My first game of Battlestar Galactica was with 5 players. Only 1 of us knew anything about the game, but since all like the show we were all interested in learning and playing the game. Most of the very beginning of the game was figuring out the mechanics and learning that even though the game had a lot of "bits", they were weren't used that often, so you didn't need to concern yourself with them. The characters everyone chose were William Adama, Lee "Apollo" Adama, Galen Tyrol, Laura Roslin, and Gaius Baltar. I was playing William Adama, and when I looked at my loyalty card..... I was also a Cylon.
One of the first crisis cards was "Thirty Three". This caused the Galactica to have to face 2 Basestars and a lot of raiders, so we chose to jump early and accept the 3 population loss. Since I was admiral, I choose where we jumped. At this point in the game, I wasn't real sure what I needed to do, but I found quickly that picking the "best" destination for a jump was going to be a way I could use my Cylon influence.
The game continued on with most Crisis cards being successful. I had difficulties influencing the cards enough. When the “Requested Resignation” crisis card came up, I was quick to grab the Presidency, but really didn't not do a good job of being both Admiral and President. I just didn't know how to use the Quorum cards at this point.
Around the midgame, 2 jumps had been made, with 3 destination points. There was still 10 Population, 10 Morale, 5 Food, and 6 Fuel. The Cylons were still unknown at this time, but that was about to change.
I decided to announce that I was a Cylon because I felt I could do some damage. Now, after seeing the game play out, I know I revealed myself to soon. When I revealed myself as a Cylon, I was the enemy then. So I was no longer a part of the fun conversations about what to do and how to do it. So it made the game a little boring just waiting for my turn. The Galactica lost a food and I damaged the FTL drives when I showed everyone I was a Cylon.
The game was progressing, the humans had completed 5 distances and had 10 Population, 6 Morale, 3 Food, and 5 Fuel left. I decided it was time to use my Super Crisis card "Inbound Nukes". A total of 15 cards were played to try and win. I had played 4 cards and when the totals were completed, someone else had also helped the Cylon win. The humans only ended up with a +2, when they needed a 15 to win.
So as the game comes to a close the humans were at a distance of 7 with 6 Population, 3 Morale, 1 Food, 1 Fuel and they choose to jump. Bad news for them. Both of the destinations caused a loss of fuel! The Cylons win!
When the game was over we finally found out who the other Cylon was. Gaius Baltar had done a good job of causing confusion amongst the other players always leaving a little bit of doubt if he was truly a Cylon. Well, played.
The game was enjoyed by all the players and since we had a couple of people play that normally do not play board games, it proved to us that "theme" in a game can really matter. Everyone who played the game watched Battlestar Galactica so we could make jokes, and the tasks made sense to the non-gamers, FTL drives, Cylons, etc.
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