by guestid1250
This is my first session report here.
I'm reporting on what was approximately my 15th play of the base game since first learning about and buying Battlestar Galactica a little over 3 months ago. (I've also played base + Pegasus + Exodus about 7 times.)This is a long report but I've broken it up into segments for easier reading. If you have suggestions on how to improve the organization, content, etc. for my next session report, please let me know.
The Setup
Two of my lawyer buddies and I were hoping for a "sweet spot" 5-player matchup but weren't able to nab a 5th player, and ended up with only 4. With it being the night before Thanksgiving, however, we were just glad to be playing. Our 4th player, Steve, was playing his 2nd game, while my other two friends were on about their 5th game.
I set up the game; while waiting for Steve to show up, my friends Liz and Tom encouraged me to select a character first because I usually let other players choose first. (With this group, we typically haven't rolled the die for character selection.)
The Players
I pick someone I've never played before: Tom Zarek.
Liz takes Adama and we have a lady admiral for sure.
Tom selects Apollo.
Steve, noticing we are drawing 0 Engineering so far, grabs the Chief. That makes me Mr. President.
Loyalties
I deal out the Loyalty cards and wind up with Doral looking at me, giving me a chance to reduce morale by 1 if I reveal myself as a Cylon as an action while not in the brig.
Although 4-player games aren't ideal, there is one good thing about them: If you get the only Cylon card at the outset, you're the only player who knows who's who and what's what. (In a 4-player game without Baltar and Boomer, there are 7 Loyalty cards at the outset, only 1 of which is a Cylon card and only 4 of which are dealt out when the game begins.)
OK, how am I going to play it? I decide I'm going to "slow play" and reveal myself as a Cylon only if I'm at risk of being brigged, or if the humans are at 1 morale and revealing wins me the game. Otherwise, I will portray myself as generally helping the humans, occasionally with a "big play" to maintain trust, but usually only helping mildly. I'll try to overplay into skill checks from time to time, and will "spike" a check only with very good reason, such as to avoid allowing someone to look at a loyalty card.
Pre-Sleeper Phase
Tom decides to go out on a scouting mission early in the game, rolling successfully to have a look at the top card of the destination deck. He keeps it there, saying it's a "good" card. I wait until my second turn to scout, and roll successfully to see the same destination card Tom saw. It's a 3 for 3: Go a distance of 3 in exchange for 3 fuel. I quickly bury the card, almost reflexively. Tom's eyes open widely; something seems amiss. He immediately suspects me of being a Cylon. I coolly and confidently note (without violating secrecy rules) that the card is actually "bad." After a pause, I remark, "We should keep in mind we only start with 8 fuel." Seeing that no one else seems concerned about me, Tom backs down.
The humans do fairly well, getting two Cylon Attack Cards spaced far enough apart in time, and with Cylon ship placements mainly toward the front and front-starboard corner of Galactica, so that the civilian ships are not really under grave threat. Also, Liz fires off an early nuke to wipe out the basestar + 3 raiders that began the game in front of Galactica. I later suggest that Steve consider using Communications to move the civilian ships to even safer positions; Tom approves, commenting that my advice was "pro-human."
Although the civvies aren't ever really threatened in this phase of our game, the toasters do manage to get two centurions at the start of the boarding track, thanks to one of the Cylon Attack Cards that places a heavy raider in front of Galactica, followed by back-to-back activations of heavy raiders and a crisis that fails and requires another centurion to be placed.
In this phase of the game, I park myself on the President's Office but am careful not to horde Quorum cards, holding 5 at one point but playing Accept Prophecy to quickly drop myself to 4 cards. (Accept Prophecy increases the Administration skill check from 5 to 7, and the Admiral's Quarters skill check from 7 to 9 when the president is the target. When combined with Zarek's Friends in Low Places, I can increase either of those checks by 2 more.)
When I'm not busy activating the President's Office, I use Executive Order a few times, including on "Chief" Steve when he's parked on the Armory. One time, I even give Steve a Strategic Planning card to increase the odds of blasting away a boarding party from 25% to 50%. It eventually takes two humans parked in the Armory to rid Galactica of the walking toasters, and a boarding party never gets beyond the second space on the track. That's OK; I'd rather win this one through a hard slog.
Oh, and one time (after the centurions are gone), to show I'm a tough president I use an Authorization of Brutal Force card to wipe out 3 raiders. I then happily place that card at the bottom of the deck, knowing it won't be coming back again for awhile, if at all (though I know there is more than one copy of that card in the Quorum deck).We jump twice with a distance of 2 each time. After the first jump, I suggest that we "must" have 4 humans playing in this phase of the game. Everything is "in the blue," with all resources well above the halfway points: Fuel at 5, Food at 7, Morale at 8, and Population at 10.
Sleeper Phase
Steve draws the Sympathizer card and immediately reveals it. Steve sits to my right, so we have back-to-back Cylons (though I'm currently the only one who knows that fact).
Post-Sleeper Phase
On her second turn after the Sleeper Phase, Liz decides to activate Administration. She has a tendency to do that shortly after the Sleeper Phase in games she plays in our group, and I guess I've never asked her why. Perhaps she wants to see my Quorum cards "just to make sure" I was playing optimally and not holding back.
Tom raises some doubt about Liz's decision, and wonders whether she should go through with it. I don't protest loudly, but simply note in a calm, matter-of-fact way that infighting is only going to cause us to waste cards. I draw mostly Politics and Leadership, and don't have a lot of Tactics cards to spike the skill check, but I'm helped by the Destiny Deck and keep the presidency, barely.
I secretly resolve to use Liz's maneuver against her, but not overtly, and not right away. We play through a round without any fanfare; Steve activates the Human Fleet location and manages to damage FTL Control, but when we're still a couple spaces away from the blue on the jump preparation track. Tom, who previously used a Consolidate Power to grab a couple blue cards earlier in the game (now that no one is drawing blue anymore, with the "Chief" off the ship for good), fixes FTL.
As Steve's second turn as a revealed Cylon is about to come up again, I mention that it "seems" we still have only one Cylon. I then say something that I hope will set some things in motion for me, assuming Steve has his Cylon ears properly perked and his treachery algorithms fully functional: "You know, Steve may have been sitting on the other Cylon card all along."
When it's Steve's turn, he goes to Resurrection Ship and hands off his other card to Liz. Excellent! Steve finishes his turn and I decide to make my first calculated move. Noting that we can't risk having a Cylon admiral, I activate Admiral's Quarters, play Investigative Committee (we start at +3 thanks to Destiny ... awesome), and convince Tom to help out on the skill check. Not wanting to waste Tactics cards she'll later need to get out of the brig, and knowing there are 3 players following her after she adds any cards to the skill check, she doesn't play any cards. Tom decides not to play any either, figuring that surely I'll come up with 4 more points. He's right. And now we have Admiral Apollo.
Liz stays in the brig the rest of the game, thanks to use of my Friends in Low Places (increases skill check to break out of the Brig from 7 to 9). She actually only tries to break out twice. Meanwhile, 3 more Cylon Attack Cards come out and suddenly we have 14 raiders, 4 heavy raiders, 2 basestars, and 9 civvies on the board. Tom manages to destroy one of the basestars with the humans' last nuke, but seems a bit overwhelmed by being the admiral and forgets he's also a pilot (the only one, actually) who could go out in space to use some of those Maximum Firepower cards he's surely been getting each time he draws Piloting. Of the 9 civvies on the board, 6 are eventually destroyed, the last of which is heavily loaded with people (2 population icons), taking population down from 2 to 0. (A fairly high concentration of "Activate Raiders" Crisis cards come up, making the civvie carnage really register.)
As the game ends, I jokingly eye Liz's 3 face-down loyalty cards from across the table (out of the 8 dealt out) and say, "OK Liz, let's see that Cylon card." Tom actually looks as though he's expecting one to pop up, figuring I had every good reason to brig Liz earlier in the game. She flips over 3 You Are Not a Cylon cards. I then look to Tom and say, "OK Tom, I guess you've got the Cylon card then." By process of elimination, Tom's now figured things out and has that grin on his face that silently says to me, "Well played, sir." I then flip over my Cylon card and we all shake hands. Winner puts the game away, though Steve sticks around to help and to enjoy our collective win as toasters.
Suddenly, Zarek doesn't seem so bad after all ... I may have to play him again sometime!