On Wednesday, Jan. 21st, my wife turned 35 years old, and to celebrate it we decided to have a BSG night at our game store (believe it or not, this was actually her idea). For the last two weeks we had been letting our friends and customers (who also happen to be friends) about this event, and inviting anyone who was interested to show up and play. We had 14 people show up, 16 including my wife and I.

Our first game started at about 3:45 when my brother showed up and we had 6 players at the store. We started our first game, which also included a brand new player. Our characters were Apollo (me), Roslin (my wife), Boomer, Chief, Bill Adama and Helo. I was dealt the Damage Galactica Twice cylon during the initial round of loyalty cards. I spent the first few rounds playing things tight to my chest, never tipping my hand or playing against the humans. At one point Galactica had two damage token on it and was surrounded by two basestars and about a dozen raiders. Then my brother drew a Crisis Card where the cylon basestars attacked, and I was going next. I was hoping that both basestars would damage Galactica, so that during my turn I could reveal myself and win the game. Sadly, only one hit, so I waited a while longer. At one point one of the players accused me of being a cylon, so I admitted it, "Yes, I am a cylon." Since the accusation came from left field, everyone laughed at my "joke."

When the sleeper phase triggered, Boomer sadly got the Sympathizer card (two resources were in the red), so we only had one person in the brig, but I did everything I could to make sure she stayed there. When the game came back around to me the cylons were outside the ship, and approaching the civilian ships I was guarding. Deciding the time was right, I revealed myself as a cylon, drew my five damage tokens (all Galactca Locations) and decided to drop them on FTL control, sending Helo to Sickbay, and the Hanger Deck. My wfie was shocked, even though in every game we have played we have never both been humans or cylons, but always one of each. Then I reminded them that I told them I was a cylon earlier, which gave them all a nervous laugh.

Flash forward another round, the fleet jumped but only got one distance (the fleet had jumped four times, and only went 5 distance, so I was sure Bill was the other cylon). Boomer was still in the Brig, and Chief (the new player) pulled a Crisis card that if failed would reduce Morale by 1 (to a 3), needing yellow and greens. After everyone played their cards, Chief used his ability to negate all the GREEN cards! Suddenly, we knew who the other cylon was, and Morale dropped. After Chief went, it was the Old Man's turn -- and he couldn't use the Admiral's Quarters! So he gave Helo Executive Orders, and he moved to the AQ to try and send Chief to the Brig. Chief has his full hand of 8 cards, and I had some high valued red and blue cards, so Helo failed to send him to the Brig. Then, it was Helo's turn, so he tried again. Again, between Chief, my one card and the Destiny Deck the humans were denied the opportunity to send Chief to the Brig. The Crisis card forced Bill to discard down to two cards in his hand, and Roslin was stuck in Sickbay with no cards in hand, and now it was my turn against. I played the Intruders Crisis Card, which the humans failed miserably, placing two Centurions on the Boarding Party track. Then Roslin took her turn, drew one card in Sickbay, and didn't have a second card to discard to use the AQ. She played Executive Orders on Boomer, hoping that with two attempts, plus an attempt on Boomers turn, she could get out of the Brig and activate the AQ. All three attempts failed, and Chief was able to reveal himself as a cylon and reduce Morale again by 1. Boomer never made it out of the Brig, and a turn later the cylons won when the Centurions made it to the end of the Boarding Party track.

By this time it was just after 6:00, and time for birthday cake. As my wife was cutting the cake, I went around and counted up how many people wanted to play BSG. There was 16 of us. Fortuantely, we had 3 copies of the game, so we pulled out 5 Blue, 5 Red and 6 Green cards and people drew cards at random, setting themselves up at the appropriate game board. I was Blue, and there was 5 of us at our table, including one new player (he watched us play Tuesday night, and showed up just to try the game out).

This time, I played Helo, and ended up being the Admiral. Our other players where Chief, Apollo, Starbuck and Zarek. An interesting mix, and heavy on pilots. I got to go first, which doesn't mean much being Helo, but it basically made my weakness a non-issue. I received a Not a Cylon loyalty card, and the game was off. Literally. My Crisis card had a jump icon, Chief's allowed for an extra space advance on the Jt if we passed (we did), and even when President Zarek chose to discard his entire hand for his Crisis Card, we got another Jump Icon. We made our first Auto-Jump before I took my second turn, and it was a 1 Fuel 2 Distance card. But I was starting to suspect our President -- who voluntarily gives up their entire hand instead of losing Food, which was at Max Value?

As it was my turn, and I was on Galactica with no cylon threat, I decided to Risk a Raptor and play Launch Scout, looking at the top Destination Card. It was only one distance, so I buried it on the bottom of the deck. Then, for my Crisis Card, I got a Cylon Attack, and a big one at that. Lee jumped out in one of the Vipers, but he wasn't going to get to act for another two turns. Chief for his action game Apollo Executive Orders, so he Max Firepowered some Raiders. Good thing, too, as otherwise they would have attacked Apollo and possibly destroyed a Civilain Ship if we rolled poorly. Apollo did some more attacks on his turn, but then he drew another Cylon Attack card, so we had tons of cylons on the board. The basestar got to attack this this first, and by luck damaged our Hanger, so we only had three vipers in space, and Starbuck was unable to launch herself. She chose and Engineering card for her skill set, and happened to draw Repair, so the Hanger deck was fixed. By the time it came back around to my turn, I was able to jump early jump the fleet. One Strategic Planning later and my roll of 5 (modified to 7) was enough to keep us from losing 3 population. I could choose a 2 distance or a 3 distance card. The three distance card was the Cylon Ambush, but I figured if I drew a cylon card I could use the cylons o n the board to my advantage, and if I was human it put us that much closer to winning. My loyalty card was another Not a Cylon card, so I knew I was safe. I then drew into another Cylon Attack (bad luck!) for my Crisis card, and Apollo decided to launch himself in a Viper.

Chief gave Lee EO, and he moved and attacked some Cylons, but didn't have a Maximum Firepower, so he only got two attacks and one missed. Chief's Crisis Card gave me the option of discarding cards or taking the Presidency from Zarek. Even though I figured Zarek was a toaster, I didn't want to paint a target on my chest, so I chose to discard cards, but did announce that I felt that Tom was a cylon. He, of course, denied it, but it got some accusations on the board. I didn't know who the other toaster was at this point, but learned it when Apollo, for his action, revealed himself and had the Can Damage Galactica card. He resolved the Hanger location (where Starbuck was, having repaired in on her last turn) and the FTL control, where I was! A good play, and coming from the new player as well.

Now the game started going against us. We knew someone else was the toaster, but so far only myself and Zarek were trading accusations at each other. We got another (early) jump, but both cards were only one distance. Then, when Apollo got his turn again, he triggered the Resurrection Ship to draw a new Super Crisis Card and GAVE ME HIS OTHER LOAYLTY CARD! Dreading the worst, I looked to see what I may have become. Turned out it was a faint, I was still human. I began to profess my humanity stronger than ever, and really pointed at Zarek, hoping I was right.

Starbuck, on her turn, drew a Crisis Check that, if passed, would allow her to look at another player's random Loyalty card. I definitely wanted this to succeed, and pushed for her looking at Zarek's card. Chief joined me, and we passed the check with Overkill. i gladly offered my hand for her check, as did Chief, but she bought my argument and looked at one random card of Zarek's. Zarek, going next, then revealed himself as the other cylon -- knowing that Starbuck knew he was a cylon, he revealed himself and lowered our Morale to 4. Us humans were in a pretty good spot, but things can turn around fast in this game. I did like how I was now President, though.

The game almost hit a snag when Apollo's, I mean Sam's, mother showed up to pick him up and bring him home (it was about 8:00 or so). Sam, the new player, didn't want to leave, but his mom was adamant. Fortunately, Travis -- the new player in the afternoon game -- was able to step in and take over for him. We filled him in on the details, and the game was back in swing. But the game started going completely in the human's favor. Apollo wasn't playing his SCC, instead just triggering Caprica, and we kept getting choice cards over skill checks, so we could save our skill cards, which was a good thing. Zarek's SCC was Bomb on Colonial One. We didn't dare take the -2 Morale loss (by this point, we were ignoring Colonial One anyway), so we pitched a bunch of cards to pass the check (I think we passed it by 10 points; the cylons had to be happy that we had very few cards in had). Of course, I got to go next, and not only drew 5 more cards but also used the Lab to get a sixth. There were some Cylons on the board, but not many.

I dont' remember how I got there, but somehow I ended up in Sickbay -- I think it was from a Crisis Card choice. And there was alot of cylons on the board. Starbuck drew a card that allowed both basestars on the board to launch ships, but also advanced the Jump Track. Then Zarek activated all the raiders, Starbuck got hit and sent to Sickbay, and we lost a civilian ship (blank, fortunately). We were at the -3 population early jump, and as much as I wanted to Launch Scout to check out the next Crisis Card I instead opted for an early jump. We made it without a population loss, got a 2 distance location and one more jump would win us the game. Then, wouldn't you know it, I drew into a Cylon Attack! And it was the one where where the basestars launch extra ships when they launch. Chief's CC advanced the jump track, and then Apollo looked at two Crisis Cards and played the one that was a Cylon Attack. Starbuck's crisis card gave us a choice between Morale or Population loss (we picked population), and then Zarek decided to risk some Crisis Cards instead of activating the cylons. The best he had allowed me to choose an option where I discarded cards, but so did the current player (he forgot it affected him), so I made him dump his hand of cards. My CC allowed the jump track to advance again, and so did Chief's. We were at the -3 pop loss, and there was no doubt what Starbuck was going to do on her turn -- jump the fleet early. Fuel, Food and Morale were at 3, and population was at 5. It all mattered what Apollo the cylon did for his action. I figured he would activate the basestars, and hope to damage FTL.

Instead he played the SCC that activated the cylon ships on the board! We could easily have been boned here -- thanks to all the Cylon attack cards drawn there were civilian ships in four areas, and cylon ships just about everywhere, and a minimal viper presence. We HAD to pass this check, no matter what. I played 5 cards, Chief played most of his and Starbuck her entire hand that added to the check. Naturally, we passed, but the basestars still had a chance to damage Galactica, and possibly hit FTL. One successful attack later, Apollo drew a damage token. And picked Fuel! We were saved! Starbuck for her turn ran to FTL, jumped the ship, rolled a 7. Humans Win!

It was a wild game, and was over in just over 2 hours. Both of the other games continued on -- one for another 20 minutes, my wife's game for nearly another hour (I was able to get in a game of A Game of Thrones LCG waiting for them to finish). I know this was a long read, so if they want to write about what they did, I'll leave it to them...

I'll try to keep this write up short. I was playing the other 5 player game. I was playing Baltar and the other characters in play were Zarek, Saul, Hilo, and Starbuck. The Humans were myself, Zarek and Saul. Hilo was a toaster from the beginning of the game but Starbuck wasn't until the midpoint of the game. Unusually the game seemed to be in our favor right up until about 2 turns before the cylons won.

We had a lot of cylon attacks at the beginning of the game but were able to jump early without losing population before that accomplished anything significant. After that we made a series of slow jumps with the board essentially clear of cylons. The rare times one would pop up were able to immediately jump away. After traveling 8 distance all of our resources except food were still in the blue. This was when starbuck revealed themself as a cylon and took a quick bathroom break. When they returned the game board had completely changed becasue we drew a couple cylon attacks and suddenly all of the cylon ships and almost all of the civilian ships were in play. In the course of two turns the raiders activated and annhilated what few Vipers we had in space and the civilian ships. The first attack wave destroyed 5 population, the second attack destroyed another 4 winning the game for the cylons. If we had been able to hold on for one more turn we would have been able to jump early and win the game.

That's a brilliant idea to pick damage token locations that have charachters on them when you reveal and you're the Cylon with the choose from 5 damage locations.

It must be awfull for Laura Roslin to be in the Brig, having to discard two card to perform her action to attempt to brake out.

I played a game last night. I forgot about the Chief Tirel's ability to take another action after making a repair. I told my friend that he draws a crisis card when he asked me what he does next.

Wow, cool read!

I wish I could find 16 players eager to play this game like that!

I love this game! So say we all!

Quote from above : " and then Zarek decided to risk some Crisis Cards instead of activating the cylons. The best he had allowed me to choose an option where I discarded cards, but so did the current player (he forgot it affected him), so I made him dump his hand of cards."

You made a mistake here during your game. Zarek was a revealed cylon. Crisis card effects never can cause a reveled cylon to discard their hand of cards. Zarek did not have to dump his cards even if he was the currentt player. I don't have the rule book in front of me right now , but it is in there. It is a benefit of being a revealed cylon.

Now the game may have still played out the same way, but you never know....

Yeah, just because we play this game all the frakking time doesn't mean we don't miss rules like this. In fact, I was rereading the rules Thursday afternoon and spotted this rule (and posted in on our store's Message Boards so we could see it).

By that point in the game, though, I really don't think it would have made much of a difference. Cylon Zarek didn't have many cards in his hands, and us humans were walking away with the game. Everything was going in our direction, and they just couldn't quite manage to put things together. The turn before we won the only chance the cylons had was to damage FTL control to keep us from jumping early for the win, and it just wasn't going to happen. A few more turns would simply have just dragged the game out, not made the difference.

Last night my wife played in another 6-person game (I was doing a Game of Thrones draft at the time). Their only pilots were Apollo and Helo, who happened to be sitting next to each other. Both turned out to be cylons! She said that after that happened the game was pretty much over -- the inability to use Max Pirepower to fight off cylon swarms, only having unmanned vipers, the cylons getting two actions in a row -- the humans couldn't recover, and the civilian fleet was decimated, dropping their population to 0.

I love this game.

Hey I just wish I could be there with you playing all the games. BSG and AGoT too.

We have played a couple of BSG games last week, but just 5 or 6 players and it was just a couple of game after a very long time. All games were won by cylons but all very close. I happend to be a cylon in 3 of the 5 games so I was kind of upset, beause most of the players were new and I just ruined their game Twice I got the Can Send to Sickbay Cylon Card, which i thing is the worst one, and once I got the Can damage Galactica, which I think is the best. But we all enjoyed the games and I hope there is more to play in the future.