In what little I've seen, the Humans struggle to win since the crises that occur can destroy the fleet even if there are no Cylon players. Natural entropy definately seems to favour the Cylon side

So what are the best strategies for Humans to win at BSG? Lots of Investigative committees to prevent over-bidding and keep the Cylons down? A couple of political leaders XOing the others constantly? Or combining Quorum card (some of the few that will increase the dials) with Strategic planning?

And the Cylon players? Better to go undercover or to reveal as early as possible so you might spam from Caprica or push the Cylon fleet when they appear? Is there much point in hanging round the Human Fleet?

Thx.

SJE

For the Cylon players this is a really good article: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=317

Basically you want to encourage everyone to make bad decisions while not doing too much yourself, but looking like you are. An example might be shooting at the lone heavy raider while in Weapons Control (7 or 8) while letting a bunch of raiders (3-8) continue to threaten the fleet.

For the humans, I think its best to make smart decisions about conserving skill cards for important crisis checks, while failing others that you can tolerate. For instantance losing -1 Food because its the highest resource, while the pass would give you nothing. I also think that controling the Crisis Deck through Scouting missions is important. By limiting bad Crisis Cards you also deny the Cylon player the *perfect* time to reveal. They must maintain cover and that helps the Human players.

Also good use of XO's is important as well as drawing cards outside of your character's skills either through the Lab space or Consolate Power (is that the cards?). This spreads "strengths" around, but might allow Cylons players to slip in off-color cards as everyone will have them.

As the humans, never ever voluntarily lower the Fuel dial (President or Admiral chooses crisis cards), as you need all you have just to reach Kobol. Things might be a bit easier with New Caprica in the expansion, but otherwise, that's sound strategy.

As human players, I would say some of the most important things to do are:

The president needs as many quorum-cards as possible, to boost stats (food and morale), and to play during a crisis (such as arrest order and presidential pardon).

The human players need to identify the cylon players as quickly as possible and get them thrown into the brig, and hopefully keep them there for the rest of the game.

One other idea I have been playing with is to make sure exactly one (usually morale, since you can boost that one later, or fuel because you get to the sleeper-agent phase faster if you make long jumps in the beginning of the game) of your resources is red, so that you get a human sympathizer, instead of another cylon.

Don't be tempted as a human to use the Population dial as the best sink for resource losses simply beause it is the biggest number set. The problem is it is also the biggest potential loss with all those civvie ships out there. While it is high you can ride a Cylon fleet ripping your civilian ships apart, once it is in the red you are actually quite vulnerable - look through the back of those civilian ships to see what I mean.

We lost 7 population to one devastating sweep of raiders. Well, I was a hidden Cylon that made sure to stack all the civies in that quad, and my buddy cylon activated the fleet that did the devastating, but the point stands. Population can go down, and it can go down QUICK.

Amazingly enough, the Cylons lost that one.

Some specific strategies my group has learned to play as humans:

1) When the board is clear or relatively manageable, XO the president to fill the quorum card hand out. But also, the president must USE the quorum cards, not just sit on them. Losing the game with a full hand of quorum cards is stupid. If the president won't use cards in an effort to GET more cards, it's time for a new president. Adding one to a resource when it's full is just as useful as adding one when it's near empty and there's a thousand other things that need attention.

2) Voluntarily fail crisis card checks that reduce abundant resources and do nothing to help- except for fuel.

3) If no other pressing needs exist, scout. And jump track advances trumps almost everything else on selecting which cards to reject.

4) Giuis Baltar is ALWAYS a cylon!

5) Consolidate Power is usually underused. Specifically, it is extremely useful to consolidate power to draw tactics cards for Quorum Card use.

1 is kinda risky. He better be human.

2. Yeah, giving some skill checks a miss is not all that bad. When a crisis damages one population, and sends everyone in weapons control to sickbay and no one's there, it's probably not worth the 14 difficulty.

3. "When in doubt, launch a scout." Our group has been doing this a lot, and we find it slants games that are already poor for the cylon into games where the cylon never has a good opportunity.

4. Gaius is not always a cylon. We've found that his ability isn't always useful though.

5. Heh, consolidate is used quite a bit by our players. Generally speaking, it's like the research lab, but a lot better. Sometimes players go to the press room to pick up a pair of yellows just so they can chain consolidates in slow games.

Also, I find launching Vipers after you jump has saved me twice from 'Surrounded' cards, again if there is nothing more pressing.

Having someone sit in the Weapons Control is handy too- that way they can be XO'd to shoot twice if any base stars show up.

SJE said:

These are really good ideas. You can also XO someone parked at Command for 4 (count 'em, 4) shots at things in zones with even a single viper. That pretty much turns every executive order into a maximum firepower.

When the board starts getting crazy, having someone parked in Communications is good too, and has saved our human skins a couple of times by using an XO to move 4 civies out of harms way in one shot. I also once used that tactic to move a single high-value civie twice, pushing it out of a raider-filled sector, through another raider-filled sector, and finally into the protection of the vipers.

When using communications, you can sometimes use the raider activation mechanic to your advantage - for example, if you remember that they will prefer to go clockwise when chasing 2 civies an equal distance away, you can get them to chase a single low value ship while you move to bulk of your ships the other direction, buying yourself a lot of time.

Another thing you might want to consider as the humans is how to place your jumps. If you get only one or two spaces on your first jump, then on your second jump consider jumping only to three spaces (esp. if you can get a fuel back and/or the sympathizer will be a cylon). That way you can get as far as possible before the sleeper phase (e.g. you can go from 3 to 5 or 6, and then even get to 8 on the next jump). Of course, I don't consider pre-sleeper phase to be that tough; post-sleeper phase is a whole different ballgame.

Which, BTW, an unrevealed Cylon player might (esp. if XO'd) consider the idea of moving civies too. A couple of games ago, a trusting human XO'd me so I moved the civies right into the path of the oncoming raiders (and won the game).