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So, yesterday we played: Battlestar Galactica with use of the Exodus expansion. And, surprise surprise: The cylons lead by Eywa- triumphed in the end. But really, did it really matter who was at the helm for the cylons? Battlestar Galactica is a game that is, like most cooperative games, very difficult for humans to win. Couple that with a traitor mechanic, and you're now really swimming upstream, but more on that later.
We also played Blood Rage, so I hope to do a strategy piece on that as well. Come join us next time if you're in Montreal. Board game events every 2 weeks. PM for details. Also, still looking for local BW players 
Overall: 6.5
My first impression of Battlestar Galactica was very good, I very much enjoyed the intrigue of discovering the cylons while squeaking by each skill check and crisis effect, narrowly evading the cylons at every turn. The game really seemed to capture the flavor of the show, better than any themed game I had previously played.
Now, first impressions can be deceiving, and in this case, it was just that. This game is really driven by it's strong flavor and accuracy and for many fans, this will be good enough, but if we dive into the game mechanics, we see the shell of a game that is comprised of too many pieces and insufficient strategic depth. If you're not caught up the voyage, it often feels like you're not able to contribute much (or at all) to the ultimate goal of winning the game. From the cylon perspective, the mechanics are even less compelling as you have the choice early on of either playing directly against your victory condition, or restricting yourself to the least interesting assembly of actions on the board.
Game Mechanics:
The traitor mechanic -
Let's start with the elephant in the room: The traitor mechanic. This is one of the most poorly executed mechanics in games, the only games in which it works well are those in which it is the only mechanic (Mafia, Resistance, etc)... However, in games with other primary objectives, the traitor mechanic doesn't really work (at least not in games currently released).
Why doesn't it work? It all comes down to move efficiency, mainly for the traitor. As the cylon player you can fuel the flavor of the game and stick it out with the humans, or you can take actions that actually progress your victory in the game. In the case of Battlestar Galactica and many other games with traitors (Shadows over Camelot), the risk/reward of remaining anonymous does not outweigh the benefits of activating yourself as a traitor on the opening move. The game attempts to mitigate the risk through use of the destiny deck mechanic (made up of 2 cards from each skill). Two cards are randomly added from the destiny deck to each skill check, thus allowing cylon players to remain hidden while also hindering the humans. The main problem, a good player will always be able to maintain a very accurate count of remaining destiny deck cards, thus making it impossible for cylons to actually use this feature to conceal their identity. If you're not playing with anyone that enjoys counting cards, you probably won't like this game anyway. From my experience, there are two kinds of BSG players, those who break the game with strategic analysis and those who get frustrated (to the point of quitting) because they don't enjoy games with traitors.
As the cylon you are either revealed or you are playing against your victory condition.
Player Turns -
First off, the actions available on the board are garbage. Yes, you will use them, but it makes little to no difference to the outcome of the game. Some actions that can be played from your hand give you a very slight advantage over that, however, that also plays directly against your primary objective of mitigating crisis cards. So what does a player turn boil down to then?
1 - Move (you may move to a different location on the ship)
2 - Action (you may take an action from your current location or from your hand)
3 - Crisis (flip and resolve a crisis - everyone participates)
So much of the game revolves around the crisis cards, that from a game perspective, you could remove all of the other mechanics from the game as they are mere distractions from the primary goal. As a human, you are praying that your next crisis card is going to contain a jump icon (the only way to progress human victory).
The cylons actually have actions that can impact the game in a significant way, thereby playing on the main objective: Crisis Cards (without jump possibility). Though the actions are more appealing, there is little to no decision making that needs to happen. You often find yourself getting bored in isolation from the rest of the game.
All other game mechanics -
There are many other mechanics in BSG that are interesting for flavor, but which don't contribute enough to the game in order to make it worth the added rule set and game pieces. Game mechanics that could be resolved by a simple die roll (due to their lack of complexity) necessitate a whole deck of custom cards which increases the overhead in preparing the game, explaining the rules and packing it up.
Conclusion:
The game is very well illustrated and it is easy to get caught up in the flavor, simply going along for the ride without thinking about the game mechanics at all. However, after a few times through, you start to realize that the flavor is not enough to carry this game anymore and you'll find yourself resorting to other games almost exclusively. If you're not a fan of the show, stay away. The game is overly complex and does not give sufficient strategic value.
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The biggest problem really is that not revealing yourself as a Cylon has very little benefits. Even the Pegasus expansion increases the focus on on-board intrigue with the airlock, but it just doesn't ever come to play. However I feel this could be solved with a few tweaks to how does the revealed Cylon work. And also with a little bit more of an incentive to not get killed/imprisoned as a non-revealed Cylon. Now the strategy simply is, in particular if you have a title, to openly harm the humans in a crisis or two, then get put into the Brig (which is costly for humans to do as action and cards) and then reveal yourself - you will get usually much more value this way than you use on your "on reveal" ability.
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On April 25 2017 02:02 opisska wrote:
The biggest problem really is that not revealing yourself as a Cylon has very little benefits. Even the Pegasus expansion increases the focus on on-board intrigue with the airlock, but it just doesn't ever come to play. However I feel this could be solved with a few tweaks to how does the revealed Cylon work. And also with a little bit more of an incentive to not get killed/imprisoned as a non-revealed Cylon. Now the strategy simply is, in particular if you have a title, to openly harm the humans in a crisis or two, then get put into the Brig (which is costly for humans to do as action and cards) and then reveal yourself - you will get usually much more value this way than you use on your "on reveal" ability.
Well, it depends on your reveal ability, the one that can damage galactica twice (you get to choose from 5 tokens) has the potential of sending most of the humans to sick bay. On the first turn, this is hugely valuable on the first turn, it also allows you to play your Super Crisis right away which is big especially if you have the one that destroys colonial one (sending the political player to sickbay).
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On April 25 2017 04:58 Eywa- wrote:Show nested quote +On April 25 2017 02:02 opisska wrote:
The biggest problem really is that not revealing yourself as a Cylon has very little benefits. Even the Pegasus expansion increases the focus on on-board intrigue with the airlock, but it just doesn't ever come to play. However I feel this could be solved with a few tweaks to how does the revealed Cylon work. And also with a little bit more of an incentive to not get killed/imprisoned as a non-revealed Cylon. Now the strategy simply is, in particular if you have a title, to openly harm the humans in a crisis or two, then get put into the Brig (which is costly for humans to do as action and cards) and then reveal yourself - you will get usually much more value this way than you use on your "on reveal" ability. Well, it depends on your reveal ability, the one that can damage galactica twice (you get to choose from 5 tokens) has the potential of sending most of the humans to sick bay. On the first turn, this is hugely valuable on the first turn, it also allows you to play your Super Crisis right away which is big especially if you have the one that destroys colonial one (sending the political player to sickbay).
yeah maybe this one ability is pretty good, but the other ones not so much. Sickbay also isn't that much of a big deal once people realize that you can get other people out using an Executive order (green card) before their turn, which negates the effect. But if you choose to reveal yourself on the first turn, then you aren't in much danger of being in jail in the first place, so this is a rather moot point, isn't it? 
I would just like for this (reveal day 1) to not be a good strategy, but it probably actually is. Pegasus reflects on it and mitigates it a little by changing he Cylon locations, making them less effective, but still probably effective enough. As I said, it's maybe different if you happen to be admiral or president, but your ability to screw with people this way isn't that great. And if you aren't, there is no way in hell you become one, sane human players will never ever overthrow a title holder who doesn't do something outwardly hostile, it's just not worth it.
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I like the game myself.
A few things I've thought about it, though, is that it is actually like four minigames in one. There's the boarding mechanic, the space fighting one, the crisis one, etc. That always makes me a bit wary when it comes to a co-op game because they can usually be broken by a smart player. That or they are very unpredictable, like Eldritch Horror can be (even though the breaking potential there is pretty big but a lot of it is chance).
I think the traitor mechanic is one thing that balances out the randomness here. I also like how the mix-in of a new traitor in the mid-game makes the human players think about whether they want to do well in the early game or not. It also, of course. It is, however, pretty funny how many games these days shoe-horn in a traitor mechanic but in BSG it fits so well with the theme.
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I have a friend who thinks like this - he doesn't want to perform too well in the first half in case he turns out to be a Cylon. We all pester him for that to no end and I think some people don't even like playing with him, because this strategy is totally shit. The game is already pretty hard for humans and the chance of turning is small so this is just not a good strategy even for the player in question and generally annoying to the others. But at least it gives the game another meta level with him in play.
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On April 26 2017 20:43 Heartland wrote:
I like the game myself.
A few things I've thought about it, though, is that it is actually like four minigames in one. There's the boarding mechanic, the space fighting one, the crisis one, etc. That always makes me a bit wary when it comes to a co-op game because they can usually be broken by a smart player. That or they are very unpredictable, like Eldritch Horror can be (even though the breaking potential there is pretty big but a lot of it is chance).
I think the traitor mechanic is one thing that balances out the randomness here. I also like how the mix-in of a new traitor in the mid-game makes the human players think about whether they want to do well in the early game or not. It also, of course. It is, however, pretty funny how many games these days shoe-horn in a traitor mechanic but in BSG it fits so well with the theme.
This!
Like I said, I really think the flavor can carry the game, but I would prefer if it were more focused rather than several mini-games joint together, it just adds to the complexity and it's harder to play that way due to more time commitment and it's harder to get people engaged with the longer rule set.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Z5YROJh.jpg)
