Disguise said:

I agree with this. I've wondered about the idea of Cottle shutting off the drawback of one character at the start of his turn, lasting until his next turn (this would represent offering the person medical care). Obviously that'd combo well with Roslin, and wouldn't work at all on like half the characters, but I could see it benefitting Roslin, Cain, Adama, Chief, conceivably Apollo, Saul Tigh, Dee, maybe one or two I'm forgetting. Not sure how it would help if he was cylon, though. Anyway, that may not be the right direction for him, but I agree with the sentiment he'd make a cool card.

New characters are definitely one of the componets I'm most looking forward to from Exodus.

Like any true BSG Board Game fan, I am totally stoked to see there will be a new expansion. I know it's premature to say so...but since this expansion does not bring us to the end of the show...I'm also hoping for at least one more expansion after this one.

I know I'll be looking at the FFG site here frequently for updates regarding new features in Exodus and when it will be released. I'm guessing it won't be out by Xmas, right?

I'm looking forward to all the new cards, characters and mechanics. I'm always impressed with how the designer(s) make the game deeper and not just bigger. I know from personal experience that even people who don't care for the show (my girlfriend) really can get into the game because it's just that good, as well as being a lot of fun to play.

I wonder if they're considering making miniatures for BSG like they did Arkham Horror. A niche market, to be sure...but my BSG action figures are too big to put on the board. Heh.

Sadly, I don't have a "regular" gaming group, just a few friends I can talk into playing BSG on occasion. Where I really have fun is at my local gaming conventions here in the San Francisco Bay Area, where six and seven player games are a regular possibility.

I even put some effort into writing a scoring system for a BSG league or for tournament play of BSG. But it's still in the beta testing phase. I'm trying to find a way to balance the scoring system with the game.

I applaud FFG for keeping BSG going even after the end of the TV show (and the less said about Caprica, the better) and I will remain a loyal customer for their excellent products.

Gaius Frakkin Baltar said:

Cally... an... NPC... ?!?!?!

The Lords must hate me... I've wanted Cally as an actual character for the LONGEST time. She wasn't with the Pegasus expansion and now it seems she isn't even a character with the Exodus expansion... I mean, when the Chief is absent from the Hangar Deck, he usually puts Cally in charge and I wanted another **** engineer to play that wasn't stupid Tyrol (I find him extremely annoying)...

I'm still 100% buying this expansion... but I am very unamused by this discovery ...

Maleficus_Sadi said:

We don't know for sure that Cally isn't int he expansion as a player character. After all, Baltar is also shown as an NPC and we can already play him. We'll have to wait and see.

Ahhh, I didn't know about that. Well, this one can only grasp at the straws of hope that she will additionally be a playable character. Thank you kindly for the information! By the way... has anyone ever tried playing a game of BSG via a forum or better yet, via a video chat service? I noticed a long time ago that people were doing something very similar to this with Twilight Imperium (a game I have never played, admittedly). I wonder if this would be possible for BSG perhaps?...

Maleficus_Sadi said:

Yes, on BGG. It's very popular. They've been doing it since about six months after the game first came out, I think. They're up to around game #130 now.

JerusalemJones said:

You are correct sir:

Wow, what an OPG for cally, go cally! I can see her being quite a popular character. And quite an interesting weakness for her too.

Man I wish this came out before xmas, I coulda totally got my girlfriend to buy it for me. Or failing that, as a present from me to me!

I guess I wait another month, I hear its in the pipeline. Hope we get an ETA soon!

The latest solicitation I received from FFG says this should be out mid-December. This was an update on their original date of mid-January to early-February, so I'm thinking the product left the printer sooner than expected (or FFG said "Speed it up, fellas.")

I dunno. The cylon fleet looks like an exciting addition, can't really say the same for the rest.

Not liking the new loyalty cards. I prefer straight up help/hurt humans mechanics. Unless you go through the entire deck and memorize all of the new loyalty cards, you have absolutely no way of knowing if players acting up are cylons or just human. That's not deduction, and sounds lame in the same way that it was pointless trying to guess Cylon leader goals. So it's either being totally blind as to why someone did something, or getting "gamey" and memorizing the deck to quickly identify which arbitrary condition someone could be carrying out. In my experience a group only gets very good at rooting out cylons once they start getting "gamey" (the notepad guy for example), so these cards aren't really going to be a solution for that. I'd much rather they beef up the treachery cards. Those were a great idea with a rough implimentation and tweaking those could add some great cylon tactics.

And holy freaking cow, no one is mention how totally frakking broken Cally is? Either one of those abilities is ridiculous, but both of them on the same character? So if she's a Cylon and executes a human, the humans still lose morale? Isn't the whole point of wrongful executions that the morale loss is a result of misdirecting the humans' paranoia? It loses that whole touch if a Cylon can just intentionally invoke it at will.

Cally's skill card ability is actually even more broken than that. It's a free "reduce difficulty of skill check" card every turn (her drawback isn't even relevant as this ability more than cancels it out). As a human, it totally removes whatever little negative randomness the destiny deck had in the first place. When cylons are revealed, she nullifies HALF of their skill check sabotage efforts. As a cylon, all she has to do it save up 10 cards, execute a human (i.e. Kane before she can blind jump), then sabotage the highest card in a skill check every turn and bleed the humans dry of cards if they try to airlock her.

Who in the heck thought that was balanced?

I dunno. The fleet sounds cool. Really wish they'd beef up treachery cards. The rest looks like it either arbitrarily complicates the game and clouds loyalty judgment to the point that there is no possible way to tell without "gaming" the system. And then there's broken OP Cally =(

GrooveChamp said:

It's not every turn. It's only on her turn. In a 5 player game when everyone is apparently human, it'll happen about once in every eight crises. And the easy response for a Cylon is to sabotage when it's not Cally's turn. It's a powerhouse ability when Cally is trying to become president, brig someone, get out of the brig, or airlock someone, but it doesn't defend her against other characters doing unto her.

Yeah, Cally seems okay to me. I see her every turn ability saving the fleet one card on each of her turns (about 8 cards over the course of the game, which is a little more than W. Adama's every turn ability saves) and maybe it'll allow her a rare and dramatic reveal. Her OPG is admittedly strong, but its main use seems to me to be as a threat or deterrent. I don't see a human Cally shooting people on hunches, which means I don't see a cylon Cally doing so without expecting to be airlocked the next round. Maybe the metagame will shake out different from this, but my first impression is that Cally's going to be near the top of the power curve, but not alone at the top. She's no Helena Cain.

GrooveChamp said:

In addition to all the other points about how Cally isn't OP I'd like to point out that her weakness + her skill draw means she'll have to both draw a SR and get lucky on what crisis get drawn to help in a max of two crisis per go around the table. Otherwise she cancels herself out partially and shouldn't even bother except on the most important checks. Which does make for a nice cylon ability as you can always say "I drew really good blues and crap for the rest sorry guys can't help out this go round". Hardly overpowed though. Ellen tigh's insta win, Appolo and Dee's potential to kill or save every civvie, Kat's mini nuke and other powers are all just as good or better. As far as usefullness goes I'd put her between Near Useless Chief and Psuedo diety Dee as far as supports go.

Is it just me or does anyone else think they could have done just a bit better on Cally's character protrait?

I want to see how the Ionic Nebula function works.

The Ionian Nebula option is perhaps the best addition by judging only the previews.

Anyways, so far they have introduced Samuel, Cally and now Felix. Obviously the last additional human character is Tory as a political leader. However I'm wondering do they add one more Cylon leader. D'anna would be the choise as she is not yet used from the significant characters.

I am still pulling for Ol'Billy, I thought he was a pretty cool kid. Although I get that they want to get the....YAWNNN..."final five" out there with the new mixed loyalty cards of the same name.

I agree with Gaerraty it's got to be Tory and it'll hopefully be D'anna. And not to spoil anything for anyone who hasn't watched too far, but I think it's fair to say that now that the game's chronology has advanced past season 2, it's probably safe to conclude we'll never see a Billy.

they made an npc for him so I havn't given up hope yet

OMG Gaeta seems OP. His draw is really powerful, better than Lee's even. OPG move yourself out of the brig and claim the Admiral title, his weakness... you call that a weakness? How is he a balanced character?

To me, it seems like Gaeta's ability is strong but not too strong. I see it as a kind of insurance policy against brigging. Humans who suspect him of being cylon will be more likely to airlock him instead of brig him. When Caprica Six uses her reveal, she'll target another human instead. Players will be reluctant to send Gaeta to the brig to steal his Admiral title (which I expect he'll start with more often than not). In a way, I see it as another one of those deterrent abilities that won't often be used but will often impact the game in the player's favor just by its mere presence.

As a huge Apollo fan/player, the CAG is probably my most favorite addition to this game (along with Samuel T. Anders as a pilot in case I want to change up my piloting a bit) but not only that, but the Cylon fleet option? I'll be guaranteed to be busy keeping civilian ships in order and strategicaly maneuvering vipers to protect them (or strategicaly placing them so that the cylon fleet can come in and wipe up in one foul swoop as a cylon).

So far, this is shaping up to be an AWESOME expansion. Viper pilots will no longer be bored for half the game!

Toofy said:

Yes, exactly, I was really tired of Pegasus overshadowing the pilots.

So according to the website this expansion is already on the boat....is it bad that I want to hijack this boat and distribute it to all the sellers myself to try and et it out faster? I promise all proceeds will be returned to FFG, I just want this thing now. Regular game night is now filled with intense anticipation over this product.

Toofy said:

Even though it may mean being put in jail for piracy you can count on me to join your crew.