[?] Battlestar Galactica the board game

[Ssadral]

I've heard good things about it, but beyond, "It is a really good game, you'll like!" kind of responses I've been getting, could anyone here know a little more about the game? I think it is right up my alley but if anyone could add their views and examples of play I'd really appreciate it.

 

[Viashimo]

Well, now that there is an expansion there's more to talk about - and basically two almost seperate games to play.

First of all, BSG

Two teams, 3-6 players. Allegiances are distributed randomly (by cards) and you're not allowed to reveal that (with some caveats of course). The humans hope to get to a new home by travelling a certain distance (a number of jumps, which varies depending on the destinations chosen). However, they suffer from a limited supply of ships, food, fuel, population, and morale. The cylons win by eliminating at least any one of the four main supplies. All the while, crises continue to occur with much be dealt with (in the form of skill checks passed by colored cards of different values put secretly into a pile) - any players can help or hinder at will.

While not the most eloquent description, it provides a bit of mechanical / game play over view. I have played countless hours with my friends since before it was released at pax last year -- probably the best board that we own collectively. It often involves good luck, strategic thinking, and a _huge_ amount of bluffing, lying, and screaming!

The Expansion Pack (I've forgotten it's name).

Introduces new cards, new player types, a new board, new characters, and some new objectives. The humans travel to New Caprica, which is a shorter distance away - but once there, they must survive until the fleet can return to rescue them. During the course of this game, the cylons can have a slightly more involved role after they are revealed (not to say that they didn't before). My friends and I often play with 7 players because of the addition of the new "Cylon Leader". There is one cylon leader (optionally), and they begin play revealed. Instead of belonging to one team or the other they can have different objectives which need to be completed in order for them to win the game - this can either help or hinder the humans. Example: Humans must survive, but have less than 2 food or morale. Other objectives include the cylons wining with some additional clauses. I find that in general the expansion improves the game (and has snazzy moulded plastic basestars!).

Example of Gameplay (once characters are chosen etc.)

Player 1:
1. draws 5 cards of appropriate colors from the skill decks
2. may perform a move and an action (play a card, activate a tile)
3. Ends turn by drawing a crisis card and resolving it
a. crisis involve skill checks that must be beaten by players putting in skill cards
different colors can help or hurt depending on the crisis at end
most crisis have results that are "bad" for the humans, but there are
beneficial results as well
Play continues on to next player

Obviously there's alot more than I can describe in a quick post, but hopefully that helps. It is fun, and can be easy or challenging depending on how apt the people you play with are at lying and concealing their intentions. However, basically everyone I have played with enjoys the game (even casual/non-gamers) and can become quite good at it.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Object of the game: To fly the Battlestar Galactica and its fleet a distance of 8 "spaces" and then hyperspace jump one more time before any of the following happens; The Galactica takes too much unrepaired damage, the Galactica is boarded by cylons for too long a time without them being destroyed, the counters for Population, Morale, Food, or Fuel go to 0.

Game setup: Each player grabs a character. Each characters has an (to use DnD terms as often as possible) at-will power, a daily power, and an always on downside. The characters are divided into 4 roles; Military, Pilot, Political, Support. The highest ranking Military character picked for that game becomes the Admiral and the highest ranking Political character becomes the President. Each player is randomly given a card that indicates either "You are a Cylon" or "Your are NOT a Cylon". In a 3-4 player game one person will be a cylon (although not perhaps until halfway through the game). In a 5-6 player game two people are cylons (although once gain perhaps not until halfway through the game)

Gameplay: On your turn you do the following things in order. Note that all this is generally true, sometimes you might skip steps or alter how the steps work depending on various factors.

1. Draw a hand of skill cards from the following decks; Leadership, Tactics, Politics, Piloting, Technical. Each character draws different amounts from different decks as listed on their card.

2. Move somewhere if you want to.

3. Perform ONE action. Sometimes the action you perform will be the action listed for the space you character moved to. For example you might move to the Galactica Guns space to be able to use an action to shoot guns at cylon ships. Sometimes the action you perform will be the action listed for one of the skill cards you drew. For example you might play a Repair card (from the Technical deck) to fix the Galactica Guns location that had been blown up earlier by cylons, thus making it usable.

4. Draw and process a Crisis Card. These are the cards that move the game along and throw roadblocks in your path. There are several kinds of crisis cards. One type forces a player (not necessarily the one whose turn it is, as a lot of choices are made by the President or Admiral) to make a tough choice between two evils (Lose 1 Food and get sent to the brig OR lose 2 Morale). A second type will have an enemy fleet of ships appear next to the Galactica ready to blast you into smithereens. A third type will have a skill challenge. In a skill challenge all the players will take turns adding skill cards in secret (all skill cards have a value from 1 to 5) to a pile that is also seeded with two random cards from the 5 types. To resolve the skill challenge the value of the cards matching the types of actions that are "good" for the challenge are counted as positive and the "bad" cards are counted as negative. To beat the challenge you must equal or beat the DC listed on the card.

Also on the bottom corners of the crisis card are two important places icons may or may not show up. If an enemy ship icon shows on the bottom left corner, the enemy ships of that type take a turn. If a little star icon shows up on the bottom right, the Galactica moves one step closer towards being able to make a hyperspace jump. After 5 "moves" the Galactica can jump safely (less than 5 if you want to risk loosing Population) and will move 1-3 "spaces" towards the goal of 8. When you reach 4 "spaces" moved in the game every player is dealt an additional "You are a Cylon" or "Your are NOT a Cylon" card. Remember that there will only be 1 Cylon in a 3-4 player game and 2 in a 5-6 player game.

5. Cylon Players. Your goal to win the game is to make the players lose by any of the above mentioned methods. Since almost all cardplay and many special abilities are done in secret, it is very easy to sabotage the good guys behind the scenes. One example is the character Boomer, who is the scout ship pilot. Her at-will special ability is to look at the top Crisis card in the deck and decide to keep it on the top or move it to the bottom of the deck. If you are being a sneaky cylon Boomer you will always do this, and then be sure to put not-so-bad Crisis cards on the bottom. Another example of tricky play is if the Admiral happens to be a cylon, he can sabotage how many "spaces" the Galactica moves after a jump. The Admiral always draws two cards and picks whichever one he wants to represent how far the galactica jumped. Those cards can move it anywhever from 1 to 3 spaces towards the 8. Since the card you choose is done secretly, you can always ditch that 3 and instead go with the 2. Eventually the most secretive of cylons is gonna get nailed for doing something blatant. That is when you reveal your character as being a cylon. From that point on you move to a separate section of the board and can take actions that directly target the good guys.

Lots of pics can be found at Boardgamegeek.com for examples of all the above mentioned things.

DS

 

[Ssadral]

Thanks guys. That is a lot better than, "Just get it you'll like it!"

It really confirms that I do need to get this game.

 

[Thanee]

Battlestar Galactica | Board Game | BoardGameGeek

Somewhere in the lower third of the page under the images, there is a listing of Forums, and there is a subtle link called Reviews, that updates the list below with Review links.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Asmor]

Just wanted to say that this is the only coop game I've played which I really care for, and I've played most of the "big" ones (Pandemic, Arkham Horror, Shadows over Camelot, etc)

 

[Wycen]

Well, as for as cooperation goes, it is more likely going to be like Shadows Over Camelot since you expect someone to be the traitor but aren't sure. And there aren't traitors in Pandemic or Arkham (to my knowledge, they have expansions I'm not familiar with).

There is a flaw when certain conditions are met. If the cylon(s) are revealed and get stuck with the 4 cylon play spaces, sometimes you can only play 3 of those spaces.

If, you are also a sympathizer, I think then it forbids the cylon from another space, meaning you can only play on 2 of the cylon areas. This made for a boring game and I ended up helping the survivors to win so that I wasn't prolonging my own agony.

It has been about 8 months since I've played, so the exact conditions that bring about the above situation are fuzzy.

 

[Asmor]

The Pandemic expansion adds several variants, one of which involves one player being a bio-terrorist and spreading disease around.

 

[Thanee]

Yep, but one difference at least is, that the bio-terrorist is not hidden amongst the coop players initially.

Bye
Thanee

 

[lin_fusan]

This game has received mixed reactions with my group. Those who hate cooperative games don't like it. Those who like cooperative games like it.

Your first game will probably take a long time, 2 to 3 hours as you get used to the game and components. However, once you get used to the flow of the game (with all the symbols, the components, and order of operations), it actually is very straightforward.

The only thing I'll mention is that in the base game, it's more fun as an unrevealed Cylon. Once you get revealed, not only are you limited in the type of actions, but it's much easier for the human players to counteract your actions.

That said, I think the game is best for five or six players. Four players only have one Cylon, and it loses something. I think it's because the single Cylon player in a 4-player game doesn't have the additional tension of trying to figure out the other Cylon, and three human brains against one Cylon one is actually pretty hard on the Cylon!