We broke in my shiny new copy of Battlestar Galactica on Monday evening with six of us getting together to take the game through its paces: Randy, Rich, Josh, Adam, Pat and myself.

Some eight hours later, we tottered off home, having experienced a couple of the best games we’ve played. Paranoia, co-operation, and a fair deal of brig time had combined to give a really enjoyable experience.

The first game saw the players take the following roles: William Adama (Rich), Laura Roslin (me), Gaius Baltar (Pat), Apollo (Josh), Helo (Adam) and Boomer (Randy). I was Roslin, and began as President. That didn’t last that long, and soon I was stuck in the President’s office, with Helo as president (thanks Adam!) wondering what I could do usefully with my illness doing horrible things to my actual usefulness in play.

It wasn’t all bad, though. Helo (Adam) ended up as joint Admiral and President, after Adama was sent to the Brig for looking at us funny (sorry Rich!) and was doing a skillful job of charting our course through Cylon-infested space. When I say “Cylon-infested space”, I do give the idea that we were under attack from Cylons, don’t I? However, that wasn’t the case. After our second jump, we didn’t see another Cylon ship. Between Boomer’s (Randy’s) ability and my own, we were keeping out of sight of the Cylons. 

All of our dials were in the white, but I was the one drawing the card that jumped us, which meant I had a choice. So, I could choose a Crisis that jumped us and sent our Morale into the red, thus avoiding having the sympathizer become a revealed Cylon. The remaining Loyalty Cards were shuffled and dealt… and Boomer went to the Brig as the Sympathizer. Oh, and Gaius ended up there as well, leaving Helo, Apollo and Laura (me) in charge of Galactica.

The rest of the game was fairly quiet. Gaius spent a few turns in the Brig before revealing himself as a Cylon (he’d been dealt the card in the second round). Boomer was the second Cylon (she had been dealt both Sympathizer and Cylon cards in the second round), and stayed on Galactica. However, with no Cylon ships around and all of our dials back in the white (after Colonial Day had put our Morale back up), the toasters never had a chance to frack with us.. Galactica and the fleet reached Cobol, and we were on our way to Earth without further Cylon interference! Go team!

Yes, William Adama (Rich) had been unjustly imprisoned in the Brig since the second turn, but those are the breaks!

Looking at the time, we discovered it was midnight. However, we were all really impressed with the game. I was on holiday, but Adam and Randy did need to go to work tomorrow… Never mind that! Both were tremendously enthusiastic about having another game, and so it was that we started our second game. Hopefully it’d take less time than the 4-1/2 hours the first had!

The one point of comparison between the first and second games was how the Cylons just couldn’t find us, leaving our pilot characters (Apollo and Starbuck) with limited ability to use their piloting skills. We played the four characters we hadn’t in the first game, giving us Gaius (Adam), Chief (Pat), Apollo (Rich), Starbuck (Josh), Zarek (Randy) and Tigh (me).

However, everything else went differently. I have to admit that a lot of this was actually my fault. I was really role-playing (Admiral) Tigh, and ended up being so abrasive that I quickly ended up in the Brig. Oops. We then discovered how hard it is to get out of the Brig, especially when Tom Zarek doesn’t want you to come out.

So, whilst Tigh went on an enforced cure for his alcholism, the good ship Galactica continued on its merry way. Except things weren’t going that well – our Fuel was taking big hits, and our Food wasn’t much better. I began to be joined by other people in the Brig, as Gaius, Chief and Zarek formed an alliance that would control the ship.

Up came the sleeper phase – Apollo was chucked into the Brig – and Gaius and assuaged all of our suspicions by proclaiming (with his Cylon Detector) that Zarek wasn’t a toaster. Things continued to go badly, with the good ship Galactica just wallowing in space without really progressing anywhere.

Accusations of toasterhood flew thick and fast. Gaius managed to find his way to the Brig. I kept changing my mind about who were the toasters. We had Centurions on board, and neither Zarek nor Chief had moved to get rid of them, even when we’d been playing double-action cards from the brig to help them do it.

This wasn’t good. Then Gaius (Adam) revealed himself to be a toaster, and started annoying us from afar. Zarek, sick of the lot of us, threw Chief in the brig, leaving the good ship Galactica with one person at the helm: Tom Zarek.

You experienced Galactica players might have found this suspicious. We certainly did, but we were suspicious of *everyone*. Zarek in lone control is really scary – he can make it harder to get out of the brig. When everyone is in the brig, getting out is *really* hard. And we weren’t making it easier for ourselves. Knowing we *had* to get out of the brig, we started using double action cards to do so. The challenges kept failing… and in one challenge, with the Toaster and Zarek not playing cards, there were three red cards. It was obvious the Cylon was still in the brig with us.

Actually, it wasn’t the case. Rich, in a particularly bone-headed manuever, had sabotaged the attempt, thinking that it was the only way that he could get rid of cards he didn’t want. (No, Rich, you draw 5 cards at the beginning of your turn regardless, the hand size limit only applies at the END of your turn, when you discard cards you don’t want).

My turn, and knowing where one toaster was (on Caprica) and thinking that the other toaster was in the brig with us (thanks Rich) gave the two actions to Zarek… who of course was a toaster, and just took the opportunity to draw more cards.

Yeah, we deserved to get got by the centurions, and that’s what happened.

BSG is an absolutely fantastic game. It was about 3 am when we finished the second game, and were already talking about when we could play it again. I’ve played a bunch of (somewhat) co-operative games: Pandemic, Arkham Horror, Shadows over Camelot, and Lord of the Rings. Without a doubt, BSG provides the most intense experience. It doesn’t overwhelm you with rules and fiddly bits (as does AH), and it allows the Cylons to operate secretly and to really hurt the group (which is something Shadows over Camelot doesn’t quite succeed with). 

In the first game, no-one was a toaster until the Sleeper phase. In the second game, Zarek (Randy) was a toaster from the beginning, but Gaius (Adam) only became a toaster during the sleeper phase. When Adam looked at Randy’s loyalty cards and proclaimed him not to be a traitor, he was basically telling Randy that he was the other Cylon…

…you have to pay attention!

So, final results:
Game 1: BSG crew win! Laura (Merric), Adama (Rich), Helo (Adam) and Apollo (Josh) defeated Cylon Boomer (Randy) and Gaius (Pat).

Game 2: Cylons win by Centurion Invasion! Cylon Gaius (Adam) and Zarek (Randy) defeated Tigh (Merric), Apollo (Rich), Chief (Pat) and Starbuck (Josh).