Games Played 26 February 2014

I arrived early this evening and was first one there (actually I think Steve W possibly beat me because I met him down in the bar when I went down). As time reached 7:30 I wondered if we might be in for a lower attendance, but people trickled in and we ended up with 16 again. I seem these days to be constantly reporting new records for the club and this post is no exception as 33 games in February beats the monthly record of 30 from June 2005 and 174.42 player hours beats the 166.58 set just last month, this is especially good going considering this was a 4 week month. Only 6 games were played as compared to 9 in each of the month's previous sessions.

Battlestar Galactica saw its first play of the year, with the setup remaining stable as Base + Pegasus + Daybreak + characters from Exodus (although none were picked), the line up as follows:

Steve W: Admiral Helena Cain
Dave G: Starbuck
Dave D: President Lee Adama
Andy S: Dee
Mark W: Simon O'Neill(Cylon Leader)

As in the previous game the President (in this case me) was dealt the mutineer card and had to surrender the title meaning that as the game proper began, Cain was both Admiral and President.

Not a great deal happened in the early part of the game except for seemingly constant Cylon attacks which caused us (actually me) to jump the fleet at -3 on both of the first 2 cycles, in the first case we got away without losing population but not the second. The first jump carried us to a Gas Cloud taking us 1 distance without losing fuel, apparently the other option was a Tylium Planet, which may have gained us fuel and I think I might have gone for that, but I can see the arguments either way. This was followed by a remote planet taking us 2 distance and then another 2 distance to reach the sleeper phase at 5.  Along the way the President had acquired a Mutiny card and I had taken the opportunity to take back the office, but the game was going to end very quickly from this point.

At 5 distance all the resources except fuel were well in the blue, fuel was at 4. New loyalty cards were handed out and when it came to her turn Admiral Cain scouted the Destination deck, leaving the card on the top. The following turn Starbuck passed her an Executive Order allowing her to use Blind Jump to a Desolate Moon, we lost a couple of population and 3 fuel, but we had reached 8 distance so the humans would win if they made 1 more jump without losing fuel before that.

Now, while writing this, it has occurred to me that we made one almighty stupid basic rules cock up in what came next. Cain had been executive ordered so had another action and for some reason chose to activate the Admiral's Quarters and try to put me in the brig, thinking that I might be a cylon, now I think it would have been a 50/50 chance that this was true as I think Starbuck had proved her loyalty so it would have been between me and Dee. But thinking back I'm sure Cain wasn't in AQ at the start of the turn and moved there so should only have had 1 action meaning the AQ activation would have been illegal. Regardless I dob't think the result would have been any different. The check went ahead and failed, I had a handful of piloting cards which I put in, but a Treachery card (Exploit a Weakness) with a skill check effect allowing the current player to select a character to draw a Mutiny card was in the check, I was chosen, so as I already had two mutiny cards, I went to the brig anyway.

Unfortunately for humanity, the crisis drawn next was "Sabotage Investigated" and the failure resulted in the loss of the final fuel. It would have been up to Cain and Starbuck to pass  the check and they could not. I had no cards, Simon wanted the cylons to win and Dee was the Cylon, who took the opportunity to use her miracle drawing 3 Politics carrds and adding them to the check to ensure its failure.

So the cylons won, Simon the Cylon leader didn't because although he had 2 Cylon allegiance cards revealed he couldn't reveal his other motives. I don't think that the business with the brigging affected the result as the next 3 crises also had the potential to lose fuel and only 1 of them had a jump icon.

Also played was Viticulture again, including what was (I think) a print and play expansion, Caylus Magna Carta and Suburbia together with shorter games 7 Wonders and Geschenkt.

26/02/2014
Battlestar Galactica - 140 Mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Andy S	0
2	Mark W	0
2	Steve W	0
2	Dave G	0
2	Dave D	0
Caylus Magna Carta - 80 Mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Stan	39
2	Steve H	37
3	Mark R	36
4	Mike	34
Geschenkt - 10 Mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Mike	18
2	Stan	24
3	Steve H	25
4	Chris Hn	31
5	Mark R	35
Suburbia - 75 Mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Ian	107
2	Dave F	97
3	Chris Hn	71
Viticulture - 160 Mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Andy T	37
2	Phil	27
2	Chris S	27
4	James S	20
7 Wonders - 40 Mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Mark R	58
2	Dave F	53
3	Steve H	51
4	Chris Hn	45
5	Mike	38
6	Ian	33
7	Stan	30

Full details for February 2014
Monthly list at BGG for February 2014