BSG (Dee)

Woo, Beyonce, I knew you could do it! Age of the giant metal chicken, y'all.

That was an amazing game. I was almost rooting for the humans sometimes.

BSG (Roslin)

I swear at one point I thought we were going to be able to do you in before the sleeper phase, and then at one point I thought we weren't going to be able to do it at all! Damn scrappy humans!

I didn't think we'd make it to Sleeper Phase! And then I didn't think we'd make it to New Caprica! And then I didn't think we'd last long enough for Galactica to return! And then I didn't think we'd win! I got one right, finally.

That was an amazing game. I was almost rooting for the humans sometimes.

It was nuts. I can't believe we managed to stave off death with two resources at 1 and one at 2. If our Population hadn't been hosed, we might have had a chance.

BSG (Boomer)

We went down swinging, that's for sure.

BSG (Roslin)

We passed way more checks than I expected we would. We didn't fail very many at all on New Caprica.

BSG (Cain)

Yeah, I really didn't expect this game to last as long as it did. I thought that team human was done for ages ago, and yet we just kept plugging away and not dying.

BSG (Starbuck)

It was an interesting one because of both early reveals. I kinda had to because it was too funny, what with the deliberate execution and all. Plus, my reveal ability was not all that strong.

But it meant that the game lost the element of speculation quite early on, which is sometimes the most fun bit for me. However, it was a brutal game, so there was plenty of suspense, and all different elements took a beating.

I am not sure what we could have done to strike the killing blow earlier. I kept conditional ordering bt with stuff that I couldn't do. Like, the whole game. But it was still pretty fascinating from the toaster side.

BSG (Roslin)

Although the OFs put the pressure on and eventually won the game for you, I was wondering why you weren't just throwing Crisis Cards at us. Our resources were so frakking low that you were bound to pull one that would kill us (or send someone to Detention so they couldn't punch OFs), and the only reason we were passing checks is because we were going all-in on them most of the time (and even then, we were barely passing them), and since we only drew Crisis Cards on our turns, at least one of us had a lot of cards to help. If you had forced us to pass even MORE skill checks, we would have lost much earlier, I'm sure.

BSG (Dee)

I decided not to push Crises because on New Caprica cylons have no control over the crisis deck (there's no option to look at the the top card and bury it, or draw two cards and choose one) and the possibility of drawing a crisis that would hurt the humans more if it were drawn by a human made me more inclined to just send more centurions. SInce New Caprica is such a new experience, I wasn't sure what kind of crises might be in the deck, either - maybe there are options to raise Pop or something, IDK. As long as we had you spending all your time punching centurions in the face, you weren't prepping ships.

BSG (Roslin)

I decided not to push Crises because on New Caprica cylons have no control over the crisis deck (there's no option to look at the the top card and bury it, or draw two cards and choose one)

Oh, I didn't realize you didn't get to choose! Huh.

As long as we had you spending all your time punching centurions in the face, you weren't prepping ships.

Don't I know it. It was my constant whiny refrain.

BSG

The close of our second New Caprica game, and this one went all the way to 11! Congratulations Cylons, commiserations humans. I knew this was going to be a game to watch when on the very first turn you eschewed the relatively straightforward options of a discard or moving the Presidency in order to execute Apollo, with spectacular consequences. Someone noted during the game that ND was the only player not to have a character executed. Sorry to have left you out like that, Drew.

You spent the first twelve turns with Pop at the starting value of 12 before losing 2 to a crisis card. That was Rescue the Fleet, a difficult decision early in the jump cycle. You could certainly have used that extra 2 Population on New Caprica; but the alternative was adding ships to the board, and the next card was Scar.

In fact, that jump cycle, you faced Scar, Lured into a Trap, The Guardians and Tactical Strike. You lost eight civvies, killed four Centurions and lost 11 Population over that one jump. Population remained at one throughout the Sleeper Phase and onto New Caprica, 21 turns in all. Then on New Caprica, no less than ten occupation forces started out on that treacherous journey to the Shipyard - a journey only two of them completed.

Last game, you found yourself having to evacuate at least nine civvies or so from New Caprica in order to win. This time around, you found the other way to make your ship situation desperate. You only had a few to get into the sky. Four XOs would've prepped and evacuated the lot. But with Population at 1, you couldn't risk losing a single civvie. Under those conditions, it's little wonder the Cylons just kept spamming the Occupation Authority. It's hard to say you were unlucky with the OFs, exactly - you didn't miss on any turn you took punching them until that last attempt by Roslin - but I will note that of your eight NC crises, six of them activated the OFs. Just under half of all NC crises do that.

Thoughts about the Cylon's options on NC. Given the precarious Population situation, I can't fault anyone for spamming the Occupation Authority. Nonetheless, Breeders Canyon is a powerful option, especially with Morale at 2. Over half of the cards put Morale at risk, and a number more threaten putting someone in Detention (or could hit Population or Fuel as well). In fact, the only halfway safe resource was Food. Most NC games I've seen, the Cylons most often activate Breeders Canyon. You can see why: say you'd reached NC with about six ships and 6 Population. There's no real way the OFs could destroy enough ships t force a loss. The crew will be leaving most ships behind anyway; losing one or two to OFs doesn't really matter.

We'll start talking about the next game soon. If you'd like to play, you can post it here or email me. New players are always welcome, as are former players making a return.