Last year at Gencon Indy, Fantasy Flight Games demonstrated their upcoming board game based on the Battlestar Galactica television series. The tables running the game seemed to be incredibly busy, and the players seated around those tables clearly were enjoying what they were doing. Unfortunately, I never got to play the game – until last night, that is…

I signed up for a session of Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game at Origins. It was only of only two games I took part in that actually had to turn people away who tried to use generic tickets, showing that it’s still a very popular title. After playing the game, I understand why people like it.

For those who aren’t familiar with the television series, here’s a quick primer. Humans created mechanical robots called Cylons to assist in a variety of tasks. The Cylons staged a revolution and fought for their freedom. The humans defeated them and negotiated a truce. In secret, the very mechanical-looking Cylons began perfecting a version of themselves which could easily pass for human. These human-form Cylons infiltrated the various human colonies and worked together to weaken the human defenses, allowing a full-scale surprise attack to take place. Mankind was decimated, and few tens of thousands of humans escaped to space. The heart of this fleet of fugitives was the Battlestar Galactica, a massive military ship that was so old that it was about to be decommissioned. The humans in the fleet decided to head for a mysterious planet known as “Earth” in their old religious texts. A certain number of the human-form Cylons managed to slip into the fleet with the humans, working behind the scenes to sabotage their efforts. For quite a while in the show, no one (in the audience or a character on the show) really knew who was or wasn’t a Cylon. This is the period of time in which the show is set.

At the start of the game, each player picks a character from the series to play. Each character has certain abilities and benefits. Players are also handed a “loyalty” card which tells them if they’re human or Cylon. The human players try to get the fleet to Earth by completing hyperspace “jumps” to new planets. The Cylon players, naturally, try to prevent this from happening without being discovered. The sequence of play goes something like this:

• At the start of your turn, you draw “skill cards” of colors matching the main skills of your character. These can be used to take specific actions, or as part of a “skill check” described later.
• Your character may take two actions. These can include moving to another part of the ship where you can do something such as firing on a Cylon ship, launching Viper fighters, or sending a suspected Cylon to the brig.
• After you take your two actions, you choose a “Crisis Card” and resolve it. These cards generally take one of three forms. They may require one of the players to make a decision (e.g., “lose 1 fuel or lose 1 morale point”). They may cause a group of Cylon ships to appear around the Galactica. They may also require the players to do a “skill check” to resolve the crisis. These skill checks are resolved by each player submitting colored “skill cards” into a pool. At resolution time, the cards of the appropriate colors are counted toward the total skill needed, while cards of other colors are counted against the total. This is one area where Cylon players can actively sabotage the humans with minimal risk of detection.

On the fourth turn, a second set of loyalty cards is handed out. When this happens, some human players may learn that they are actually “sleeper agents” for the Cylons. These players will now actively attempt to sabotage the game for the humans. Other players may receive “sympathizer” cards, which cause them to act in favor of the other side. Some will remain human. The game generally starts to go badly for the humans at this point.

After resolving certain crises, a “jump counter” is advanced. When the counter reaches an appropriate mark, Galactica can make a jump to a new planet, taking it closer to Earth. The card describing the new planet is tagged with certain actions the players must take (e.g., lose 1 morale), and a number indicating its “distance”. When the ship has jumped a total of 8 units of distance, the humans win.

Sometimes, a Cylon warrior (the mechanical variety) will board the ship as part of a crisis. This warrior will attempt to make its way through the ship to destroy it. Each time a certain type of Cylon ship is activated (used), the warrior advances another step. If the warrior counter reaches the end of the line, Galactica is destroyed and the humans lose. The boarder can only be stopped by moving a character to the armory and making a roll of 7 or 8 on an 8-sided die.

There are also four dials the count the number of different resources the ship has. These include food, fuel, morale, and population. If any of these reaches zero, the crew dies and the Cylons win. Resources are lost (and sometimes gained) as part of crisis resolution.

Cylon players have the option of revealing themselves. When they do so, they have to leave the ship. On their way out, they may have the option of performing some acts of sabotage. This can cripple the Galactica at a critical time.

According to “Kevin” our game master, the humans generally do not win the game. At least 80% of the time, the Cylons do. I think there are some pretty obvious reasons for this. First, in our game of 7 players, two were Cylons at the start. After the fourth round, one became a Cylon sympathizer and another became an awakened sleeper Cylon. This effectively meant that the Cylons outnumbered the humans at the table. Add to this the fact that the board is heavily stacked against the humans anyway (e.g., population can be lost be generally not regained, Cylon boarders are nearly impossible to repel, etc.), and the proverbial deck is very much stacked against a human victory.

When I played, I chose Admiral William Adama as my character. I was also given a loyalty card telling me I was a human. Soon after the game started, someone played a “martial law” card which made me not just the Admiral of the fleet but also the President. I found myself having to make a LOT of the crisis decisions. I think I did pretty well because the GM told us the humans were in great shape at the start of the fourth turn. At this point, I received a new loyalty card indicating I was now a Cylon. This was very bad news for the human players, as it meant they had a Cylon in charge of the military and the government, but they didn’t know it. Now, I had to start taking actions to sabotage the game for the humans while trying not to do anything so obvious that they caught on. I must have done well enough, because I actually remained undiscovered until the game was over (and we, the Cylons, won).

Fantasy Flight Games has done the Battlestar Galactica name proud with this game. It definitely incorporates elements of the television series in a meaningful and appropriate way. It takes a little while to learn, but once you learn it there’s a lot of replay potential given the wide variety of characters and the possibility that you might be a Cylon one game and a human the next. The artwork is attractive, and the materials seem to be well-made. Even though it takes hours to play through a game, the time actually passes pretty quickly because of all the action taking place. If you enjoy a game with some intrigue, or are a big fan of the show, you’ll very likely enjoy this game. A few of the people seated around the table with I played it were unfamiliar with the show but enjoyed the game, so it’s clearly not necessary to be a fan to appreciate it.

My brother Matt played also, and walked away wanting to own a copy, but Fantasy Flight’s booth was sold out. He’s planning to send me an article about the game for this site later, which I’ll publish when I receive it.