Has anyone played the boardgame?

[Alex1939]

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardga...star-galactica

Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game is an exciting game of mistrust, intrigue, and the struggle for survival. Based on the epic and widely-acclaimed Sci Fi Channel series, Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game puts players in the role of one of ten of their favorite characters from the show. Each playable character has their own abilities and weaknesses, and must all work together in order for humanity to have any hope of survival. However, one or more players in every game secretly side with the Cylons. Players must attempt to expose the traitor while fuel shortages, food contaminations, and political unrest threatens to tear the fleet apart.




I really want to try this. Finally got a friend into this show, who of course loves it and loves board games. We've got a solid 4 and going to find a 5th to play the board game.


This show hit its peak in the big story arcs... mini-series and 33, pegasus, new caprica, baltar trial, zarek revolt. I'm just kind of rambling but I always thought that and my buddy sort of complained about the stand-alones being weak. I wonder if I put that in his head before he started watching? Black Market was his least favorite episode.

[Alex1939]

5 player game, someone starts as a "secret" cylon. I'm guessing you suggest ideas that would be weaknesses for humans. For example, "lets work on hull strength" when you plan for cylons to attack engines. Mid-way through game you draw another card, and someone else will become a cylon that didn't know they were a cylon. So it will 2 cylon vs 3 human players. there are objectives for humans to win 1st place like you can be elected president etc.

Tigh's special ability is "alcoholic"

[Robert Maxwell]

Yeah, I have a gaming group and we've played this one a few times.

It can be a pretty intense game, in that your supplies are always dwindling and you always seem to be one small crisis away from annihilation. All the while, you have to try to figure out who the Cylons among you are.

Once the Cylons are revealed, the dynamics change and the crises the Cylons throw at you are even more threatening. There are "Super Crisis" cards which are game-enders for the humans if you are already in a bad way.

It is a game that the humans don't so much win by succeeding in missions, but by managing losses. You will gradually lose food, fuel, morale, population, Vipers, Raptors, and civilian ships. What you have to do is carefully consider what to sacrifice and when.

The last game I played, I was Admiral Cain, whose special abilities include making a single blind jump that will sacrifice a couple civilian ships. I tried to make the argument that we should do a blind jump early on to make a little more distance (distance being the only way to ultimately win.) No one else was willing to do it, because civilian ship losses also cost you some random resource. Well, we should have done it, because that sacrifice would've helped us avoid at least a few crisis cards, which would have ultimately saved resources.

This last time, we played with the Pegasus expansion, which adds the Pegasus and you can play for the New Caprica goal instead of the Earth goal. I will just say that winning New Caprica is hard. Very hard. With the Earth goal, you have to try to reach Earth. If you do that, humans win, game over. With New Caprica, your options are limited and your goals are to a) get the Galactica back to New Caprica (this takes a while), and b) prepare and evacuate your civilian ships. This is tough because the Cylon players can use more Super Crisis cards than usual, and set up occupation forces to thwart your activities.

The box says the game takes 90 minutes to 3 hours or something. I can tell you that it can take up to 5 hours if you have a lot of debate or any confusion over the rules. The game is somewhat complicated, at least when you get into the nuances of how some cards and scenarios interact.

It seems to me it is probably more fun to be a Cylon, however the game randomly assigns those, so you don't get to pick. I do think one of the most fun factors is trying to figure out which players are Cylons, so you can either put them in the brig or execute them. In my last game, I tried to have a suspected Cylon executed but I was overruled by the other players--they didn't believe he was a Cylon, or that he could do much damage if he was. Well, he turned out to be one, and he contributed directly to our destruction: massacred on New Caprica. Whoops!

[Alex1939]

Thanks for the response and the tips! Sounds awesome. I can't wait to finally play it.

[Harvey]

I've played it. There's a lot of set up and learning time involved when you're with new players (or just playing it for the first time in a long while yourself), but it's worth the investment. It's definitely wise not to listen to the box's estimate of 90 minutes though -- I haven't played a game that lasted less than three, and those games probably would have gone on for longer had we not been so tired.

The Pegasus expansion set sounds like fun, but I've only played the standalone version.

[Robert Maxwell]

I liked the Pegasus expansion but in my opinion it didn't add enough to really be worthwhile. I feel like the original game is pretty well-balanced and not too complicated. The expansions add things like treachery cards and new game boards and mechanics and I think it's just a little too much.

[Darth_Daver]

I have played it, in fact nowadays I'm a crazed boardgamer, but BSG is still my favorite! (I have even made an unofficial expansion myself, which seems to be catching on on BoardGameGeek) You can even play the game online through VASSAL or in the forums at BGG!