The box contains a number of quality pieces, including not just the board, but a number of card character sheets and standups (similar to those used in FFG's Arkham Horror), plus several decks of cards, a sheet of thick card counters, a number of 3-d plastic spaceships and a single 10-sided dice.
Of the playing cards provided, the loyalty cards are used to determined the allegiance of the players. (If you've ever played Shadows Over Camelot this works similarly.) Every player is dealt one loyalty card face-down which is kept hidden - it will either say 'You Are Not a Cylon' or 'You Are a Cylon'. Crucially, half-way through the game, a second set of similar cards are dealt out face-down and are also kept hidden. The number of cylon cards in the deck depends on the total number of players, but the result is that one or more players may be cylons from the outset, and one or more players may become cylons at the half-way point. In larger games you also add a wild card called the 'Sympathiser' at the half-way point who may or may not become a cylon (depending on how well the humans are doing).
The aim of the game depends on which side you end up on. The human players are trying to jump the Galactica and its accompanying civilian fleet to Kobol. A successful jump to Kobol immediately ends the game with victory for the humans. However, the fleet must jump a number of times first, until at least 8 worlds have been passed (as drawn from the destination deck) before the final victory jump can be made. When at least 4 worlds have been jumped (the half-way point mentioned above) the second set of loyalty cards are dealt out.
The cylon objective is to prevent the humans from reaching Kobol. They can do this a number of ways: by destroying Galactica, boarding Galactica with centurions, or by reducing any one of the four fleet resources (fuel, food, morale and population) to zero. In the first half of the game it pays for the cylon players to remain hidden, subtly sabotaging the fleet's efforts. In the end game it pays for the cylons to reveal themselves to openly attack the fleet using the means at their disposal.
There are ten different characters to choose from - three each from three different catagories (political, military and pilot) and there is one extra in a fourth category (support). Each character has a unique combination of skills, advantages and disadvantages as detailed on their information card. Players take it in turn to select their character before play begins, but there must be a balance of the different character categories so that the human's have approximately euqal access to the five different skill groups available.
During the course of the game each player takes their turn, which proceeds through a number of steps. The first step is to refresh their hand with skill cards (as shown on their sheet). Then they may move their character to any location on the board. There are multiple locations on both Galactica and Colonial One - movement is normally free, but it costs you a skill card to move from one ship to the other. After moving the player may perform a single action. This action may be the one printed on the location they have moved to, or they may perform other actions as defined by their character sheet or the cards in their hand. After performing their action they must draw and resolve a card from the crisis deck. This card may ask the player to make a difficult choice, or it may call for a group skill check.
The core mechanic of the game is the group skill check. Checks are caused not just by crisis cards, but they are also necessary to activate several key locations on the board. In each and every case the check will specify a difficulty number, and the colours that correspond with the skills that may be used to support the check. A pile of face-down skill cards is formed by drawing two cards from a randomised 'Destiny Deck' and then each and every player may add cards to the pile from their hand. The pile is then shuffled and revealed. All skill cards that correspond to the correct skill categories are added together, and all cards that do not correspond to the correct skill categories are subtracted from this total. The humans must score equal to or greater than the difficulty number to pass the check. E.g. is the difficulty is 12 and the skill categories are yellow (political) and purple (strategy) then the humans must play a total of 12 or more using yellow and purple cards. And blue (support), red (piloting) or green (leadership) that are played will subtract from this total. Of course, any cylons in the game (hidden or revealed) will want to deliberately play the wrong cards to sabotage the check. And the beauty of it is that because all cards are played face-down, and two extra random cards are added, it is easy to blame failed skill checks on bad luck, or on other potentially treacherous players.
The outcome of crisis cards is usually bad for the humans. If the card is a straight choice is always usually a case of 'd X bad thing, or do Y bad thing'. If a skill check comes up, a pass normally results in no effect, but a fail usually causes the loss of a valuable resource. Some cards also place cylon and civilian ships on the board, which is also very bad. (The game also begins with cylons and civilians in play.) Once on the board cylon raiders will set about destroying vipers and civilians (which may cause further loss of fuel, morale and/or population), heavy raiders will head to the launch tubes to board centurions, and base stars will launch more raiders or will attack galactica directly. More worringly, once cylon ships are in play, they are activated by the icons shown on the bottom of every crises card drawn subsequently. Cylon ships can also be activated by revealed cylon players using their special 'Cylon Fleet' location. This is where the dice comes in - it is only ever rolled when ships are shot at to see if the hits are successful.
It's not all misery for the humans however - they do have a few tricks up their collective sleeves. The player nominated as the Admiral has two nukes to take out pesky cylon ships, and the player nominated as the president has a number of 'Quorum Cards' with special effects, some of which can help the humans regain vital resources. (These roles change hands if the owners are ever revealed to be cylons.) The humans can also shoot cylons with Galactica, or they can launch and control vipers from Flight Control. Pilots can also launch themselves in vipers and make devestating attacks with their piloting skill cards.
And so what actually ensues is a game with two disinct phases. The early game is played soft-softly with the true humans trying to determine who the hidden cylon saboteurs are. In the later game one or more cylons reveal themselves and there is direct conflict while the humans are still trying to make it home. Having played a number of 5- or 6-player games now, it has been 50/50 human/cylon victory, and in every case it has always been a very close call.
What interests me the most is the level of paranoia that settles in at the early stage, and the amount of fun imaginative players can have in trying to manipulate their allies and their opponents to their advantage. Rather like playing poker (or the V:TES CCG) there's potential for a lot of bluffing and misdirection, and it's as much about what you bring to the table as what the game does on it's own. It's one of the most rewarding game experiences I've played for years, and there are enough cards and characters to make sure you never get the same game twice. (The format is also ripe for expansion material.)
My only criticisms are quite minor really. The pre-release copy of the game I have been playing included a number of printing errors which have already been errata'd and/or fixed with the main print run. It is also disappointing that the base stars are only card tokens, and not 3d plastic like their raider counterparts. Playing time is considerable, with a 6-player game weighing in at a minimum of 3 hours. Although smaller games of 3- or 4-players would no doubt be quicker, I suspect that the smaller game may not be quite as challenging or rewarding.
Otherwise, it's an excellent, ground-breaking game. I'd like to shake the designer's hand.
Please help support RPGnet by purchasing the following (probably) related items through DriveThruRPG.
