Battlestar Galactica

[chas]

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]

Originally Posted by 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!

Originally Posted by chas

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!
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[Hackmaster +12]

Originally Posted by CheddarLimbo

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.

Originally Posted by kolakoski

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.

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."