Why is it Lee and his "Alert Viper Pilot" ability keeps getting worse every expansion? First in Pegasus, he is denied from jumping into a viper if he finds himself on Pegasus when the Cylons attack. Now, in Exodus, vipers never get placed when the Cylons attack making his ability completely worthless. I mean, I guess if someone uses the CAG's first action or Command to launch vipers he can jump into one, but he could just be XO'ed for pretty much the same effect and that doesn't seem very "alert" to me.

I'm thinking our group will probably make a house rule to have Lee be able to Launch and pilot a viper and get 1 action whenever the Cylons Auto Attack from the Pursuit Track just to make him viable again....

XO someone, command, launch 2 vipers, lee jumps in a viper.

Someone else uses command, see above.

Apollo uses command, launches 2 vipers, jumps in one and takes an action (quite possibly another unmanned viper activation if CAG)

Now that there are no attack crisis cards when using the cylon fleet board, you can actually see when the cylons are coming, its not much of a surprise anymore, so the most viable option is that SOMEONE WILL use command to launch vipers, and that's when Lee + CAG will strike the hardest.

It's not nerfed, its just a new way to play.

how was he nerfed in pegasus? you know that pegasus is treated the same way as galactica, right?

after rereading rules and faq this is actually not true. however found i something interesting about lee in the faq: he can use his ability from everywhere except the brig. thats rather interesting in comparison to his sheet.

on another note the cylon who brigs a human on galactica is screwed when noone is on galactica then?

Just a note. He's not a viper pilot that's alert he's a pilot that flys the alert vipers.

I kind of agree with everyone. I agree with Vonpenguin on the grammaticality of "alert" and Turric4n about the rules of jumping out in a viper from Pegasus. On the other hand, I also agree with the OP that Apollo does seem to me to be taking a hit in this set. The absence of maps dings his ability, and his randomly discarding is going to hurt more now that there are these power 6's that players are going to want to horde for extended periods of time. And I know he's CAG and that could be seen as a benefit, but if any of the "CAG chooses" cards force the CAG to discard, or even have it as an option, then that hurts him.

I wouldn't say the sky's falling, but I do think Apollo's stock dips just a little with Exodus.

Other winners and losers, in my opinion:

WINNERS:

• pilots, mechanics, Dee (what they do is more important w/ Cylon Fleet)
• Tom Zarek, William Adama (because the people above them in their respective lines of succession are less attractive, they become more attractive)
• good players (it seems like a skilled player will be more likely to put the new power cards and options to good use)

LOSERS:

• Laura Roslin, Starbuck, Boomer, Launch Scout (w/ Cylon Fleet, there's no need to scout for maps, so abilities that do so matter less)
• Gaius, Boomer (drawing extra YANAC hurts more now that they aren't all benign)
• Gaius, Helena Cain (executing and looking at cards is less attractive)
• Helena Cain (blind jump is slightly less ridiculous w/ Cylon Fleet)

Not to overstate things. I readily admit Tom Zarek is still Tier 2 and Helena Cain is still the best character in the game hands down. I'm just giving thought to how I should be adjusting the values of various things in my own head with Exodus and this is how it seems to be shaking out so far.

Holy Outlaw said:

It does give the characters more flexibility, though. It's always nice when Laura can dodge an attack, but the fact that the game sometimes presents her with such an obvious choice makes her less effective as a cylon and less fun in general. At the same time, the Cylon fleet makes the choice of activation icons (and, to a lesser extent, jump icons) a lot more more important and subtle than before.

so what is it now? clearly he cannot thematically jump into a viper while on colonial one (opposed to the latest faq...), however game mechanic wise pegasus has no vipers, so he can only use his ability from galactica?

same for the cylon reveal action who brigs a person on galactica?

i am kind of confused now.

There is mention of Lee's ability and using it outside Galactica. The FAQ about Lee was in the base game part, not the Pegasus part. I am unsure if it means that Lee can use his ability when on Pegasus or not. If you take the FAQ as saying he can use it anywhere, then he could use it on New Caprica after Galactica is back. Has FFG given an official answer to this, to anyone's knowledge?

IMO, Lee's once per turn ability actually makes him the strongest pilot when Exodus is in play. As Toofy mentioned, he should never just launch into a viper. Instead, he should ALWAYS use command (unless of course all vipers but one are damanged).

We recently played a game with the fleet board where Lee's once per game saved our behinds. It enabled us to remove 4 out of 6 civis off the board before three cylons (who happened to be all in a row) took their turn. It saved us at least 4 population.

I am not sure if Lee's once per turn can be used on Pegasus. I haven't seen an official answer on that. I've looked, so if anyone knows the official that would be great. Our group always plays that he cannot use it unless he is on Galactica.