Post by masterdecoy on Dec 14, 2009 11:20:22 GMT 10
Opening thoughts:
Ok, so when I first saw this game, I was kind of “meh” about it, I didn’t find the TV series very compelling, and the description on the back wasn’t very encouraging.
Still my brother picked it up, and coerced me into playing it, so I gave it a go. Needless to say, it’s a very good game, that however, is also its main weakness.
Game Overview:
As we have picked up the expansion “Pegasus”, I will explain what it adds and how its changes affect the core game at the end of this section.
The game is basically what falls under the “Committee” category, I.E the players all form a committee, and discuss the best course of action for any given challenge, however it should be noted that just because the committee has voted, doesn’t mean the player in question is obliged to follow the decision.
Each turn the active player will draw skill cards based on their characters skill set, then they may move and perform an action. The actions players may perform depend on what location they are currently at, as well as what skills cards they have in their hand at the time.
After the player has performed their action, they will draw a crisis card, this will often result in what is called a “skills challenge”, but can simply be an important decision for certain players to make, as well as initiating cylon attacks. Each player in sequence, starting with the player to the active player’s right may contribute skill cards in order to pass the check. This is done secretly however, and the contributed cards are shuffled together and randomized so that no one knows who contributed what.
This is done because one or more of the players is likely to be a cylon agent trying to sabotage the team, and secrecy is the name of the game. The rules explicitly prohibit players from showing any of their cards to other players, saying what is in their hand, and even as far prohibiting the use of exact descriptions. The rules do however encourage cylon players to lie, mislead, accuse and misdirect the other players to further their goal and avoid detection.
Once the cards are randomized, they are flipped over and their strength is tallied, If the total strength equals or surpasses the crisis difficulty, the check is passed, otherwise the check is failed. Penalties for failing checks often result in the loss of one or more resources, which if any run out, the human team loses.
The crisis’ skill set will determine what cards count as positive, and any other skill type’s count as negative, so while players may not be able to tell exactly who put what cards in, they can see who was likely to have put them in by checking what characters have access to what skills, thus the cylon will need to be sneaky when deciding whether to sabotage or not, as putting in a in for a skill only they posses, will result in the other characters putting 2 and 2 together. There will almost always be an element of doubt however because 2 cards are put into every check from a random pile containing cards from all of the skill types.
The human’s goal is to warp jump to their destination without any of their resources running out, Galactica being destroyed, or the crew being wiped out by boarding parties. This generally takes between 3 and 5 jumps.
The cylons goal is simply to prevent the humans from getting there, and there are plenty of ways to do it.
Teams will be decided secretly via the use of loyalty cards, no player will truly know where the other player’s allegiance lies, and even if there is more than one cylon, they will not know who they are.
The game however uses sneaky mechanics to make sure the human players are never too sure of who the cylons are. There are twice as many loyalty cards as there are players, and only half of them get dealt out at the start of the game. The other half are only dealt out once the team is half way to their destination, activating what is called the sleeper phase.
The first half of the game sees people assert the position on the committee, as it is very likely there is no cylon player at this point, and the second half sees the committee turned on itself, as everyone knows there is defiantly at least one cylon onboard. This also produces a mental state where no player wants the team to do too well in the first half, as if it turns out they where a sleeper agent, it will make the 2nd half extremely difficult.
This also means that going against the committee, or even doing something sub-optimally will result in cylon accusation so the best way for the cylon player to remain undetected is to split the committee into smaller groups, and turn them against each other, forcing them to waste their skill cards and attempting to assume positions of power. A cylon president or admiral can be very dangerous indeed.
The Pegasus expansion adds more characters to choose from as well as the ability for one of the player to choose to be what is called a cylon leader at the start of the game. While everyone knows that this player is a cylon, the player in question will form their own team. They will have a very specific winning condition drawn at random, and it will require either the humans or the cylons to win the game, and have a specific criteria filled, for example Galactica must have less than 2 damage inflicted on it.
This adds a further element of distrust. Are they trying to help the humans or not? If they are trying to kill the humans, why did they just repair the armory? If they are trying to help the humans, why did they just launch some raiders?
The simple fact of the matter is, this player isn’t trusted from either side.
It also allows the players to fly with the Battlestar Pegasus as well, its locations have powerful abilities, but they all have the potential to hurt the Galactica as, it also adds new skill cards and a new skill type called treachery. The new skill cards make skill’s checks easier to pass, but make them reckless at the same time, allowing cylon players to use their treachery cards to inflict great damage.
Finally the expansion adds a little bit for after the end of the original game, once the humans reach their destination, they find that their new home is infested with cylons. The humans must evacuate the fleet from new caprica and escape.
I myself felt this part felt a little “Tacked on” and it defiantly was too short, however it may just be that we haven’t experienced it enough to pass judgment.
Component Overview:
The components to Battlestar are fairly good. Plastic raiders, vipers and the usual good quality cards that FFG is famous for are all found in the box.
I couldn’t help feel however that the plastics where unnecessary and could have easily been cardboard chits instead without any loss of theme or playability, which I’m sure, could have lowered the price tag by at least $10
Pegasus also added 2 plastic base stars to replace the cardboard ones included with the original game, which I also thought was unnecessary.
Closing thoughts:
With all of the secrecy and diplomacy this game entails, it’s important that the group you play with is able to think outside the box. If players can’t convincingly lie, or are too gullible, then game is too easy for one side or the other. The game is after all, all about player interaction
As I stated in the opening thoughts that the game is really fun to play, however, it is a lot more fun to play as a cylon than it is as a human. The comparison isn’t even in the same ball park. This leads to one or two players have a blast, while everyone else merely enjoys it. Coupled with the fact that the game has so much theme to it, fans of the show, and newer players will want to play it again and again, literly one after another. however If you’re unlucky enough to not draw a cylon card 4 or 5 times in a row, the game really starts to chug, and the more experienced players will just be going through the motions.
This is mitigated somewhat by the Pegasus expansion, but the game will defiantly burn itself out sooner rather than later.
Components: 3/5
Game play: 4/5
Replay Potential: 3/5
Theme: 5/5
Price: 3/5
Overall: 3/5
PM me if you would like to play a demo game
Ok, so when I first saw this game, I was kind of “meh” about it, I didn’t find the TV series very compelling, and the description on the back wasn’t very encouraging.
Still my brother picked it up, and coerced me into playing it, so I gave it a go. Needless to say, it’s a very good game, that however, is also its main weakness.
Game Overview:
As we have picked up the expansion “Pegasus”, I will explain what it adds and how its changes affect the core game at the end of this section.
The game is basically what falls under the “Committee” category, I.E the players all form a committee, and discuss the best course of action for any given challenge, however it should be noted that just because the committee has voted, doesn’t mean the player in question is obliged to follow the decision.
Each turn the active player will draw skill cards based on their characters skill set, then they may move and perform an action. The actions players may perform depend on what location they are currently at, as well as what skills cards they have in their hand at the time.
After the player has performed their action, they will draw a crisis card, this will often result in what is called a “skills challenge”, but can simply be an important decision for certain players to make, as well as initiating cylon attacks. Each player in sequence, starting with the player to the active player’s right may contribute skill cards in order to pass the check. This is done secretly however, and the contributed cards are shuffled together and randomized so that no one knows who contributed what.
This is done because one or more of the players is likely to be a cylon agent trying to sabotage the team, and secrecy is the name of the game. The rules explicitly prohibit players from showing any of their cards to other players, saying what is in their hand, and even as far prohibiting the use of exact descriptions. The rules do however encourage cylon players to lie, mislead, accuse and misdirect the other players to further their goal and avoid detection.
Once the cards are randomized, they are flipped over and their strength is tallied, If the total strength equals or surpasses the crisis difficulty, the check is passed, otherwise the check is failed. Penalties for failing checks often result in the loss of one or more resources, which if any run out, the human team loses.
The crisis’ skill set will determine what cards count as positive, and any other skill type’s count as negative, so while players may not be able to tell exactly who put what cards in, they can see who was likely to have put them in by checking what characters have access to what skills, thus the cylon will need to be sneaky when deciding whether to sabotage or not, as putting in a in for a skill only they posses, will result in the other characters putting 2 and 2 together. There will almost always be an element of doubt however because 2 cards are put into every check from a random pile containing cards from all of the skill types.
The human’s goal is to warp jump to their destination without any of their resources running out, Galactica being destroyed, or the crew being wiped out by boarding parties. This generally takes between 3 and 5 jumps.
The cylons goal is simply to prevent the humans from getting there, and there are plenty of ways to do it.
Teams will be decided secretly via the use of loyalty cards, no player will truly know where the other player’s allegiance lies, and even if there is more than one cylon, they will not know who they are.
The game however uses sneaky mechanics to make sure the human players are never too sure of who the cylons are. There are twice as many loyalty cards as there are players, and only half of them get dealt out at the start of the game. The other half are only dealt out once the team is half way to their destination, activating what is called the sleeper phase.
The first half of the game sees people assert the position on the committee, as it is very likely there is no cylon player at this point, and the second half sees the committee turned on itself, as everyone knows there is defiantly at least one cylon onboard. This also produces a mental state where no player wants the team to do too well in the first half, as if it turns out they where a sleeper agent, it will make the 2nd half extremely difficult.
This also means that going against the committee, or even doing something sub-optimally will result in cylon accusation so the best way for the cylon player to remain undetected is to split the committee into smaller groups, and turn them against each other, forcing them to waste their skill cards and attempting to assume positions of power. A cylon president or admiral can be very dangerous indeed.
The Pegasus expansion adds more characters to choose from as well as the ability for one of the player to choose to be what is called a cylon leader at the start of the game. While everyone knows that this player is a cylon, the player in question will form their own team. They will have a very specific winning condition drawn at random, and it will require either the humans or the cylons to win the game, and have a specific criteria filled, for example Galactica must have less than 2 damage inflicted on it.
This adds a further element of distrust. Are they trying to help the humans or not? If they are trying to kill the humans, why did they just repair the armory? If they are trying to help the humans, why did they just launch some raiders?
The simple fact of the matter is, this player isn’t trusted from either side.
It also allows the players to fly with the Battlestar Pegasus as well, its locations have powerful abilities, but they all have the potential to hurt the Galactica as, it also adds new skill cards and a new skill type called treachery. The new skill cards make skill’s checks easier to pass, but make them reckless at the same time, allowing cylon players to use their treachery cards to inflict great damage.
Finally the expansion adds a little bit for after the end of the original game, once the humans reach their destination, they find that their new home is infested with cylons. The humans must evacuate the fleet from new caprica and escape.
I myself felt this part felt a little “Tacked on” and it defiantly was too short, however it may just be that we haven’t experienced it enough to pass judgment.
Component Overview:
The components to Battlestar are fairly good. Plastic raiders, vipers and the usual good quality cards that FFG is famous for are all found in the box.
I couldn’t help feel however that the plastics where unnecessary and could have easily been cardboard chits instead without any loss of theme or playability, which I’m sure, could have lowered the price tag by at least $10
Pegasus also added 2 plastic base stars to replace the cardboard ones included with the original game, which I also thought was unnecessary.
Closing thoughts:
With all of the secrecy and diplomacy this game entails, it’s important that the group you play with is able to think outside the box. If players can’t convincingly lie, or are too gullible, then game is too easy for one side or the other. The game is after all, all about player interaction
As I stated in the opening thoughts that the game is really fun to play, however, it is a lot more fun to play as a cylon than it is as a human. The comparison isn’t even in the same ball park. This leads to one or two players have a blast, while everyone else merely enjoys it. Coupled with the fact that the game has so much theme to it, fans of the show, and newer players will want to play it again and again, literly one after another. however If you’re unlucky enough to not draw a cylon card 4 or 5 times in a row, the game really starts to chug, and the more experienced players will just be going through the motions.
This is mitigated somewhat by the Pegasus expansion, but the game will defiantly burn itself out sooner rather than later.
Components: 3/5
Game play: 4/5
Replay Potential: 3/5
Theme: 5/5
Price: 3/5
Overall: 3/5
PM me if you would like to play a demo game
