My group has now played twice with a cylon leader. Once with five players and once with 6. In both cases we were still fairly new to the mechanic (obviously)

What we have found so far is that the cylon leader tends to be ignored and mistrusted by both sides, doesn't really get to participate in the intrigue or table talk, and generally acts ironically as a "known quantity" as human players are preoccupied trying to flush out the hidden cylons.

Not all of us agree, but at this stage, we are having a difficult time arguing the point. We also note that our group avoids reckless skill checks like the plague and tends to do alright without them for the most part. (although we are quite consistant with hidden cylon wins...)

Anyway, what have you all seen with regard to cylon leader strategy? What tends to work, and what doesn't? Any good rules of thumb or such?

Thanks in advance.

Well, part of it is that the human players have to trust a cylon leader at least a little. I played a Cylon Leader in a four player game, and my agenda (Lead them to Destiny, I think) made me play like a human player the whole time. When I began infiltrating, I said, "you can trust me, or not, I have a symathetic agenda." My group is pretty good about that sort of thing though I'm quite sure they were ready with the airlock/brig if I started to cause too much trouble.

You may wish to show the other players some of the agendas before the game, so that they know that not all cylon leaders are hostile, and that they should be given at least some chance before the airlock/brig.