimes leads new players to conclude that, on their own turn if they do not move then they get to take two actions. This is wrong. On your turn you get one move and one action. If you don't move you just take your action. (However, there is a new Skill Card in Pegasus that lets you take a second action instead of moving.)

Cylon Reveal: Revealing is an Action. It is not a "free" declaration. We've had games where a hidden cylon player did something like jump the ship at the -3 mark, then (cackling with glee, of course) reveal himself as a cylon. You can't do this: jumping the ship uses up the one action for the turn and you don't have an action left to reveal. (Now, if the same player were Executive Ordered and were already in the FTL Control space, then he could both jump the ship and reveal himself as a cylon in the same turn.)

[RoninValentina]

Jim has the right of it. I was just typing off the top of my head- my mistake is I counted two Not Cylon cards for each player, but forgot to subtract one (or two) before adding Cylon cards (or the Sympathizer card). The loyalty deck will always be the number of players x2, so every player gets two cards total- and one extra for Gaius and or Boomer if present. Good catch Jim.

[Pilgrim]

Thanks for the input everyone! Very helpful clarifications.

However, I'm still confused on loyalty deck. We played 5 players, which says that we do 2x you are cylon, 8x you are not cylon. That's 10 cards. We added in a card for Gauis. That's 11 cards.

I then delt out 6 cards (1 to each player and then 2 to the Gaius player).

There are now 5 cards in the loyalty deck. I go to setp 5 and add sympathizer card for the four or six player game . . . .

WAIT . . . I literally just caught it . . . four OR six player game. I read it as four TO six player game.

Dang. Well, fortunately it wasn't me who was the cylon!

[mrbistro]

WAIT . . . I literally just caught it . . . four OR six player game. I read it as four TO six player game.

Dang. Well, fortunately it wasn't me who was the cylon!
Everybody screws it up at least once.

Elstree: I enjoy the New Caprica ending. It actually passes surprisingly fast, and the final showdown in space really gives the game a fantastic finish.

[CheddarLimbo]

Had a great 5 player game (the sweet spot as far as I'm concerned). One of the players in our group loves to screw with people (me in particular) more than he cares about winning, so it can be a little frustrating at times. He really enjoys making people think he's a Cyclon even when he's not... :roll: It's kind of counter productive.

We were all human until the Sleeper Phase, and two players got to look at Loyalty cards early on. We were all pretty comfortable, we'd made the first jump for 2 distance and had only lost 1 Morale. Then we made the entire second jump prep without encountering a single Cylon and only losing 1 population and 1 food from Crises.

Then we got to the Sleeper phase. I was Boomer, so I got 2 cards and one was a Cylon. I've played the game something like fifteen times at this point and have NEVER been a Cylon until last night. It was hard for me to keep cool, to be honest. I think my wife knew right away because she just knows my body language.

We went around the table once, and I secretly sabotaged 2 Skill Checks causing more Morale loss, but was able to explain it away with a little politicing. The player to my right decided I was the traitor and tried to brig me. I dumped 12 points of piloting cards into the check to cancel it and force most people to empty their hands trying to brig me. I dodged the brig, and on that player's Crisis, I used my OPG ability to pick the worst option for ANOTHER morale loss, then revealed on my turn and brigged the President.

Unfortunately, it turned out that she was the other Cylon. :p She spent a round in the brig before she could get out and reveal herself. I told her later on she should have just openly admitted to being a cyclon when I was about to Brig her, but she was afraid the player in between us would do it anyway.

After both of us revealed we began to mobilize the 4 heavy raiders on the board. We ALMOST had 3 centurions on the ship, but the Humans had so much population, they risked the -3 Jump and escaped just in time...

The humans made their final jump to 8 distance with 9 population remaining. Everyone thought it was over and the humans would get to the early jump, but then they ran into a terrible patch in the Crisis deck getting THREE cyclon deployments in a row, despite some Scout manipulation. The Cylons tore through the Civilian fleet and crushed them! BY YOUR COMMAND!

One reminder I think some people forget (we did in this game) - Make sure to remove destroyed Civilian ships from the game, they aren't recycled like the damage counters and Vipers and Raiders. The same is true of the Galactica Damage tokens that have resources, they don't go back into the pot, only the ones that have locations are recycled.

[Jim]

Sounds like it was an interesting game.

One reminder I think some people forget (we did in this game) - Make sure to remove destroyed Civilian ships, Vipers, and Raptors from the game, they aren't recycled like the damage counters and Vipers and Raiders. The same is true of the Galactica Damage tokens that have resources, they don't go back into the pot, only the ones that have locations are recycled.
Fixed that for you.

[CheddarLimbo]

We got in a three-player game of Battlestar Galactica... It was hard. We were all humans the first half of the game. The player who got the Cylon card (my sister in law), was wholly incapable of bluffing and we immediately tried to Brig her. She dodged the Brig, and revealed on her turn blowing up 2 locations on Galactica.

After a bad Cylon deployment, we were forced to focus on some Heavy Raiders and could not, for the life of us, roll a 7+, even with several Strategic Planning cards. Then we got the Virus Crisis card that puts a Centurion on the ship and it was all downhill from there. A timely Basestar attack destroyed the Arms Locker, and by the time we got it repaired we only had a one chance to actually attack the Centurions and it just didn't happen. Centurions made it to the end of the track and we were only at 5 distance when Galtactica was overwhelmed.

There was a funny point at the end where Adama and Baltar were both in the Arms Locker trying to get rid of the Centurions.

Adama: Baltar! As Admiral I order you to fire at those Centurions!

Baltar: *grabs a gun* Yes sir!

Adama: Wait! Let's plan it out a bit first shall we?

Baltar: Oh, right... Uh... Well, I thought I'd take this gun...it's only got two bullets in it, but I guess that's all we've got. Anyway, I'll run down the hall and I thought I'd fire the gun. You know. Towards the Cylons.

Adama: It's a good plan. I approve.

Baltar: *cocks the gun and immediately fires two shots into a nearby bulkhead* Oh dear.

Adama: ...

Baltar: Admiral, as President, I order you...

[CheddarLimbo]

Wasn't sure if this should go in sightings, or here, but I wanted to get everyone a little heads up - BSG is on sale at CoolStuffInc for $27.99 (http://www.coolstuffinc.com/main_boardGame.php?viewType=view%20board%20games&fp=Acc-BattleStarGalactica)

[Pilgrim]

Played a six player game last night. Five were human and one was cylon at the beginning. Cylon revealed himself early in the game and humans were doing VERY well. All the resource dials were still in the blue by the sleeper agent phase.

But once the second set of loyalty cards were passed out, the whole game flipped faster than I've ever seen.

I got the sympathizer card, which made me a revealed cylon due to high resource levels. The president got a "you are a cylon card" and promptly used his quorom card to put a human in the brig.

The next crisis card drawn was a president's choice, and so he threw another human in the brig as part of that card. It eventually came around to him again and he threw the final player in the brig, who happened to be the admiral.

So after one cylce through all the players, there were three humans in jail, two revealed cyclons and an unrevealed cyclon acting as both president and admiral.

The humans could never pass a skill check to get out of jail since they could only play one card.

The game ended shortly thereafter, with the food dial hitting zero. I haven't laughed that much in a long time.

[CheddarLimbo]

Wow, Pilgrim, that's a crazy turn of events!

[nbxfan]

Played with the Pegasus expansion for the first time last night. Enjoyed the new mechanics but, seems like the game is very stacked against the humans. Just wondering what others think, and wether they have had success winning as the humans. We are considering starting the dials at higher numbers.

Our setup, we didn't start with a cylon leader, but used the new sympathizer card that turns a player into an imitation cylon leader at the half way point. The humans were in a decent position upon reaching New Caprica but, getting ships from lock up to prepared, was tough when the cylons were putting people in detention or the medical area turn after turn. Lost a lot of morale quickly on the planet. We even had the "for the humans" cylon leader thing going, and still failed miserably. Wasn't even close.

[Jim]

Black Shirt Jim realizes that there is a cylon in the game...
http://images.boardgamegeek.com/images/pic666379.jpg


Yes, those are all me.

If you like the picture, please go here (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/666379/battlestar-galactica) and give it a thumb!

[nyys]

That is great!

[Jim]

By the way, for those of you who don't know me, or haven't figured it out yet, that's me in the picture. And nobody else.

[LilNewbie]

In all his "Toaster" goodness!!

:lol:

Newb.

[chas]

;) I've borrowed a pal's copy of Battlestar so I can learn and teach the game. Since its missing one of the rectangular Civilian Ship counters, I'm asking if anyone can tell me what resource(s) are lost when that ship is destroyed. Based on what I see, I'd guess 1 Population and 1 Food. Here's a list of the 11 I have out the 12 ships:

No loss (x2)
Lose 1 Food (x6)
Lose 2 Food
Lose 1 Food and 1 Morale
Lose 1 Food and 1 Fuel

Thanks,
Chas

[Bengi]

;) I've borrowed a pal's copy of Battlestar so I can learn and teach the game. Since its missing one of the rectangular Civilian Ship counters, I'm asking if anyone can tell me what resource(s) are lost when that ship is destroyed. Based on what I see, I'd guess 1 Population and 1 Food. Here's a list of the 11 I have out the 12 ships:

No loss (x2)
Lose 1 Pop (x6)
Lose 2 Pop
Lose 1 Pop and 1 Morale
Lose 1 Pop and 1 Fuel

Thanks,
Chas

I'm not sure what the missing one is, but I'm pretty sure that it's population not food. The missing one may be Pop + Food.

[CheddarLimbo]

;) I've borrowed a pal's copy of Battlestar so I can learn and teach the game. Since its missing one of the rectangular Civilian Ship counters, I'm asking if anyone can tell me what resource(s) are lost when that ship is destroyed. Based on what I see, I'd guess 1 Population and 1 Food. Here's a list of the 11 I have out the 12 ships:

No loss (x2)
Lose 1 Pop (x6)
Lose 2 Pop
Lose 1 Pop and 1 Morale
Lose 1 Pop and 1 Fuel

Thanks,
Chas

I'm not sure what the missing one is, but I'm pretty sure that it's population not food. The missing one may be Pop + Food.

Benji is right, Population is the resource that is lost most when ships are destroyed. Your are missing 1 Pop/Pop (a good one to miss!) The breakdown is as follows:

Pop X 6
Pop/Pop x 2
Nothing x 2
Pop/Morale x 1
Pop/Fuel x 1

[chas]

;) So the missing one is a second " Lose 2 Population." Thanks.

[chas]

"If I was a Cylon, would this be a good time to reveal myself? I think it would!"
--Chas, as Admiral Adama

:wink: Played (and taught) my first game of Battlestar Galactica and had a great time. I was Admiral Adama and a Cylon from the get go, but only revealed myself at the end, just before several people started muttering about putting me in the Brig! For the big finale, the sky was full of Cylon ships, and we were almost out of fuel, but the humans lost because of a boarding party, after they had completed all eight jump units but before their final jump. It doesn't get any closer than that.

BSG is a GREAT design; the best of the cooperative games I've played, and also the best of the 'traitor in their midst' games! The tactical spaceship battles give a bit of fighting for us wargamer types to enjoy too. So you could say that 'this one's got it all.' And we all enjoyed it, both veterans and newcomers, and would have played another if we didn't have a different second game scheduled (a long eight player Call of Cthulhu). I'll be playing Battlestar again next Saturday here at my place with different players.

Thanks to Onacara for lending me the game, and Taeblewalker for hosting. See Land Based AE's player comments also on the session, above.

Note: this avoe part of this post is from the "What Game Did You Play Last Night" thread, as are AE's comments. I wanted to go into more detail here. After teaching for a half hour, the game went for four hours, with half of us being BSG rookies.

The game started out with lots of Cylon ship attacks, but no boarding parties. As the gung ho Admiral, I got to nuke a Base Star! After we finally defeated them and jumped for the first time, there was a period of quiet with no space combat, where we were busy passing skill checks, getting out of Sick Bay, and roaming around the board locations.

A brand new player had immediatly drawn the Sympathizer card at game start, but we ducked it back into the deck to give him a chance to play as a human and learn the game, rather than have to play a totally different way as a revealed Cylon. Unfortunately, I then made a mistake with the cards, and put too many Cylons in it for the Sleeper Phase. So half the players ended up being Cylons at the game midpoint! (This is the max normally available, except that the Sympathizer if turned into one early, is Revealed). The two who got Cylon cards at midpoint remained unrevealed and caused plenty of trouble. I had drawn a second Cylon cards myself during the midpoint Sleeper Agent Phase, (there being too many in the deck now) which confused things for me, as I thought therefore at the midpoint I must be "definitely" the only Cylon. In fact, at the end I was getting ready to pass on my second card, therefore forcing a second player to be one (now both Admiral and President himself). Luckily I didn't have time, since there were already two other unrevealed Cylons out there. After I revealed myself, one of them had been giving me subtle 'signals' but I'd been ignoring them, since I thought there couldn't be another Cylon out there. Which nicely simulated the confusion of the TV show for sure! Yikes!

I didn't buy the game originally because I thought I wouldn't be able to put together large enough player groups, but almost everyone I know wants to try it out, and its more a matter of whether they can make a particular date before I have to return the game to its owner. Has anybody played with either of the two expansions? I'd be interested in how they play.

And hey, if you live near New York City and read this in the coming week, I'll be playing again next Saturday at noon (May 14, 2011). So PM me if you want to get into the game--we've got two open spots!

[LilMoochie]

I think the sympathizer card is only supposed to be dealt at the midpoint. It's a way of evening out the game if one side is ahead of the other.

[Jim]

I think the sympathizer card is only supposed to be dealt at the midpoint. It's a way of evening out the game if one side is ahead of the other.
Right. The sympathizer card isn't even added to the deck until the midpoint.

[chas]

;) You are right. Its about the card mistake I made as Game Master --had it not been my first game, I would have realized what was going on!

[Jim]

had it not been my first game, I would have realized what was going on!
Sounds like something a Cylon would say...

[chas]

;) All The World Loves Battlestar (Tales From Real Life)

I was just talking to my dental hygenist (of all people), and our conversation covered that she was born in Brooklyn but now lived in the Bronx. So I mentioned that I'd just been up there and played BSG for the first time, and she said "Yeah, that's a great game!" Huh.

[Taeblewalker]

;) All The World Loves Battlestar (Tales From Real Life)

I was just talking to my dental hygenist (of all people), and our conversation covered that she was born in Brooklyn but now lived in the Bronx. So I mentioned that I'd just been up there and played BSG for the first time, and she said "Yeah, that's a great game!" Huh.

Get her number. ;)

[chas]

;) Thanks to Onacara's borrowed copy, I played/hosted/taught my second game of BSG with all new people in a 5 player, in which the humans only made 5 of the 8 jump spaces before the end. (In the first game last week they had done all 8 and were awaiting their final jump).

This time there was one Cylon from the beginning (kolakoski)and a second from the middle. All were older and very subtle players. In my first game I picked Admiral Adama (as a Cylon), this time I chose President Rosyln (not a Cylon). After the teaching session of about 20 min. before we started people felt a bit lost, but my prediction of a fast learning curve proved out, and everyone was soon having fun and loving the game.

Toward the end, after I mentioned someone I suspected, another person put him in the brig. The guy who brigged him turned out to be a the unrevealed Cylon--continuing to "sleep," after the first had revealed himself and was enjoying making our lives miserable from the Revealed board area. I finally had it figured out but the Unrevealed guy went just before me around the table, and finished us off with his Super Crisis Card (we were down to 1 Morale) just before I could go next, having the Quorum Card that would have allowed me to brig him automatically!

My suggested character mix for five players was followed: one political leader, one military, two pilots and one support. Both our pilots turned out to be Cylons, but as President R. I managed to duck most of the Cylon fleet attack crisis cards, and once blasted away the only Heavy Raider to appear in the game, so the enemy ships were not much of a problem with (most) everyone cooperating at Fire Control and with vipers. We only lost two civilian ships, and one was the one which causes no further loss.

The postgame debriefing is a large part of the fun, as people reveal key decisions they made along the way. And now I have a pool of 12 or so players who either have played and like it or haven't make a play date yet and want to try it out. Hooray!

[Hackmaster +12]

I finally had it figured out but the Unrevealed guy went just before me around the table, and finished us off with his Super Crisis Card (we were down to 1 Morale) just before I could go next, having the Quorum Card that would have allowed me to brig him automatically! Please tell me that someone Executive Ordered him so that he revealed, then as his second action used his Super Crisis card (which he would have received upon revealing), because otherwise that just doesn't make any sense.

My suggested character mix for five players was followed: one political leader, one military, and two pilots. That makes four...:confused:

[chas]

;) Hackmaster+12: Ah, and one Support character.

[CheddarLimbo]

I finally had it figured out but the Unrevealed guy went just before me around the table, and finished us off with his Super Crisis Card (we were down to 1 Morale) just before I could go next, having the Quorum Card that would have allowed me to brig him automatically! Please tell me that someone Executive Ordered him so that he revealed, then as his second action used his Super Crisis card (which he would have received upon revealing), because otherwise that just doesn't make any sense.


Sorry, not a legal move. when you reveal as a cylon, you do several things, including getting your Super Crisis, and then your turn ends. Even if you had another action coming from a E.O., it is skipped.

[chas]

:roll: I've probably not described exactly what happened properly, rather than violated the rules, which we were pretty careful about. Perhaps it was the first already revealed Cylon who threw the Super Crisis card...after the second one revealed himself! Either way it was too late to deal with the situation by 'brigging' the second one! Like in the first game, the decision to brig the real Cylon came just too late to save the day!

A more important decision I've made it to get my own copy of the game...

[kolakoski]

;) Thanks to Onacara's borrowed copy, I played/hosted/taught my second game of BSG with all new people in a 5 player, in which the humans only made 5 of the 8 jump spaces before the end. (In the first game last week they had done all 8 and were awaiting their final jump).

This time there was one Cylon from the beginning (kolakoski)and a second from the middle. All were older and very subtle players. In my first game I picked Admiral Adama (as a Cylon), this time I chose President Rosyln (not a Cylon). After the teaching session of about 20 min. before we started people felt a bit lost, but my prediction of a fast learning curve proved out, and everyone was soon having fun and loving the game.

Toward the end, after I mentioned someone I suspected, another person put him in the brig. The guy who brigged him turned out to be a the unrevealed Cylon--continuing to "sleep," after the first had revealed himself and was enjoying making our lives miserable from the Revealed board area. I finally had it figured out but the Unrevealed guy went just before me around the table, and finished us off with his Super Crisis Card (we were down to 1 Morale) just before I could go next, having the Quorum Card that would have allowed me to brig him automatically!

My suggested character mix for five players was followed: one political leader, one military, two pilots and one support. Both our pilots turned out to be Cylons, but as President R. I managed to duck most of the Cylon fleet attack crisis cards, and once blasted away the only Heavy Raider to appear in the game, so the enemy ships were not much of a problem with (most) everyone cooperating at Fire Control and with vipers. We only lost two civilian ships, and one was the one which causes no further loss.

The postgame debriefing is a large part of the fun, as people reveal key decisions they made along the way. And now I have a pool of 12 or so players who either have played and like it or haven't make a play date yet and want to try it out. Hooray!

:roll: I've probably not described exactly what happened properly, rather than violated the rules, which we were pretty careful about. Perhaps it was the first already revealed Cylon who threw the Super Crisis card...after the second one revealed himself! Either way it was too late to deal with the situation by 'brigging' the second one! Like in the first game, the decision to brig the real Cylon came just too late to save the day!

A more important decision I've made it to get my own copy of the game...

Well met!

I had the guy who is "stranded." as the Cylon from the beginning, there was not a lot I could do about the various skill checks. That many errors were made early by everyone helped to cover my own. In particular, there was a skill check where the two players before me passed and the check made clear that there was a Cylon among chas, Rich (his old friend), and me. Soon after, though, a check had an impossible number of bad cards, and one of the players (Jay) said he had played some bad cards because he was bored (which might have had something to do with all the attacks Madame Mystic averted). Of course, he immediately was accused by chas of Cylonism, an accusation which I took advantage of as soon as I could. After Rich had Revealed himself, and after Sleepers Awake, I had a moment to go to Headquarters and do the Brig thing. The human players were short on cards so I was tempted to incarcerate either chas or the Admiral (Jim, chas' cousin). But I was afraid that, given chas' clear innocence and no previous sign that Jim was anything but a human, doing everything chas suggested, I was sure that an attempt to throw one of them into the Brig would convince everyone that I was a Sleeper. So I accused Jay, based on chas' previous accusation, and he went to the Brig. Jim afterwards lamented that he couldn't believe how totally he was taken in by my gambit.

To address the latter confusion. At the end, I had some things to coordinate. First, I had the character with Moral Compass, so I could force a character to make a different decision on a crisis card from the one he had just made. Secondly, I had Executive Decision, where i could give another player an immediate turn. Morale was down to 3, and my Cylon card would knock it down one more when I Revealed. So, I had to wait for a Crisis that had a choice, so I could force a bad decision, then Reveal myself to be a Cylon (lowering Morale) immediately, as I'd blown my cover, and give the other Cylon the Executive Decision card so he could take two turns and finish the gullible humans off!
</IMG></IMG>

[Hackmaster +12]

Sorry, not a legal move. when you reveal as a cylon, you do several things, including getting your Super Crisis, and then your turn ends. Even if you had another action coming from a E.O., it is skipped.
You're absolutely right, and that's what I get for posting without double-checking the rulebook. Still, it didn't make sense as written. :)

Secondly, I had Executive Decision, where i could give another player an immediate turn. Morale was down to 3, and my Cylon card would knock it down one more when I Revealed. So, I had to wait for a Crisis that had a choice, so I could force a bad decision, then Reveal myself to be a Cylon (lowering Morale) immediately, as I'd blown my cover, and give the other Cylon the Executive Decision card so he could take two turns and finish the gullible humans off!And speaking of posting without double-checking the rules... If the card you are referring to is Executive Order, then that card is played as an action. It sounds like you used your Once Per Game ability, then used your action to reveal. You should not have been able to play an Executive Order on anyone, especially since revealed cylons cannot use skills or abilities printed on skill cards.

(Not trying to imply that you cheated or anything like that, just trying to help.)

[kolakoski]

Well met!

Ah! I don't know what I did! It seemed legal at the time. But, if I'm an evil Cylon, aren't I supposed to cheat?

[peteparkerh]

After my scaper of the week interview, I guess I should be following this thread more. Love to play BSG. If any of you are in the Philly area, would love to play?

[chas]

;) I've now got my own copy, and a third game is scheduled. Here are some comments:

1. We're going to have players take different characters instead of Adama, Roselyn, and Apollo--who have been the favorites so far!

2. No one, including myself, has been careful about applying their own character's weakness! So I'm going to circulate a list of Character Weaknesses, so we can keep each other honest!

3. Everyone wants to try this game, and we'll be initiating still more players next time!

Revised 7/23: Today I will play my third Battlestar Galactica with 4 players--previously I've tried it with 6 and 5 players. We're going to leave out Roslyn, Adama, and Apollo, as they always get picked first so far. I've added a Character Weakness List to my Player Aid, as everyone always forgets theirs as noted above. And my newest addition is a Board Location Summary for those of us with weak eyes or who have to read the board upside down or sideways.

Has anyone tried the two expansions?

[LilMoochie]

Last night I played a 4 player game. We humans were doing great at the midpoint. Then at the Sleeper Agent phase I became a sympathizer and things started to go downhill fast. Thing is- I couldn't figure out who the other cylon was. As things got worse and worse I kept saying, "You know- this would be a really great time to reveal yourself if you were a cylon... " but no one reveled themself. I was getting frustrated because I figured they were just confused about the rules or being a crappy cylon. Turns out I screwed up on the Loyalty Deck and didn't put a "You are a Cylon" card. :duh:

Still- this game is hard. With nobody working against us in the beginning and only me in the second half the humans still lost. I managed to get 3 boarding parties on them so even when they jumped from the massive fleet they weren't out of the woods. They were probably 1 or 2 turns from winning.

What are we doing wrong that it's so hard for the humans?

The reviews on Amazon for the Pegasus expansion were mixed. Some reviews said it was great and some said that the balance is a little off- making games a little more predicatable. I was thinking about adding it to round out my Battleship Galaxies Coolstuffinc order to $100 for free shipping. (Dungeon Run is still a preorder :( )

[Hahma]

I played BSG for the first time last friday with 5 players and only 1 person had played before. There was a sympathizer early on and no cylons early on. Then at the halfway mark 2 people became cylons and then it was 3-2 against the humans so we humans lost with one jump to go. From what someone told me afterward, you really shouldn't have a sympathizer with a bunch of noobs playing the first game.

I don't know how your humans lost LilMoochie since they should have had plenty of votes in the challenges?

[LilMoochie]

Not that I'm in any position to judge ('cause I muffed the rules in my game), but the Sympathizer's only supposed to be used in 4 and 6 player games. The Sympathizer is an equalizer; nobody can be dealt the Sympathizer card until the half-way point (Sleeper Agent Phase) and serves to tilt the game to fairness. If, at the half-way point of a 4 player game, the cylons are winning, it becomes 3 on 1 favoring the humans. The Sympathizer is thrown in the brig and solemnly promises to never do it again and can usually get out next turn. If the humans are winning, it becomes 2 on 2 and the Sympathizer becomes a revealed Cylon (but no Super Crisis card :( )

So here's the basic problem we had in our game with Rosslyn, Lee Adama, Helo, and Tyrol. In the beginning it was 4 on 0, favoring the humans. We had minor crises that we resolved fairly easily. Every once in a while you get a crisis that gives you two stinky options; lose 1 fuel or 1 population and 1 morale or something like that. That sort of attrition can get you down, especially when those crisis cards activate raiders/ basestars but don't advance the jump counter.

Even still- we're doing pretty well. Then at the half point I'm (Lee Adama) dealt the sympathizer and things go south quick. Now I can sabotage skill checks 1 card at a time and when the Destiny Deck swings the right way I actually do some damage that way. People are throwing cards away like mad to pass the skill checks because they can't afford to lose any more fuel or food and then they don't have enough for the next crisis. Then, BANG! all of a sudden we drew back-to back Cylon Attack Crises. So now there's 2 basestars and so many Raiders and Heavy Raiders that we ran out of pieces. Now I, as the sympathizer, mosey on over to the "Cylon Fleet" space and can activate whichever portion of the Cylon Fleet I want. Because EVERYTHING is in play, nearly every crisis card does some damage. They can't launch vipers because Command is down. Raiders are wrecking the fleet and heavy raiders are ridiculously close to boarding. Their only hope is to jump away and they have 2 more jump counters to get before they can even think about risking 3 pop to jump. It happened several times where the challenge was a (for example) "blue green 10" (needing blue and green to pass) and two of the three humans had nothing to contribute, having either just spent those cards or not being part of their skillset.

They did finally jump the ship (Risked 3 pop and won it) but the three cylon boarding parties kept them too busy to think about anything else.

I have a feeling that the secret of the game has to do with really exploiting your character's strengths and special powers. I also think that success lies in using your low number cards for their powers, not for skill checks. Executive Order 1 (allowing another player to take 2 actions), for example, is more valuable when played than adding one measly point to a skill check that you might fail anyway.

[Hahma]

Ah, well then the guy teaching us the game messed up by having the sympathizer dealt early on. Then when the 2 cylon cards came out at the halfway point, it was really rough.

We had basestars and fighter trouble early on like crazy but got to jump just in time. I was ticked because I was Apollo and didn't even get to attack the clyon ships because it wasn't prudent that turn and then we jump and they're gone.

I agree to use low number cards for the powers and save the high numbered ones for skill challenges. I would have liked to maximize Apollo's one time take 6 actions with unmaned fighters, but that never worked out. :(

I wish a more experienced player taught us rather than the guy that had only played it 3 times. There is another guy in our group that knows the rules backward and forward, but he was busy playing a different game when we started BSG.

[LilMoochie]

Meh- the true test is whether you had fun or not. Think of it as a house rule that you'll change for next time. Our House rule is that everyone has to talk like their character. We all fight over Saul:

*Saul's voice*
"I don't care who your frakking, soldier as long as you do your gods-damn duty. Now get me another beer before the old man realizes it's his turn."

;)