Battlestar Galactica, the Board Game

I first caught sight of the Battlestar Galactica Board game at the Fantasy Flight Games booth during PAX. I kibitzed for awhile, wandered the hall awhile, then checked back; the table was still full, so I wandered some more, and returned again. This time, a game was wrapping up, so I was able to reserve my spot for the next round.

By the end of the hour long demo, I’d fallen in love. Unfortunately, aside from about 300 copies between Gen-Con and PAX, the game hadn’t really been released yet. October, they said.

October came, I asked my game shop to hold a copy for me, but the game didn’t arrive. I even scheduled a party with some of my closest friends for mid November.

Finally, on November 11th (Veteran’s Day), four days before my party, the Fantasy Flight website announced the game’s release. I called my normal game shop: no luck. Their games arrive on Friday. That was okay, I thought. The party was scheduled for Saturday.

I stopped in on Friday, and they hadn’t received the game: it was looking bleak for Saturday’s event. We might wind up playing Munchkin, I thought.

I hadn’t quite given up home, however, and earlyish Saturday, I got my phone, sat down at the computer, and started calling game stores. I’d already scouted Borders and Barnes and Noble; both had board games, but neither could help me.

Immediately, I struck gold: Gary’s Games in Greenwood had a copy. Yes, she would hold it, yes it may be the last copy. Please bring cash because our machine is broken.

After a few stop hunt to find some soundtrack accompaniment (I’d resisted the day prior because of the theme’s uncertainty), I returned home around 3 p.m.; I had just enough time to glance at the rules before guests started to arrive.

The game has many elements and can be confusing to new players. No single element is particularly complex, and for the most part, a player doesn’t need to know the details of each piece.

Early in our inaugural game, we discovered the first Cylon. That’s when it started getting good. We had strong suspicions about the second, but had some trouble getting her into the brig. She proclaimed her innocence, but then, any sleeper Cylon would plead innocent.

With both suspected Cylons (Baltar and Helo) in the brig, we reached the half way point; by rule Boomer was sent to the brig. Otherwise, space was quiet; unfortunately we weren’t spooling our FTL very quickly, but we saw no cause for alarm.

We freed Boomer, and by a twist of fate, Tyrol was thereafter imprisoned. That’s when the dirty Cylon spy struck: it was Boomer, and we had freed her. Through her dirty machinations, my character, Saul Tigh (the commander of the fleet) was imprisoned as well. At this point, every character aboard Galactica was in the brig. Lucky for us, Laura Roslin was on Colonial One. Helo was righteously indignant.

Even though I was on the wrong end of it, this was a moment of pure gaming beauty. My team, the human team, thought we had control, and suddenly BAM! virtually everyone was in the brig.

A few turns later, the brig was empty. Baltar left Galactica to join his partner in the Cylon fleet, and the rest of us were pardoned. Slowly, the fleet jumped closer to Kobol, as our resources dwindled.

We reached a point where the FTL was nearly ready; on my turn I would take us home; I would lead us to victory.

That’s when Baltar struck again: there was an explosion in our food stores. It was worse than a crisis. It was, the end. The human fleet starved in space, mere moments from freedom.

I had heard that it was difficult for the humans to win; at first I didn’t believe it. We seemed to be cruising along with little difficulty. However, now I understand. We had even overlooked a few rules and strategies that may have helped the Cylons even more: we didn’t know to launch Raiders during their activation step, if none were on the board, and Baltar probably would have been better off if he’d joined the Cylon fleet sooner.

I also forgot to abdicate military control of the fleet when I was thrown in the brig, but that probably didn’t affect the game’s outcome.

Next time, I want to play a pilot, or the president. Next time, maybe I’ll get to be a Cylon...