BSG

I have to say, back in turn 3.4, when the fleet had already travelled 6 Distance, everything except Fuel was at least at 7 and Roslin had just brigged Dee, I was sure the humans were going to romp this one in. Fuel was tight, but there weren't many crises coming up that put it at risk. There were also some attack cards on the horizon, but you'd jump in between the bulk of them. Then Dee got out of the Brig, got XO'd and got Massive Assault on the table.

That final jump cycle was fifteen turns long, during which you faced four Attack cards, including Massive Assault - and Starbuck used her OPG to ditch a fifth (oh, and Roslin buried a sixth with her Visions) - which proved to be just too much.

If that last jump had succeeded, your Fuel would've been at 1. You would've encountered a single attack card in the next round or two. Normally, not such a threat, but with no spare vipers and Galactica already fairly beaten up, you had a fight ahead (and every hit on Galactica carried the risk of Fuel loss). There were also two heavy raider activations - one more nudge from either Cylon would see the Centurion reach the end of the track, if you failed to take it out. There were a number of Crisis Cards threatening Population or Morale too. I think you probably would've scraped through from there, but only with some sound judgment and a bit of luck.

BSG

Some game highlights:

Round 1.2: The crew passes Legendary Discovery, thanks to Helo's help. If he'd even played low, it would've failed.

Turn 2.4: Roslin makes good use of Preventative Policy to allow Cylon Screenings to be tanked, letting her check Helo's loyalty card. If that card had come up just one turn earlier, it would've been Helo checking Roslin's loyalty; without the Preventative Policy, you probably would've had to pass it, leaving the Sdmiral undetected.

Turn 2.6: Dee activates Comms. Space is entirely empty, except for Sector 5, where Starbuck stands guard over half the civilian fleet.

Turn 3.2: Ellen uses her OPG to great effect, taking the Admiralty from the suspected Cylon Helo and jumping the fleet. The destination choice there was either Barren Planet - 2 Distance at the cost of 2 Fuel - or the one she chose, Lion's Head Nebula. 3 Distance, and get halfway to the next jump, but at a high cost of 4 Fuel. Neither option was cheap; I can honestly say that I had no idea which destination Ellen (as a human) would choose, nor which one Helo (as a Cylon) would've chosen.

Turn 3.4: Dee spikes A Traitor Accused, leaving Roslin to choose someone to brig. Despite the fact that Gaeta had one additional loyalty card (from Helo) and could get out of the brig more cheaply than any other crew member, Roslin - correctly - chooses Dee. If she had brigged Gaeta instead, Dee would have been Admiral for the next jump.

Turn 3.5: Admiral Gaeta uses the Engine Room to assure a jump on his turn. Another tough choice - he could've taken the Fleet to 8 Distance with just one jump left, but with only 1 Fuel; or he could lift Fuel to 3, but at the expense of another full jump cycle. In the event, he made the right choice; the game would've ended nine turns earlier on a Fuel loss if he'd taken the other Destination. (Again: if not for Roslin's pinch decision to brig Dee instead of Gaeta, it could've been Dee-3PO making this call.)

Turn 3.6: A failed scouting mission leaves Starbuck to use her OPG to bury the Guardians.

Turn 4.1: Dee persuades the crew to help her escape. Destiny contributed seven points against, and with Helo's spike - Helo now convinced that Dee was human - the check only passed after Roslin, against her better judgment, played the Declare Emergency that freed her.

Turn 4.2: Besieged adds the first Cylon ships to the board for the final crushing jump cycle.

Turn 4.4: Helo tries to roll the hard six and it pays off. Rather than playing his Super Crisis or activating the Cylon fleet, he hits Caprica to fish for an attack card, and finds it. There are now civvies in every sector but one.

Turn 4.4: Dee is the only one who can move the ships to safety, but she turns on the fleet instead. Four civvies are now undefended in Sector 1 against five raiders.

Turn 4.5: Gaeta gambles on a nuke into Sector 1. Unfortunately, it leaves the raiders untouched, and with a raider activation on his Crisis Card, the civvies Dee placed in harm's way are lost. The Cylons are back in the game with a vengeance.

Turn 5.1: Dee plays her Super Crisis. Massive Assault adds more ships, and also cripples the jump track.

Turn 5.4: Roslin uses her OPG in a desperation play. It fails to improve matters. For her visions, she has to choose between yet another attack card, or Weapons Malfunction, which damaged 2 vipers and left Starbuck alone facing almost the entire Cylon Fleet.

Turn 5.5: Jammed Assault puts the final nail in the humans' coffin.

BSG

Round 1.2: The crew passes Legendary Discovery, thanks to Helo's help. If he'd even played low, it would've failed.

The only low cards I had were Treachery, and even though Ellen made Treachery positive, it sure didn't seem like a good idea to activate a Reckless check right away and throw suspicion on me. I should have just played nothing!

Destiny contributed seven points against, and with Helo's spike - Helo now convinced that Dee was human - the check only passed after Roslin, against her better judgment, played the Declare Emergency that freed her.

Heeeeeee.

BSG

I had actually sent COs NOT to play that DE but overruled at the last second. Dammit.

BSG
 
Heh. Well, you weren`t alone in thinking we should free Dee at that point. Strategically we probably should have left her in just because of the cost of getting her out. But it really was unclear at that point.
 
I think our card management was an issue. Without as many ICs as have come up in other games, we overshot on some, and lost expensively on some, meaning we had to tank some checks we really could have used.

BSG

I think our card management was an issue. Without as many ICs as have come up in other games, we overshot on some, and lost expensively on some, meaning we had to tank some checks we really could have used.

This becomes more difficult in Pegasus too, as ICs don't reveal Destiny. You can reduce the uncertainty but it doesn't disappear (unless you use a Guts and Initiative too).

This becomes more difficult in Pegasus too, as ICs don't reveal Destiny.

I have to say, watching this from afar, I wasn't really liking the expansion, thinking it mostly made things unnecessarily complicated for my enjoyment, but that sealed the deal for me. I feel like I mostly like ICs for the fact that you see Destiny.

BSG

whew! That was a good game. Thanks for running it, billytea.

I think I suspected everyone at one point or another.

Has anyone else been watching Jeopardy? I'm off to go watch in 8 mintes.

I feel like I mostly like ICs for the fact that you see Destiny.

I kind of like that the expansion takes that away so that there's still some uncertainty, but you can try to conserve your cards and force Cylons to play positive to avoid being discovered.

I feel like the Treachery cards didn't prove to be terribly useful, but that's mainly because I never got to spike a Reckless check.