BSG

It's very fun to play a Cylon since you get to be all evil and stuff, but, I agree, sometimes you think of cool things the humans could do but you don't actually want to tell them.

Like that time I taunted, "Execute Cain! Execute Cain!"? I meant it as a joke, but then I realized it could have been a good move. Morale was high, and Cain's cards were Treachery, so losing her cards was irrelevant. Her character ability was useless. Killing her would also get her out of the Brig without wasting cards. And she could have come back as another Pilot, which you desperately needed. But there was a lot of space battling going on at the time.

I am amused that Anders suspected me of being a Cylon before the Sleeper phase, though. I mean, I suspected me too, I was making such bad decisions.

BSG

Ha. It really was just that. I thought you were taking a calculated risk. Either Boomer was the "other" Cylon and you would give her a chance to act, or she wasn't, and you could act all justified. And then opening it up to Treachery meant that we were exposed to Beacon or whatever it was. I can see on reflection how it looked like the best thing to do, but at the time, I was convinced it was just deliberate sabotage!

Hee. I love the suspicions phase of this game. So much fun. And of course the thing that played into it was that I *had* pegged Boomer in time, but didn't speak up, which cost us. So once I decided I'd suspected you, I had to pipe up. And by then, you were!

BSG

And of course the thing that played into it was that I *had* pegged Boomer in time, but didn't speak up, which cost us.

Yeah, if you had said something, I probably wouldn't have done it. Because I'd had some suspicions of my own, and if someone else had the SAME ones, I may not have taken that risk.

And then opening it up to Treachery meant that we were exposed to Beacon or whatever it was

Oh right, that Broadcast Location was not fun either. Although I think Destiny played one too, so we would have gotten that without Boomer's help.

So once I decided I'd suspected you, I had to pipe up. And by then, you were!

Yep! I think I Revealed at just the right time, though. The humans were practically crippled by the time suspicions started flying my way, so I had to stop pretend-helping and start hurting.

What's annoying is that even though I spiked that check, everyone else played so low that we would have lost it anyway. The only way we would have won is if I'd played both my positive cards AND Declared Emergency. So I could have remained hidden a little longer, but it's probably best I didn't.

BSG

whew! That was a great game. I almost felt the real pressure of imminent destruction those cylons attacks were so relentless.

BSG

Let's start off with congratulations to the Cylons. You played a solid game, I couldn't fault it. (Cylno Baltar at least. Human Baltar may have some regrets about Next-Oing Boomer.) Commiserations to the humans. BSG doesn't really make much claim to be balanced, and sometimes it's anything but. I wouldn't say that's the most brutal ending I've ever seen to the game, but it's certainly up there.

The killer, ultimately, is that there are two Super Crises that are Cylon attack cards, and Boomer happened to draw both of them. (Odds of that happening are 1 in 45.) Once you were under pressure, I just couldn't believe how determined the Crisis deck was to sink the boot in. The most common kind of Crisis puts Morale at risk. Instead you kept pulling these cards that damaged vipers and put players in Sickbay - or, of course, added yet more ships to the board. I really don't know how you lasted as long as you did. (It was so tempting to just reshuffle things a bit; but that would be just wrong.)

I was interested to see how the new characters played out. I felt sorry for Cally. Her regular ability makes it easier to pass skill checks on her turn - and her Crises kept stubbornly refusing to give her skill checks. Plus, she never got the chance to shoot anyone. (If it were up to me, I would rename her OPG ability as "IN THE FACE!") On the other hand, her weakness caused trouble more than once.

Anders was very interesting to watch. Before the game started, I advised Liese that Anders had some distinctly offbeat characteristics, to make sure she was up for the challenge. The weakness certainly hurt - no one ever seemed to have enough cards - but his regular ability made him a great pilot to XO. Cain, on your last turn, if you'd XO'd Anders instead of Cally, I had orders that he'd use Star Player, which would've netted him an Evasive Maneouvre and 2 Max Firepowers. There's the chance he could've cleared out Sector 6, and still had something left to defend from the other raider squadron too.

Cain's Blind Jump ability is one about which I have mixed feelings. I've seen games where it's just been used to shorten the game by a jump cycle - it feels overpowered to me like that. Here, though, it felt about right for an OPG. Cain used it to get out of a tight spot, which seems to be the way it should be used. (Of course, that meant it wasn't available for an even tighter spot next jump cycle.)

One final note: Baltar starts the game with two loyalty cards, but became a Cylon at the Sleeper Phase (his own card, not one that Boomer passed him). Boomer draws two card at the Sleeper Phase, but was a starting Cylon. I found that to be fairly entertaining.

How did the players find their characters? Were their abilities interesting, or more frustrating?

BSG

I enjoyed playing Cain but it's too bad I didn't get to space anybody. Also too bad I XO'd Cally when Anders maybe could have saved us. I'm sorry to admit that by that point I thought all hope was lost. I'm laughing because I almost put Baltar on the top of my list because I wanted to play a cylon for a change but then I figured I'd probably be human all game and the last time I was Baltar and human I hated having everyone think I was a cylon.

BSG

I enjoyed playing Cain but it's too bad I didn't get to space anybody. Also too bad I XO'd Cally when Anders maybe could have saved us.

It probably would've just delayed the inevitable. And you really needed more vipers too. If Cally's Crisis (it would've been Cylon Accusation, which risks Cally being brigged) didn't have a raider activation, it could've paid off.

From my perspective, of course, I can say that this course of action will pay off better than that; but for you guys, you simply have to take a risk one way or another when things are that pear-shaped. Playing safe just ensures that you'll safely lose.

BSG

I enjoyed playing Cally and would do it again. I enjoyed the challenge of her weakness. It actually makes the decision process on skill checks a lot crazier. It's very much an all or nothing and you can't spread out where you help.

BSG

I wish I'd gotten to use my Cylon Detector for good! Even though no one would have believed me had I been human either.

I thought Delusional Intuition was pretty fun, and it did help out on some occasions. Although I was fishing for an SP to use on my Inspirational Speech the whole game and I never pulled one. Instead Cain just HAD to have one when I didn't want her to.

Hey, I've played all three ways now. My first game, I was human the whole time, my second, I was Cylon from the start, and this time, I turned Cylon halfway through. It's hard to compare these Buffista games to the one time I played in real life, though, since it was my first time and my brother the Cylon was deliberately giving us bad advice the whole time.

BSG

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed Cally, ND. It seemed like it would have been frustrating! Although, I lost track of the card counts about halfway through, which would have affected what I was expecting from you. I also thought to myself at one point that her weakness would be great for a closeted Cylon, because you could feign that you didn't want to play because of the card restrictions, when you did have cards that would have helped. Mind you, I didn't think this about you; this round I felt you were in the clear pretty much all along.

I also thought Cain was in the clear early, which was interesting given her character (very in character) choices. I could easily have seen how you could have made those calls as a player pretending to be making character points, and really just making aggressive moves. But I loved that the way the abilities shook out meant that she was played making the brutal decisions.

As tends to be the case for me, I did okay with my actual gameplay, but sucked at the social (i.e. suspicions) stuff. I think partly because we had previous negative reactions, I want everyone to be happy and not feel bad if accused. But that's the wrong way to play this game! And it seems like at this point, everyone's enjoying playing both sides. So j'accuse next game! Of course, then I'll be the Cylon, and I'll be all, hey, I'm accusing you because I'm the Cylon, whoo! But I'm learning, and I really like the gameplay this round, very exciting, even though it ended spectacularly badly for Team Human.