Five of us tonight, when Ben and I arrived, Mike, Dave and Steve were already there and immediately requested another game of Battlestar Galactica.
I was first player and chose Karl ‘Helo’ Agathon, Ben chose Laura Roslin (President), Mike chose Kara ‘Starbuck’ Thrace, Steve chose Tom Zarek and Dave chose Saul Tigh (Admiral).
Loyalty cards were dealt and I was a Cylon. So, how to plot against the Humans until being forced to reveal? I decided to try to keep hidden as long as I could, whilst trying to figure out if anyone else was on my side at this time. I laid some groundwork by taking out a Viper and destroying several raiders; the fleet then jumped to a fairly rubbish system. Tigh became convinced that Zarek was a Cylon and had him thrown in the brig; an action I went along with. I then introduced some bad cards into the mix on most of the Crisis checks; eventually Tigh smelt a rat and conspired to have me thrown in the brig. An early attack from a Basestar had taken out the armoury and nobody seemed too rushed to fix it. Meanwhile, a huge Cylon fleet had turned up and it seemed a good point to reveal myself and get to the Resurrection Ship. A Super Crisis got a Centurion on board Galactica (Frak! – one point off getting two on board).. This went on for some time until Zarek got himself freed by a Quorum Card played by Roslin; in response, Tigh declared a Military Coup and became President, Roslin commented that the Offices of Admiral and President held by the same player were too powerful.
Finally, the fleet got to Kobol. This is where the fun started. The fleet was very low on resources, especially Fuel and Food.. The Sleeper phase revealed I was the second Cylon! Zarek used the Administration Office to gain the Presidency (as he agreed with Roslin’s comments). Tigh accused him of being a Cylon and accusations started flying. On my turn I activated the Resurrection Ship and stirred it up a bit by making Starbuck a Cylon.. On Roslin’s turn, she used her ability to activate a Quorum card to have Starbuck thrown in the brig! (I couldn’t believe this – there was no way he could have known!). However, this served to reinforce in the minds of the Admiral and President that Roslin might be a Cylon; especially after my comments that the action had weakened Galactica ( now down to three operational Vipers and two Raptors).
The curtain fell when Starbuck got herself released from the Brig with the help of Tigh and Zarek. The Crisis card was either lose 1 Morale or make a check and lose 2 Morale on a fail. Neither Tigh. Roslin or Zarek had any useful cards left after springing Starbuck.. With brilliant timing, Starbuck went for the check anyway; without any surprise it failed and the Humans were on 0 Morale. Toasters win!
| Battlestar Galactica 180 mins | |
| Player | Posn. |
| Dave C | 1= |
| Mike | 1= |
| Dave D | 3= |
| Steve H | 3= |
| Ben | 3= |
Nice write up Dave of a wonderful game, despite the fact that you frakkin' skinjobs won. I'm not sure I actually accused Zarek of being a Cylon after the sleeper phase, although I was treating everyone with a certain degree of paranoid scepticism when any of them could have been cylons, and I knew that I wasn't. It was this of course that meant that when Roslin threw Starbuck in the brig (and she could not possibly have known as you said yourself) it obviously meant that she was a Cylon herself (or not as it turned out) and I had no choice but to throw her in the brig (which you didn't mention).
ReplyDeleteAgain great game and must play again soon, so great in fact that I had to go out and get a copy myself.
The mark of a great game is how much you talk and think about it afterwards. Ben and I talked about that game all the way home and I am now still running through strategies of how to play the Cylon or how to play the Human.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you did accuse Zarek directly; but your election speech was ' keep me and that Centurion dies next turn', I wasn't sure what you meant but I liked my Centurion, so I played for Steve. When Zarek got the Presidency it seemed ideal to stir it up by making Starbuck the Cylon. Why? Because Mike had done so much to defend the fleet out flying a Viper; I thought he would continue to do so, whist sabotaging the Skill Checks from inside. Roslin throwing him in the brig was a total - Uh?-, but subsequently worked to the Cylon's favour as it convinced the others that Roslin MUST be a Cylon. So Starbuck was helped out of the brig and.... well.
Yes you're right about it being a great game, I've raised it to #3 in my Top 10, behind Advanced Civ and Fury of Dracula. Politics can be a dirty business and I did like being both President & ADmiral (and I knew I wasn't a toaster), but in this case, what I promised was what I had always intended to do on my turn (had I remained President), i would have authorised the use of Brutal Force and your centurion would have been turned to scrap metal. I wasn't too unhappy that Steve got the presidency, if I had a real reason to suspect him specifically, I would probably have declared martial law and had the presidency back, although I may have had him thrown in the brig first.
ReplyDeleteHooray I'm alive again! I have returned from exile on the Cylon resurrection planet and can now blog again. At least until the Cylons (office IT geeks) block my communications to humanity again...
ReplyDeleteMy first two games of this were influenced by a) my perverse need to be the boss, which overrides even my usual desire of being able to blow things up and b) my perverse desire to pretend to be a Cylon even when I wasn't (the old keep-em-guessing ploy).
I might vary this in future games. Possibly.
Has it persuaded you to watch the 'new' series Steve?
ReplyDelete