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.