Battlestar Galactica - The Board Game

[rogartheranger]

I have just finished playing my first game of the Battlestar Galactica boardgame tonight with fellow gamers Heidi and Russ – which was a great deal of fun.
For this game I took on the role of Adama, Heidi was Starbuck, and Russ chose to play President Roslin. The objective of the human survivors onboard the Battlestar Galactica was to locate the planet Kobol so that they could learn the location to Earth (and thereby win the game) – but it wasn’t going to be easy as they also had to fend-off frequent Cylon attacks, whilst protecting the fleet from raiders and other day-to-day crisis such as food shortages, prison-riots, loss of fuel and moral etc. If that wasn’t challenging enough, rumours had also spread amongst the crew that the Cylons could now take human-form and that one of their number had managed to infiltrate us!! Could we really trust one-another to serve the best interests of the fleet?

Beset by mistrust from the first turn of the game, our President quickly set to work trying to identify the Cylon traitor. Suspicions had been raised concerning Heidi’s odd behavior at trying to get Russ’s character sent to the Brig, and so Russ wasted no time in flexing his political influence to crack down and order mandatory Cylon-tests amongst the crew. After checking the results of the tests, Roslin then made a surprise U-turn by pointing the finger of accusation at Admiral Adama himself (despite my brave actions to nuke a Cylon Basestar and save the fleet)! Understandably concerned that this was the false accusation by a Cylon agent, Adama headed over to Colonial 1 and relieved the President of her office. Following a fresh set of elections, Starbuck briefly became the new President of the Colonies, but knowing of her tendency for unreliability and heavy drinking I decided to declare martial law and assume the office of the Presidency for myself, (completely understandable I’m sure you will agree).

Under my wisdom and guidance the fleet successfully managed to make two Jumps covering half the required distance towards our overall objective - the planet Kobol. Despite our good progress, Ex-President Roslin, was like a dog with a bone and unable to shake off her visions (clearly having taken too much chamalla extract), she mutinously led a revolt to depose Adama (on the charges of being a Cylon agent) and had him sent to the Brig.

A fresh presidential election was then held and Roslin proceeded to retake the Presidency. This unjust action against poor Adama was badly timed as the Cylons quickly took advantage of our disunity to send in two Basestars and launch an assault upon the fleet. With Heavy Raiders docking, a Centurian boarding party managed to infiltrate Galactica and it was left to Starbuck to reach the armory and successfully fend them off. With the Fleet outnumbered and civilian ships being destroyed, Adama heroically managed to escape from the Brig and took the controversial action to activate the ship’s FTL Control to Jump the Fleet clear of danger. Despite having saved Galactica (again), President Roslin and Starbuck were unhappy and suspicious that Adama had taken the decision to fire up the FTL at the cost of losing some of their civilian fleet (Adama: “Sometimes you’ve gotta roll a hard six”) and so wasted no time sending me back to the Brig again, (“How many times must I tell you that I’m not a Cylon!”). My protestations fell on deaf ears and soon the fleet was left in the less capable hands of Starbuck and Roslin who between them failed to prepare the FTL again and left the fleet meandering in deep space at the cost of moral and precious fuel.

Before long accusations began the fly again that Starbuck was a Cylon agent too and unable to defend herself she soon found herself joining me in the Brig – leaving Roslin to command the fleet on her own – something she soon came to regret as Starbuck and Adama were now unable to assist her in running the ship and managing the various events that would befall the fleet every turn.

Satisfied that the fleet was going nowhere Adama chose this point to finally reveal his true-allegiance as a Cylon operative. Relieved of my command (which passed over to Starbuck), Adama was then flushed out of the nearest airlock! Roslin’s satisfaction however was short-lived as I simply downloaded into a new body onboard a nearby Cylon Resurrection Ship. Taking command of the Cylon fleet, I headed back to Caprica and masterminded a massive assault upon the Fleet. Overwhelmed by the odds, Starbuck launched their final Nuke to destroy one of the Basestars, but unfortunately it was too little too late. Beset by a power failure to the Galactica’s FTL – the fleet’s scarce resources then took a fatal nosedive, and depleted of fuel and a dwindling population the surviving crew-members lost the last vestiges of their moral and surrendered to the inevitable Cylon victory!!!! With the Fleet and their former masters finally vanquished, 'Cylon Adama' and his fellow Centurians returned home victorious - now free to conquer the universe!!!!!! Hooray!!!

[Great Teufel]

We get the facts but not the detail - and might I say Heidi that you hit the nail right on the head with your prediction...

The truth of the matter is that due to supreme skill, good judgement, pinky-promise and eliminating all suspects I actually managed to identify Heidi (human) and Hiss (cylon) in very short order.

I also find it remarkable that with such an extensive verbage the fact that Adama spent pretty much the entire game in the brig a surprising oversight. At my estimate for about 75-80% of the the entire game he was actually 'banged up' unable to enact his inhuman will in any significant way. It wasn't all plain sailing however as we were both subject to his continual weasling denials of "I'm not a cylon." for much of the game - I for one was surprised that his nose didn't grow to the size of a flagpole during this festival if lies. After an oh so short remission he was back in chokey a second time and I guess the prospect of another 20 turns of prison food - or the base lies he was uttering chocking in his throat - finally forced him end his pathetic charade and came clean.

The cylons may have won the game but they could not destroy the spirit of trust between genuine, one-hundred percent human players so I consider this a moral victory for our side.

[rogartheranger]

We get the facts but not the detail - and might I say Heidi that you hit the nail right on the head with your prediction...

The truth of the matter is that due to supreme skill, good judgement, pinky-promise and eliminating all suspects I actually managed to identify Heidi (human) and Hiss (cylon) in very short order.

I also find it remarkable that with such an extensive verbage the fact that Adama spent pretty much the entire game in the brig a surprising oversight. At my estimate for about 75-80% of the the entire game he was actually 'banged up' unable to enact his inhuman will in any significant way. It wasn't all plain sailing however as we were both subject to his continual weasling denials of "I'm not a cylon." for much of the game - I for one was surprised that his nose didn't grow to the size of a flagpole during this festival if lies. After an oh so short remission he was back in chokey a second time and I guess the prospect of another 20 turns of prison food - or the base lies he was uttering chocking in his throat - finally forced him end his pathetic charade and came clean.

The cylons may have won the game but they could not destroy the spirit of trust between genuine, one-hundred percent human players so I consider this a moral victory for our side.

Typical politician - as you can see my dear readers what we have here is just a load of empty retoric about 'the spirit of trust' and 'moral victories', (pah!) which is small comfort Im sure to those poor people who needlessly died at the hands of the Cylons due to Roslin's incompetant command decisions, which I seem to recall you moaned about for most of the game ("oh I dont want the responsibility of being President" etc etc). It is also a bit of an exaggeration to estimate that Adama spent 75-80% of the game in the Brig, and I think you gravely underestimated the extent of my Cylon-will whilst in your captivity! Whilst the 'humans' ponced around with their sissy 'pinky-promises', and dubious claims of good judgement, the facts on the ground were that the devious, calculating, Cylon player was free to undertake the following actions to manipulate the game mechanics in his favour:-

1) Step 1: Attempt to trick the human players into thinking he is on their side by valiantly organising the defence against the early Cylon attacks. The objective here was to be ‘seen’ to be acting in the best interests of the Fleet without actually fully utilising all the resources at my disposal as Admiral. You will note for example that on no occasion during the game did I use either of Adama’s special abilities to help the crew win any of their skill-checks which often led to the loss of valuable resources! Another good example was when I activated the Galactica’s weapons control to Fire and damage a Basestar (for 2 critical hits) when I could have just used a Nuke and taken out the ‘enemy ship’ more effectively. And then there was that incident with the ships FTL control which I deliberately fired-up prematurely to ensure that you lost 3 population resources!

2) Step 2: Take hold of all positions of power within the Fleet and misuse these to waste valuable ships, crew and resources, (whilst depriving the humans of any benefits these might offer). As a word of explanation to those who haven’t played the game before, the two most powerful characters are those who hold the titles of Admiral and President. The Admiral gets to chose when (and if) to deploy the ships two Nuke’s and also has control of the ‘Destination Deck’ so that when the fleet Jumps he can choose (from looking at the top 2 cards) where they end-up. If he doesn’t pick wisely this can cost the fleet time and resources. The character who is President takes control of the Quorum deck of cards which provides a great deal of political clout that could be used to increase moral, food, issue arrest warrants and maybe even relieve the Admiral of his command. Both the President and Admiral are at times also required to make difficult executive decisions when faced with cards drawn from the Crisis deck which can determine which types of resources are lost. As Admiral of the Fleet I made certain that I wasted valuable resources whenever such opportunities presented themselves under the pretence of working in the best interests of the crew. As my write-up will attest I also usurped the Presidency for a short while and thereby deprived Russ and Heidi of being able to use the Quorum deck (which again you will note I did not use to help the Fleet). Although Russ was quick to take back the Presidency after throwing me in the Brig, - they made a tactical error of not relieving me of my command too and so I still had the Nukes and Destination Deck in my possession which clearly isn’t a good example of ‘supreme skill and good judgement’ Russ (you crazy fools!).

3) Step 3: Carefully choose the most opportune moment to reveal my true Cylon identity to maximise dramatic impact. Each Cylon player has 1 special ability that they can use when they choose to reveal themselves which usually results in the loss of moral or damage to the ship. This ability can only be used if the character is not stuck in the Brig which is where Adama found himself for much of the latter stages of the game. Although my influence was curtailed I needn’t have worried too much as the humans were doing a good job of defeating themselves through failure to retain their ever dwindling resources. Sensing that victory was close, (and currently unable to extricate myself from the Brig), I decided that it was worth taking the chance at revealing my true identity at that stage of the game because although I would lose the command of the fleet, (and many of my skill cards), I could however return to a Cylon Resurrection ship and receive a ‘Super Crisis Card’. These cards are only issued when a character is first revealed as a Cylon and can be devastatingly effective as the coup-de-grace if the humans are low on skill points, and resources. This proved to be a good decision as I was able to launch (via my super-crisis card) a massive Cylon assault against Galactica. It was this card which also resulted in the loss of power to the ships FTL drive which pretty much screwed you over!! Thanks to Russ and Heidi’s poor organisation to mobilise and use their vipers effectively (again) I was easily able to get a further Centurian boarding party onto the ship and also destroy several civilian ships too at the cost of further resources. Unable to organise themselves properly against so many events, the crew ultimately ran out of the skill points they required to pass the ‘Death of a Friend’ crisis card which lost them their final Moral point and ended their futile resistance against my armies!!

So clearly a comprehensive victory for me, and the bragging rights quite rightly mine on this occasion. Of course if you fancy another game Russ to try and even the score I'll be more then happy to arrange it!!

[Mykilus]

B******S,
Their goes the plot for my BSG game,Oh well.

Myke

[Great Teufel]

75-80%. Nuff said

[rogartheranger]

75-80%. Nuff said

Talk to the imperious hand as the oscillating red bar eye aint listening!


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