Battlestar Galactica (game)

Battlestar Galactica - The board game
Game data
author	Corey Konieczka
publishing company	Fantasy Flight Games , ; Heidelberger Spieleverlag
Publishing year	2008
Art	Board game
Teammates	3 to 6 (with extension 7)
Duration	180+ minutes
Age	from 10 years on
Awards
	Game of Games 2009: Games hit for experts ; International Gamers Award 2009: Multiplayer Finalist ; As d'Or - Jeu de l'Année 2010: nominated

Battlestar Galactica - The Board Game is a semi-cooperative board game for 3–6 players based on the TV series of the same name on the SciFi-Channel . The game was published in English by Fantasy Flight Games in early 2008 and in German by Heidelberger Spieleverlag in February 2009 .

description

The backstory is based on the first season of the television series. The Cylon Fleet destroyed almost all of humanity. The survivors search for the planet Kobol under the guidance of the museum ship Galactica. The refugees have to contend with dwindling resources, traitors in their own ranks and the mighty Cylon fleet. The special attraction of the game is that the players in two teams - humans and Cylons - compete against each other. However, none of the players know which team they belong to. Team membership can also change during the game. This gameplay leads to suspicion among players and open accusations among each other. The human goal is to reach Kobol while the Cylons must try to destroy humanity.

Game board

The main ships Galactica and Colonial One , which are divided into different locations, as well as the Cylon locations are shown on the board . Each location allows the player who goes here a special action, which is described on the board. There are also four turntables with which the status of the ever dwindling human resources is displayed, as well as various storage areas and pull bars. The area around Galactica is divided into six sectors in which the tactical space battles take place.

roll

Each player plays one of ten characters known from the series. These are divided into the categories of political leaders , military leaders, space pilots and technical support . In order to get a good combination of skill cards and to carry out space battles sensibly, these roles should be evenly distributed. Each player has individual skills, two positive ones, of which one can only be used once in the game, and one negative. In addition, each player has a different combination of skill cards that he can draw at the beginning of his round. It should be noted that exposed Cylons lose all of their special skills. There are also the special roles of the admiral and the president, who have special powers.

cards

The different decks of cards are divided into six categories.

The skill cards represent the most frequently used card category and are required for skill checks and actions. They are divided into five types ( politics , leadership , tactics , space combat and technology ) and have a number between 1 and 5 as well as a card text for an action that can be carried out by playing the card. The cards are mainly used for skill checks. These have a number as a difficulty as well as types of cards that are required. During the skill check, all players in turn play as many cards face down as they want in order to overcome the crisis together. There are also two face-down cards from the destiny pile, which initially contains two of each type of card. Then the cards are shuffled and the numbers on the cards are added up in the required manner. Now the total of the numbers on the cards of the species not requested is subtracted from it. If the result is greater than or equal to the required difficulty, the skill check has been successful, if it is smaller, it has failed. The consequences of success or failure are indicated in the skill check. Skill Checks are the easiest way for undiscovered Cylons to sabotage human success by playing high unsolicited skill cards or giving the Skill Check less help than they actually could.

At the end of his turn, each player draws a crisis card from the corresponding pile, which must then be fulfilled. These crises are mostly skill checks, but they can also be attacks by the Cylon fleet or decisions between two evils, which are usually the responsibility of the admiral or the president.

The loyalty cards determine which team the player belongs to. As a rule, each player receives a loyalty card at the beginning and another one during the sleeper phase . If at least one of these cards is a Cylon card, the player is a Cylon. Cylons have powerful actions against humans when they reveal themselves and are not locked up. In addition, in the game with 4 or 6 players, there is a sympathizer in the sleeper phase who fights either on the side of the humans or on the side of the Cylons, depending on the level of resources. Players who only have cards that say “You are not a Cylon” are at least human until they receive a different loyalty card.

Each time a fleet jump is triggered, it is up to the admiral to draw the top two destination cards and determine where the journey is going. The destination maps have indicated a jump distance and a map text to be carried out, usually the indication of a loss of fuel due to the jump. If the total jump distance is at least 4, the sleeper phase occurs, in which all players receive another loyalty card and possibly go from being human to being Cylon. With a total jump distance of at least 8, people are only missing one more jump to reach Kobol and win the game.

Each exposed Cylon receives a one-time super crisis card , which he can play as an action during his turn. Super crises are much more difficult to master than normal crises, and their consequences are much more fatal.

The president is the only one who has the right to draw council of twelve cards that grant him special actions when played.

Spaceships

There are different types of spaceships that are used in tactical combat:

Vipers are human hunters that can be either manned or unmanned. They are used to hunt Cylon ships.
Civilian ships are markers that indicate how many resources will be lost to humans if they are destroyed by Cylon hunters. People have to protect these ships with their own vipers.
Raptors are reconnaissance ships that are not used in combat. They can be risked or sacrificed to give resources back to people.
Cylon hunters hunt down human civilian ships and first attack vipers.
Heavy fighters do not intervene in space combat, but try to get to the landing bays of Galactica in order to drop off existing boarding commands from combat robots, so-called centurions. If a boarding party succeeds in penetrating the Galactica command center, the game is lost for the people.
Base stars serve as the starting point for the smaller Cylon ships and can also bombard and damage Galactica. If the damage is too great, Galactica is destroyed and the game is lost for the humans.

The civilian ships and base stars are represented by cardboard markers. All other ships are miniatures made of gray soft plastic, which can be painted with acrylic paint if necessary. The first expansion "Pegasus" contains two base stars made of two plastic parts each. The cardboard base stars are then no longer required.

Style of play

The players take turns playing according to a fixed scheme. First the skill cards indicated on the player board are drawn. Then the player may move to any accessible location on Galactica or Colonial One, or, in the case of exposed Cylons, to any Cylon location and perform an action. The action can either be playing a skill card, activating a location (performing the action specified there) or your own special action. For example, Cylon locations allow you to activate the Cylon fleet or play a super crisis card, while locations on Galactica allow you to activate unmanned vipers, operate the weapon controls or accuse suspicious players and throw them into the brig. In addition, there are actions that are not available to every player: space pilots seated in Vipers may attack enemy ships, the president may play twelve council cards, the admiral may throw one of two atomic bombs available at the beginning of the game at the opposing base stars to make them even more effective destroy, and Cylons who have not been exposed may reveal themselves and perform the action on their loyalty card, provided they are not in the brig. After the action, except for players in the brig and exposed Cylons, a crisis card is drawn and executed. Finally, the active player discards skill cards above his or her hand limit and the active player changes clockwise.

Playing

People win when they reach Kobol without any resource having dropped to zero. The Cylons win if Galactica is destroyed or conquered, or if one of the resources has dropped to zero at the end of a turn.

Extensions

Pegasus

The Pegasus expansion adds many new facets to the base game. Seven new characters in the series (each with a military and political leader , pilot and supporter and three of the new type of Cylon leader ) as well as the mysterious battle star Pegasus and changed Cylon locations will be introduced. There are new types of skill cards , treason , daring skill checks , and player characters can be executed in the airlock; If the following proof of loyalty turns out to be a human being, this leads to a loss of morale and the player gets a new character.

Instead of Kobol, New Caprica is introduced as a new destination, where after reaching the goal the action shifts to the capture of the people by the Cylons on New Caprica. The humans in their new colony are attacked by Cylon invaders and must defend themselves against them until Galactica returns from orbit. Meanwhile, civilian ships captured by the Cylons must be freed and saved from destruction. After the return of Galactica the admiral can order the departure of the fleet at any time, however people and civilian ships left behind are executed or destroyed, which leads to a loss of raw materials. If no resource is zero after this last jump, the game is won for the people.

The extension was published in English at the end of August 2009. The second edition was published at the end of October 2009, a German edition was brought onto the market on December 17, 2009 by the Heidelberger Spieleverlag.

Exodus

The second expansion gets four more characters (one each from the four categories of military / political leader, pilot and supporter). In addition, there are three more strength 0 cards of each of the five skill cards, which can only influence a skill check after being revealed, as well as a strength 6 card with a correspondingly weighty action, such as replacing used atom bombs. In addition to these general changes, the Exodus expansion consists of three optional game modes that can be combined as desired (also with the Pegasus expansion).

The Cylon fleet replaces the attack cards and makes the tactical space battles more challenging. In addition to the Admiral and President, there is also the new CAG title card, with which pilots can have more influence on what is happening. However, thanks to new crisis cards, the CAG is also required to make serious decisions. Cylon ships that are still on the game board when Galactica has jumped are moved to an additional game board where the Cylon fleet gathers for another attack. Unmasked Cylons have an additional place there to control the movement of the Cylon ships. Pilots can use the more modern Viper MK VII and the mode of operation of the atomic bombs has been modified to meet the greater challenge.

The loyalty conflict introduces new loyalty cards and presents human players with new challenges, which often require dubious actions to be overcome. This further fuels the distrust of one another. However, if the personal goals are not achieved by the end of the game, humanity is threatened with a dangerous loss of resources. In addition, it can happen that some of the legendary last five linger among the humans, whose exposure will have drastic consequences.

The ionic nebula, on the other hand, describes a new destination (such as Kobol or New Caprica), upon which parts of the crew may break under the stresses of the journey or Cylon models directed against their brothers may be put into the box. The mental state of a character is determined by trauma tokens that each player has face down in front of him. If a person has had too many negative experiences in the course of the game, he is no longer able to cope with the confrontation in the ionic nebula. During the game you always get new tokens (e.g. by staying in the brig or infirmary), which in special cases can even lead to the death of the character. There are also always 3 of up to 35 allies spread out on the board, and when they meet they cause either a positive or a negative effect depending on their mood. Then a new ally is laid out, whose mood the active player determines by playing a trauma token from his supply face-down on the ally. So here every player is faced with the dilemma of either getting rid of their own negative token or rather getting a positive effect from their ally. During the Battle of the Ionian Nebula, each player also experiences an additional, formative experience, such as the mysterious return of Starbuck. The decisions about how to deal with these encounters can change the outcome of the game at the last moment.

The Exodus expansion was released in January 2011. The German edition was published in October 2011.

Awards

The game was recognized as a game hit for experts at the Austrian game award Spiel der Spiele 2009 and was nominated for the International Gamers Award 2009. Further, the game for the was As d'Or - Jeu de l'Année 2010 nominated .