Lee's ability reads : When a viper is placed in in a space area from the reserves, you may chose to pilot it and take 1 action.

Note that it does not say unmanned viper.

Hanger deck says : Launch yourself in a viper, and you may then take a move action.

So if Starbuck launches from the hanger, per the rules it looks like Lee can pilot it also, since it is a viper coming from the reserves. I see no rules against having 2 pilots in a viper. Starbuck would get 1 move and Lee would get one action with it.

Can anyone else see anything in the rules that forbids this? It would take an unusual situation to actually do this maneuver, but it would be a fun option to have.

I play it only with unmanned vipers....

I think nearly everyone knows it is unmanned vipers ...

TomH said:

There are a few implicit references in the rule book which should be relatively explicit for most gamers new to the actual show :

"Activating Vipers
Although Galactica does have mounted weaponry, its real military strength lies in its squadrons of single-man fighters known as vipers.

......

Each viper may be activated any number of times during a player’s turn, but players may not activate ships that are being piloted by another player . Vipers without piloting tokens under them are referred to as unmanned vipers."

TomH said:

That's nice, but it does not answer the question. By the rules, and his ability, as written, Lee can indeed jump into a viper launched by another pilot from the Hangar Deck (he does not activate the viper to do so). It could also be explained thematically as the CAG exercising his command privilege.

However, Corey responded in a thread about this (on BGG), and said this was not intended, and made a ruling to forbid this action. It will probably appear in the next version of the FAQ.

azuredarkness said:

You are incorrect - the original question asked if two pilots (players) could use the same vipers, and you yourself have implied in your answer that Lee has taken over someone else's viper.

If designers had to explicitly mention every possibility (silly or not) that someone could interpret from a sentence then game rule books will become short novels, commonsense is a lot cheaper to use.

I too have been playing it only with unmanned vipers... but reading over the wording again there is another interesting way to interpret it, could lee use his ability to prevent another pilot from piloting a viper? Say starbuck activates the hanger deck, can lee say, no, YOU aren't piloting that viper that you are placing in space, I am piloting that viper.

stwerner92182 said:

According to azuredarkness, the designer answered and says that Lee cannot do that. So your intepretation (although interesting) goes against the rules

Havok said:

haha, I figured as much... I must admit that I'm a little sad though, I would have loved to have used that as a cylon lee.

Just to jump the fence for a few seconds - I was against the interpretation of having two pilots (Apollo and whoever he jumped in with) in the one viper, but the other idea of Apollo (as CAG) replacing another pilot just as they are about to launch is both interesting for the game and in theme (probably) with the show. And everyone remember, it's only a boardgame and if your group are all happy playing little variations to the rules then go for it .... games are to have fun with.

Corey's answer http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/379478 .

Note that Corey's ruling actually answers both questions, which is what I was aiming at in my previous post. Guess I wasn't clear enough.

azuredarkness said:

I agree with both answers - I was just playing devil's advocate with a previous post by saying that it wouldn't be totally out of theme if the answer went the other way ... plus behind closed doors in your own group play the however people get the most fun out of it - 'cos that's what games are for .

TomH said:

Heavens, no... haven't you ever heard of the game police?

They come over to seee that you're playing by the official rules, and won't be happy to discover otherwise.

azuredarkness said:

You must be talking about many of the people at this site, www.boardgamegeek.com - there are so many jerks there that I deleted my account to stop getting into arguments with them .