Hello Players,

I'm new here so I start with impression about Galactica.

I hadn't seen movie before playing the game - I bought it because it was one of two cooperative gameboard in game shop near by. I was looking gameboard to play with my 30+ years old wife and friends.

First impression was I did not understand instruction: too much very specific names, titles and so on connected with the movie. After seeing the pilot episode instruction became more understandable (but even after few games there are questions and instructions must be on the site). I think this is a flaw.

Second problem: rules are very easy but there are a lot of rules which makes it very hard to make first game with newbies. It is impossible to play if in the team there are more that one newbies. You need about 1 hour to teach rules and I can swear that even during the game, on distance 4-6 to Kobol, I saw lack of understanding in my friends eyes - it's hard to play, to feel specific Galactica atmosphere, if you are still and still not sure that you know and understand rules. Atmosphere goes to hell if you again and again hear "how can I use viper? where could I start viper? what this card means, I don't understand". Game is good when you play with experienced players - It's a flaw from my point of view.

Third problem: it's almost impossible for human to win... Board is so strong that I believe that Cylons are unnecessery (for unexperienced players). While beeing a cylons I tried not to be very aggressive because Crisis card made my jobs very well.

Forth problem: This is not problem for me, but this is SCI-FI (which I like very much), but many of my friends do not like such games - I know it's irrational, prejudice, but it's problem if you are looking for game for your friends.

Nevertheless, game is very addictive. I don't understand why but probably because of: cooperation, specific atmosphere of suspitions, actions changes, many possibilities of play and strategy. Nothings could be compared to astonishment of your friend, president, who gave you Admiral post and after few FTL jumps you use your Cylons card.... awsome

TS

To overcome the problem that it is too hard for the human players try increasing the starting ressources (this is possible since they can be extended by two or so from their start value). This variant is also suggested by the rulebook. I never tried it, though.

I can't understand your part about "should have seen the series before playing", since I didn't know the series when I first played the game. Too, the rules are fairly easy for a FFG-game, but if this is your first, you may feel a bit overwhelmed, true enough

Stefan said:

Exactly, this is what I tried to tell: this is not a game for a newbies - you should play Galactica or other similar game to feel the atmosphere and the atmosphere is a core of pleasure in that game. And I must say there are games, made by the other companies, where there is no such problem. Perhaps this a problem with translation of rulebook and cards to a local language? I don't know and I don't care

Rulebook is much... MUCH more easy to understand after watching the movie. However it's true that first game I played without knowing any episode.

One more observation, psychological - there are people who prefere to win on their own rather that cooperatively. My friend told me that he will never play Galactica again because he can't win on his own... and it does not excite him.

SCI-FI theme and cooperativness plus time need to understand rulebook made this game very... I suppose that there two types of player of Galactica:

- "eee... only onces and never again"

- "that game is brilliant!"

So it could be risky... but no risk no fun:)

ts

If you and a friend or two can really learn the rules, it makes it much easier to teach new people. Lately, only one new player gets to play at any given time in our gaming group, making it pretty easy to teach that one person. It's only hard if they become the Cylon. (I have considered excluding new players from being Cylons the first time around)

As you play a few times, you and other players will figure out better ways to defend the fleet and beat crises. Our first few games leaned towards the Cylon side of things, but as we learned how to detect the bad guys and defend the ship better, the humans won much more often. The downside is, the better the humans get, the better the Cylons will get too. We've had many an epic betrayal and I'm sure we haven't seen them all just yet. The once per game abilities and clever use of the abilities during your turn will help you go a long way.

Good luck, and I hope the Science fiction theme won't turn many away. Several people that are not truly SciFi fans still love the show because it is a strong drama from time to time as well.