I found it ironic that the failed Detector Sabotage check, which ensured the Cylons' loyalty cards could never be checked, is what allowed the humans to work out who the two Cylons were.

I was pretty sure there was a second Cylon before that, but I was convinced it was Starbuck. Which is why I threw in Yellow as my spike card instead of Red, so as to potentially implicate Zarek or the Chief. But then Zarek had to ruin it by not playing any cards and the decision implicated both of the real Cylons.

Yes I thought that would hurt us but fate was against the humans.

Time for a full wrap-up. Congratulations to Team Cylon, commiserations to Team Human. I'm watching Firefly's "Out of Gas" in your honour. As before, I had a great time running this game. Some highlights:

The humans were in trouble even before the first turn, though they didn't know it. Both Cylon loyalty cards were dealt out in the first round, and they were back-to-back - a dangerous mix. (Imagine facing two Super Crises in a row.) Things got truly dire right after the fleet's first jump, when you got hit by three attack cards in a row. That's a total of 3 basestars, 14 raiders and 4 heavy raiders before even one jump icon. Six civilian ships were destroyed for a total loss of 6 Population and 1 Fuel. Of course, losses might not have been so bad, but for Apollo's cunning use of his once-per-game ability, which you may recall he unveiled after just one attack card. He launched 6 vipers - the entire reserve - and left them as sitting ducks for the Cylon raiders. (Bear in mind, he could've launched just one, and let it get off five shots before the raiders fought back.) Four turns later, three vipers had been destroyed, all the others were damaged, and both Helo and Apollo had been shot out of the sky and sent to Sickbay. Kudos, Apollo, for crippling Galactica's defence so thoroughly without even arousing suspicion.

Side note: here I think the humans made a tactical error. They devoted all their efforts to destroying the basestars (over a three-turn period, fully half of the crew was in Weapons Control, and most of the others were in the Brig); but as the rulebook notes, "Although Galactica does have mounted weaponry, its real military strength lies in its squadrons of single-man fighters known as vipers." It's dangerous to ignore the basestars completely; but while you have civvies on the board and raiders closing in on them (not to mention threatening to take out your vipers), they are the greater threat. Fortunately for you guys, you had the Chief there. Despite being a Cylon from the start, Chief Tyrol destroyed no less than three basestars (and a raider), and singlehandedly passed the Crippled Raider check for you even after being found out.

The early sniping between Tigh and Zarek (both of whom were human) erupted in the very first turn as Tigh claims the Presidency as well as the Admiralty. (President Tigh and Admiral Starbuck - naturally humanity was doomed.) On Tigh's next turn, Zarek wound up in the Brig, not to be released until Tigh's fourth turn. Mr Zarek's effectiveness was sorely limited this game. On Tigh's third turn (Tigh's turns were consistently good for a laugh), your crisis was Detector Sabotage. It failed badly, as both Cylons saw the chance to keep their loyalty cards unexamined. Ironically, the check was spiked so badly, with Destiny contributing -6 as well, that they were both outed after all. This didn't stop Helo from XOing the Chief on his next turn, allowing him to brig Tigh. Three humans in the Brig, two Cylons running around free - it was looking an awful lot like the first game all over again. (Despite the two games we've had so far, it's not actually the norm for most of the humans to wind up in the Brig.)

Lucky that with Tigh and Zarek both human they had a lot of control over getting into and out of the Brig. Over the next cycle, both Cylons landed in the Brig (barely) and Zarek was released. But it was too late. By now Population was at 3 and Fuel at 2; Food too dropped to 2 before the game's end. Defending three resources on the brink was just too much to ask.

A couple of suggestions for future play: first, key to success for the humans is teamwork. In practice that often means making better use of your skill card options. Playing XOs effectively doubles the number of actions you can take - if you're not playing them often, you're hurting your chances. Better to move yourself into position to receive an XO, and give one to someone else. (Try to avoid XOing known Cylons, though.) Investigative Committees are extremely useful - without them, you'll often waste more (continued...)

( continues...) than their value by overshooting (or worse, could fail a check you really need to pass). And earlier in the game, it stops the Cylons from spiking a check unnoticed. Finally, scouting is never a bad idea. By tossing Crises without jump icons, you can shorten the game considerably. You may need to increase your card flow to use them effectively - stationing a player in the Press Room and XOing him is great for ICs, especially if you're otherwise short on Yellow.

On the Cylon side, if you wind up outed and in the Brig, the jig is up. That's how the game is supposed to work - the humans are meant to have a way to neutralise you. You need a special set of circumstances to make trying to escape worth the effort. You're far better off revealing, picking up a Super Crisis card and causing mayhem from the outside.

So thanks to all the players for making this such a fun game. I won't be able to run a new one for a few weeks - November is exam time for me. I would have time to play in a game, if someone else would like to try their hand at running it. I've set up three Excel files to keep track of everything and format posts.

I love billytea's wrap-ups!

What sucks about the wrap up is it points how pivitol my idiot " xo means you do what I say" blunder was. The irony being the mistake made from tired long hours, and with the grand opening last night... Oh well. It was fun.

Thanks again for running a fantastic game, billytea.

Again! Again!

I would run it but I don't have a copy of the game. I am very much in favor of billytea getting to be a player for once so c'mon guys, who wantsta take over for our esteemed GM?

I don't have a copy of the game either, or I would happily GM.