I myself have only just played my first game (only get to play about one game a week and wanted to ask before the next one), but friends who have played more are leaning toward my opinion:

It seems like Cylons inflict much more damage on the humans after they're revealed than while they're hidden. So much so that it almost seems like the best strategy is to immediately reveal yourself (if you're not president or admiral).

While hidden:

-Throw a sabotage card in every once in a while.

-May or may not have a shot at convincing people to throw a human player in the brig.

After reveal:

-Super crises

-Powerful cylon player actions

-Can continue to throw in one sabotage card per skill test, which is about all you could do while you were hidden without giving yourself away.

So what's the verdict from more experienced players? To me it looks like a no-brainer for any non-president/admiral to immediately reveals themselves and benefit from the cyclon actions rather than staying hidden, helping the human players to keep off suspicion for maybe a shot at accusing other players that don't seem to statstically have a chance of helping the cylons more than declaring right away.

For the cylon player it might be better to reveal, but if no Cylon is unrevealed the human players can XO themselves without fearing to XO a cylon, more or less doubling their actions. In our 5 player-games the cylons had the best outcome with one revealed cylon and one hidden. This way you can use the super crises and cylon fleet and still the humans can't trust each other.

Well the most obvious thing to me is that a revealed Cylon doesn't have a normal crisis step, so no free activation of cylon ships. Of course this means no Jump Prep either, but those icons aren't on all the crises. The best thing to do is of course to play sub-optimaly. E.g. taking the next best action each turn, without getting caught. This is where all the excitment is for my part. Also, as mentioned, as soon as the humans know who all the Cylons are, they can trust each other 100% percent and thus use Executive Orders to effectivly double their efficiency. Also as an unrevealed Cylon you still have access to you characters special abilities, like Boomer's recon and Roslin's religious visions witch can totally screw the humans over. Not to mention if you have the Admiral or President title too. Chosing the destination as a Cylon can be a game decider.

In a perfect world I think you want one revealed cylon doing dirt, and an unrevealed cylon sowing discord and drawing extra crisis cards. Plus having a person being able to dump lots o' cards is awesome

If the Cylon player knows the game and has a certain cunning, he should try to stay unrevealed in my opinion, because there he can do a lot more damage by suggesting bull to the other players and making bad choices. If the cylon is not too familiar with the game, he should reveal himself since the Cylon locations are much easier to understand and do direct damage. I would too recommend not to sabotage skill checks as unrevealed Cylon, because that's way too obvious. If you want it to fail, don't add cards. That's much easier if you simply have non. Declare an unimportant skill check a matter of life and death and throw in everything, and then whine about having no cards until it's your turn again. Works far better, and no one doubts you

Stefan said:

My experience was the exact opposite. In the absence of super obvious sabotages, the Cylon player is always sniffed out as the one who hoards cards.

I think that's why he's saying dump your hand at every opportunity

Oops.

I still dunno. Falsely declaring high or low is something I didn't think of, but it still seems like a hidden Cylon player can't even begin to inflict the same amount of damage a revealed Cylon can without immediately giving himself away. The small chance of maybe throwing a human into the brig doesn't seem worth it compared to throwing in a major sabotage card every turn with impunity and controlling cylon actions. A sub-optimal player for the humans is still better for them than an active Cylon player. Maybe a 2 c ylon game is vastly different? We only had 1.

What's the big drawback to executive ordering a cylon that would make humans think twice before using them while a hidden Cylon is still in play? What possible major damage can they do by taking 2 actions?

Well, the thing is, if a Cylon wants to use his reveal action, that is the only overtly bad thing he can ever do unless he gets two actions in a row. He could scout away something someone else left, he could use pegasus spaces to hurt the fleet, he could use his opg, he could use something related to his title, etc, and THEN reveal.

The president can bring two people at once if the cards are right.

Scout away something someone left?

Left on top of the deck with a previous scout or ability, I mean.

Falsely declaring the value of the cards added to a check or sabotaging it is an obvious way. If you throw in two "1" and say you're throwing in high, and end up with no high card in the check, you're screwed. I wouldn't take the risk, but instead dump the best cards. Especially easy with Roslin, who can get rid of those executive orders very easily.

As a hidden Cylon I like the following strategies:

Overplay a crisis card to defeat it, but you are then tapped out to help on the next one.

"Team" up with a human player. Back their moves and vouch for them, so you have someone who trusts you.

Scouting allows you to rig the cards or lose a raptor; either is nice.

If you are a pilot get shot down so you are not effectively helping.

Towards end game go crazy sabotaging the fleet (use Helo's reroll to reroll successes, have Boomer auto fail a crisis <i think that's what she does>, and so on). It takes effort and cards to get rid of a Cylon.

But more importantly, don't let the humans forget a Cylon is among them, and that it is probably the Admiral or President.

Oh, and try to be Admiral or President. Or, at best, both.