It doesn't seem to hurt his popularity. On BGG, he's the most popular choice by a substantial margin.

Well, he was the third choice for the two people that picked him.

Given that 3 of the ten characters weren't picked at all, it's pretty amazing that almost everyone got their first choice. Given the popularity of Starbuck and Roslin as second choices, the ripple effect of someone not getting their pick could have may it confusing for the assignments.

BSG

Since I know Liese is not really available until next week, and she got her first choice, I'm going to assume she's fine with this mix. Hope that's not a problem.

The Final 5 for Buffistica 5:
William Adama: billytea
Helo: -t
Baltar: Kalshane
Starbuck: Laga
Chief: Liese

Therefore, billytea starts as Admiral and Kalshane as President. Use your power wisely (so say we all).

I will send out individual character abilities as a reminder next week when I send out turn order and loyalty card information. Remember, since there are five players, we are not playing with the sympathizer card.

It feels so strange being a spectator after driving the bus for so long. But looking forward to the entertainment!

Yup, that looks fine to me. Not that I know!

Tried out BSG in face space for the first time today. We had 3 players who had never played before (and one who hadn't seen the show) and myself who only played here.

Our character alotment was Admiral Adama (me), President Baltar, Starbuck and the Chief. The humans pretty much dominated the game, especially with only 4 players and, it turned out, no Cylon until the Sleeper phase.

One of the first Crisises was Martial Law, which I promptly used to remove the Presidency from the shifty Baltar. Which convinced his player that I must be the Cylon.

For our first jump, I chose Cylon Ambush, which almost became our undoing as we got hit by Cylon attack after Cylon attack. Plus we failed the Network Computers crisis just prior to our first jump, so we had Centurions onboard.

At one point almost every raider, every undamaged viper and all but two civvies were on the board. Starbuck kept us alive by mowing through wave upon waves of raiders and even shot down a couple heavies. We miraculously only lost one civvie during the whole mess, and for only 1 population. When we finally managed to eke out enough on the jump track to make a forced jump, we went for it and managed to avoid the pop loss thanks to a Strategic Planning played ahead of the roll. I had the choice of Asteroid Field or Asteroid Field. Whee. But it got us into the Sleeper phase already sitting at 6 distance. Plus, we lucked out and the destroyed civvie had no resources on board.

We then had a very quiet phase with no Cylon attacks and our newly (unrevealed) Cylon Chief trying to figure out what his best options were with no confusion of attacks to capitalize on and us using ICs to keep checks open. Finally we jumped again to the Cylon Refinery for 2 distance to bring us to 8, and 2 of my guests needed to leave, so we declared Team Human the winners by default since the only resource in the red was Fuel, and it barely so.

Definately want to get a group together to try again, especially if we can get at least 5 players to allow for two Cylons. Plus, it should go a little smoother now that I've got some experience actually physically playing the game under my belt.

Our one big mistake, I think, was not bothering to use the Turn Indicator chip. We wasted a lot of time going "Wait, whose turn was this?" between the XOs and the Crisises and Cylon activations it gets a little confusing. Though it probably would have been easier to track if we'd followed the rules and had each player pretty much run the game on their turn, rather than divying out duties based on what part of the board/counters/cards people were sitting closest to.

Question for those of you who play the BSG board game: how do handle the tokens (damage tokens, civilian ships) that are supposed to be randomly drawn? We sort of stacked and "shuffled" them, but it was kind of clumsy.

Question for those of you who play the BSG board game: how do handle the tokens (damage tokens, civilian ships) that are supposed to be randomly drawn? We sort of stacked and "shuffled" them, but it was kind of clumsy.

I sometimes get a mug and shake them up in it when necessary.

BSG

The Cylons were created to make life easier on the Twelve Colonies. And then the day came when the Cylons decided to kill their masters. After a long and bloody struggle, an armistice was declared and the Cylons left for another world to call their own.

Forty years later, they returned, and brought humanity to the brink of extinction. The remaining humans, led by the crew of the Battlestar Galactica, fled in hope of finding a new home, one known by legend as Earth.

Humanity’s only hope lies in finding Earth’s location while fighting off the unrelenting Cylons. But as resources run low, it is discovered that the enemy can now appear human and has infiltrated the fleet from the inside.

And so it begins…

BSG

(Well, it begins tomorrow anyway.)

After randomly determining turn order (see below), I have set up the board and shuffled all the decks of cards. The destiny deck will be set up once everyone has been dealt their initial draw.

The board at the start of the game finds Baltar in the Research Lab, Starbuck and Chief in the Hangar Deck, Adama in the Admiral’s Quarters, and Helo stranded on Caprica. There are also 1 basestar and 3 raiders in front of Galactica (sector 1), 2 civilian ships behind Galactica (sector 4), and two vipers below Galactica (1 each in sectors 5 & 6).

I have sent out character and loyalty information to each player. As he is a Coward with a capital “C”, Baltar received 2 loyalty cards instead of 1; however, to soothe his fragile ego, he also got a Quorum Card (as is his due as President). Adama is Admiral and has received the two nuke tokens as well as the right (honor? burden?) to choose the fleet’s destination when it jumps.

I will send out initial card draws as soon as everyone posts their color selection here. Please post or send me COs by 10pm board time tomorrow. I have COs from billytea for the initial draw. Thank you, billytea!

Note: At any time, you can send me Conditional Orders for your draw, the current turn, an upcoming skill check, or even general things (e.g., “I will play my R1 Evasive Maneuvers the next time a viper is attacked.”). Remember that old saying—a day without COs is like a day without sunshine.

Turn Order:
1. Baltar: Kalshane
2. Helo: -t
3. Starbuck: Laga
4. Chief: Liese
5. William Adama: billytea

May the gods be with you!

BSG

Naturally, the die-hard BSG players will prepare themselves by sleeping no more than 33 minutes at a time tonight.

Anyway, my initial card draw is: 1 Leaderhips and 2 Tactics

My first act as Admiral will be to try and find at least one crew member who isn't currently frakking a Cylon. Seriously, is that too much to ask? You're lucky I'm Emotionally Attached to you all, gods know why, because otherwise there'd be a queue out the airlock of people up on charges for fraternising with the enemy's naughty bits.

Edit: I was going to correct my typo, but second-guessing is unworthy of the Adama name. Fetch me my leaderhips! I'll show you all just what Inspirational Leadership looks like to a salsa beat!