Hey all-

First off, I apologize if this is in the FAQ, errata, or is just common sense but our group ran into a small issue for the first time last night and could use some guidance. Let me also say that none of us have a great deal of experience with the game, with the most seasoned veteran among us having only 10 games under his belt. On to the problem:

Last night we had the cylons reveal pretty much right after the sleeper phase. They (2 cylons and the sympathizer in a 6 person game) proceeded to camp out in the Caprica location, draw 2 crisis cards, and choose the most destructive. However, the first time one of the "Current player chooses" cards came up, we discovered we didn't know if the cylon drawing the card gets to choose. While such a result seems consistent with the game's rules, it also seemed (to the humans, anyway) that this was a terribly overpowered rule in a game already tipped heavily in the cylon's favor. For example, our food was at 4 and the "Scouting for Water" card came up. Since the card allows for the current player to choose whether or not we even attempt to pass the skill check, they opted simply to force us to take -1 food. With three of them working in concert they were able to tear through the crisis deck looking for cards that allowed them to decide what the outcome was and thereby whittle away at our resources.

The crux of the question is: when a revealed cylon opts to draw two crisis cards and pick one, do they get to act as the "current player" in choosing which condition will be exercised? Again, I only ask because this seems to allow the cylons to focus their efforts and chose to slowly bleed away resources without allowing the humans even the opportunity to pass a skill check to countermand their efforts.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

The current player chooses, even if they're a cylon.

The game feels at first as if it's weighted against the humans, but that's partly because being a cylon has a much smaller range of possibilities. Humans have to manage their actions and responses to crisis cards constantly. Once they're a cylon the number of choices they have to make plummets. Once your group learns the game more you should start seeing the win/loss ratio balance out. Depending on who you ask the game is sometimes said to be balanced in favor of the humans. A few tips:

• Executitve Order is your friend. Use it left and right.
• Resource management is how you win, not by stopping every loss. Sometimes you have to purposefully bomb a skill check and lose a higher resource in order to protect the lower ones.
• The president's office is your friend (some people disagree).
• Scouts are good. Regardless of what else might happen in the game, humans can only win by drawing jump symbols. Scouting helps you get to them faster.
• Higher destination distances are almost always better. Jumps can sometimes be few and far between, and you can win with only 4 of them if you get higher distances. Assign Mission Specialist (quorum card) and scouting can both be useful. While the higher jumps take more fuel, the odds are pretty good that you'll be spending around 8 fuel to go the 8 distance no matter how many jumps it takes you.

no...the game is very tilted towards the cylons however, it kinda has to be. I would say this is really the game's only failing. Cylon victories are usually kinda hollow since the game does more to beat up the humans than the cylon players usually ever get a chance too. Yeah, obviously the cylon players help but the game doesn't need much help.

James had some good advice there but I think he missed one crucial element. You say you had a six player game and the cylons got the sympathizer. That probably more than anything else sealed the fate. Humans cannot win with even odds, you have to make sure that sympathizer is human. I know it's counter intuitive to allow one of your resources to drift into the red, BUT if it is 3 on 3 or 2 on 2,...the cylons are gonna win almost every time. I'm sure someone will chime in that "it's possible" or "they have done it before"...to that I say, "even a blind squirl finds a nut every now and then." The humans simply will not have the ability to counter 3 negative cards from cylons into skill checks let alone the barrage the humans will recieve on quick succesive cylon turns.

Between the game being heavily slanted against the humans and the cylon players, the humans must have a numbers advantage to have a chance. Keep them sympathizers on your side.

Napoleon.