Charlie Davis
06-10-2009, 08:26 PM
Cult of the New/Love of the Old Battlestar Galactica session report
June 10, 2009
Charlie Davis
Wow, I am way behind. I am going to try and write a few articles each week for a few weeks. Wish me luck. To catch you up on my life, the WVU Tech Game Day 09 on March 7th was a success. I was very happy with the overall event. We had about 25 people there throughout the day. The first game started at 9:05 am Saturday morning and the last ended at 2 am Sunday morning. (I left about midnight.) Our vendor failed to show and a few regulars had last minute problems so we missed about 12 people that I had expected to see. They really missed a good time.
CharCon News We will be running the PREMIER GAME TOURNAMENT again this year. The details have not been worked out but for an additional fee (above the CharCon general admission) each participant will get a bonus game and be able to win more prizes (games) in the individual tournaments. Jay Tummelson of Rio Grande Games donated a bunch of games to CharCon last year and is going to offer similar support again this year. We will not know how many games until mid-summer. The Columbus Area Boardgaming Society (CABS) will again help distribute the games. CharCon is lucky to have friends like Rio Grande and CABS.
Origins Game Fair The staff and some friends of CharCon will be running games (120 hours, I think) at the Origins Game Fair (http://www.originsgamefair.com/) in Columbus, Ohio June 24-28 again this year. We will be continueing our relationship with Jolly Roger Games (http://www.jollyrogergames.com/) and adding Days of Wonder Games (http://www.daysofwonder.com) to our list of companies. Last year was the first time that I had spent the entire week at Origins and it was a great experience. I love playing and teaching boardgames so the work was really just more fun for me. Origins has something for everyone. There are collectible cards, role playing, tabletop miniatures, boardgames, a vendor room, war games, an auction, LARPs, an art competition, guest speakers, free stuff, game companies, seminars, and tons of other things. If you like to people watch, this is a great venue to attend. Here are the things we will be running this year. Nick and Buck will be running a Normandy D-Day miniatures (Flames of War) event. Steve and Cory will be running Aeronautica Imperialis miniatures. The rest of us will volunteering to teach
Days of Wonder Games
Memoir '44 Overlord Battles
Shadows Over Camelot (including Merlins Company Expansion)
Small World
Ticket to Ride
Ticket to Ride: Europe
Ticket to Ride: Marklin
Ticket to Ride: Switzerland
Ticket to Ride: The Card Game
Ticket to Ride: The Dice Expansion
Jolly Roger Games
Clocktowers
Dynasties
Four Dragons
Graverobbers
Great Chili Cookoff
Knock! Knock!
Rope
Scream Machine
Surf's Up, Dude!
Victory & Honor
Warhamster Rally
All of these games are listed in the Origins program and you can purchase tickets to play in the games. In exchange for this work, we get some discounted hotel rooms, coupons, and other things. This is part of the Origins volunteer program. We have gotten our money's worth out of the connections with publishers and it cuts our costs. What a great deal. If you are interested for next year, you can volunteer on your own or as part of our group. We would love to run 200 hours next year. Talk to us at the show.
No full reviews of an Old and New game this week but there is a funny session report below.
My Games played at the Tech Game Day-
Ticket to Ride:The Dice expansion (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/38454) Liked it. Very different to the original game. Very quick.
Supernova (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/24491) Didn't like it. Very much a war game. We misplayed a rule so it is probably better than I thought.
Carcassonne (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/822) a classic
Battlestar Galactica (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37111)(session report below) Love it. My most played game this year.
Who's your Daddy, I mean Cylon.
Everyone had played before except Doug. This was the turn order and who we were.
Me - Starbuck
Ted - Baltar (President)
Dave - Chief
Doug - Saul Tigh (Admiral)
Kris - Tom Zarek
Tom - Boomer
The initial rounds were pretty straightforward.
Before the first jump.
Bad stuff for the Humans:
One Cylon attack card came out before the first jump.
Two heavy raiders dropped two cylons on board.
Galactica took two damage from a basestar.
Lots of raiders were around before the first jump.
Good stuff for the Humans:
Raiders got blasted before they could do any damage.
The basestars never launched anything after the initial flurry.
The 2 cylons on board were destroyed before any heavy raider cards were drawn.
All damge to Galactica were repaired.
After the first jump, the Humans were at distance 2 with pretty good numbers across the board.
Before the second jump.
Bad stuff for the Humans:
Two Cylon attack cards came out.
Lost 2 population from losing ships to raiders.
Gallactica took two damage from a basestar.
Lots of raiders and heavy raiders were around before the next jump.
Good stuff for the Humans:
Heavy raiders got blasted before they could do anything.
Raiders got beaten back a couple of times.
One basestar was nuked to the point it could not fire or launch raiders so we could ignore it.
The humans were doing so well that Boomer and I started discussing the possibility that there were no cylons on board yet. One of the big factors was that someone played an Investigative Committee on almost every skill check that we chose to try and win. With the cards being played face up, the cylons, if there were any, were kinda stuck. We even had the Prisoner Revolt and decided to lose it on purpose rather than waste cards. Baltar gave up the Presidency to Tom Zarek, even though I asked for the title. We all felt like Zarek was Human.
Right before the second jump which turned out to be 2 distance, we dropped food into the red. In the Sleeper Agent phase, that meant that there would not be a sympathizer. Baltar drew the sympathizer card and went to jail.
Before the third jump.
So we are now at distance 4, have food in the red, and it is still looking good for the humans. A few turns later, on Boomer's turn, I throw a bunch of anti-human cards in a face up skill check so everyone knows I am a Cylon. Baltar also throws in against the humans. The humans lose that check. I am next and do NOT declare that I am a Cylon. If fact, I strongly repeat that I am a human, have identified one of the Cylons (Baltar), can't put him in jail, and play something good for the humans. Next Baltar declares as expected. No one understands why I did not declare and I protest my innocence. The Chief is in the brig and can't do anything his turn and amazingly Admiral Tigh declares on his turn so everyone knows that I can't be a Cylon. In a bizarre twist, my attempt to identify a Cylon has identified both of them but we humans are in big trouble now. We manage to get to distance 7 on the third jump but we are hurting.
Before the fourth jump, if there is one.
Chief finally gets out of the brig but we can't move the ship fast enough. The Cylons are wearing us down and we need 2 jumps. One to get to distance 8 and one to get home. We are at the -1 jump point with all dials at 1. No way to win. Then a miracle happens. We draw the crisis card that allows you to gain 1 distance without jumping. Amazingly, we are now at distance 8 and still at the -1 jump space. We need one card to move us along the jump track. Just one more card.
Of course, we failed the next skill check and died.
It was a great game. The humans never felt threatened in the first half of the game and then all hell broke loose. There was no way to win for the Humans and then it was right there again. What fun! BTW, my great sneaky play to pull out the Cylons was not so sneaky. I will tell you why in my next article. (Now that is sneaky.)
June 10, 2009
Charlie Davis
Wow, I am way behind. I am going to try and write a few articles each week for a few weeks. Wish me luck. To catch you up on my life, the WVU Tech Game Day 09 on March 7th was a success. I was very happy with the overall event. We had about 25 people there throughout the day. The first game started at 9:05 am Saturday morning and the last ended at 2 am Sunday morning. (I left about midnight.) Our vendor failed to show and a few regulars had last minute problems so we missed about 12 people that I had expected to see. They really missed a good time.
CharCon News We will be running the PREMIER GAME TOURNAMENT again this year. The details have not been worked out but for an additional fee (above the CharCon general admission) each participant will get a bonus game and be able to win more prizes (games) in the individual tournaments. Jay Tummelson of Rio Grande Games donated a bunch of games to CharCon last year and is going to offer similar support again this year. We will not know how many games until mid-summer. The Columbus Area Boardgaming Society (CABS) will again help distribute the games. CharCon is lucky to have friends like Rio Grande and CABS.
Origins Game Fair The staff and some friends of CharCon will be running games (120 hours, I think) at the Origins Game Fair (http://www.originsgamefair.com/) in Columbus, Ohio June 24-28 again this year. We will be continueing our relationship with Jolly Roger Games (http://www.jollyrogergames.com/) and adding Days of Wonder Games (http://www.daysofwonder.com) to our list of companies. Last year was the first time that I had spent the entire week at Origins and it was a great experience. I love playing and teaching boardgames so the work was really just more fun for me. Origins has something for everyone. There are collectible cards, role playing, tabletop miniatures, boardgames, a vendor room, war games, an auction, LARPs, an art competition, guest speakers, free stuff, game companies, seminars, and tons of other things. If you like to people watch, this is a great venue to attend. Here are the things we will be running this year. Nick and Buck will be running a Normandy D-Day miniatures (Flames of War) event. Steve and Cory will be running Aeronautica Imperialis miniatures. The rest of us will volunteering to teach
Days of Wonder Games
Memoir '44 Overlord Battles
Shadows Over Camelot (including Merlins Company Expansion)
Small World
Ticket to Ride
Ticket to Ride: Europe
Ticket to Ride: Marklin
Ticket to Ride: Switzerland
Ticket to Ride: The Card Game
Ticket to Ride: The Dice Expansion
Jolly Roger Games
Clocktowers
Dynasties
Four Dragons
Graverobbers
Great Chili Cookoff
Knock! Knock!
Rope
Scream Machine
Surf's Up, Dude!
Victory & Honor
Warhamster Rally
All of these games are listed in the Origins program and you can purchase tickets to play in the games. In exchange for this work, we get some discounted hotel rooms, coupons, and other things. This is part of the Origins volunteer program. We have gotten our money's worth out of the connections with publishers and it cuts our costs. What a great deal. If you are interested for next year, you can volunteer on your own or as part of our group. We would love to run 200 hours next year. Talk to us at the show.
No full reviews of an Old and New game this week but there is a funny session report below.
My Games played at the Tech Game Day-
Ticket to Ride:The Dice expansion (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/38454) Liked it. Very different to the original game. Very quick.
Supernova (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/24491) Didn't like it. Very much a war game. We misplayed a rule so it is probably better than I thought.
Carcassonne (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/822) a classic
Battlestar Galactica (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37111)(session report below) Love it. My most played game this year.
Who's your Daddy, I mean Cylon.
Everyone had played before except Doug. This was the turn order and who we were.
Me - Starbuck
Ted - Baltar (President)
Dave - Chief
Doug - Saul Tigh (Admiral)
Kris - Tom Zarek
Tom - Boomer
The initial rounds were pretty straightforward.
Before the first jump.
Bad stuff for the Humans:
One Cylon attack card came out before the first jump.
Two heavy raiders dropped two cylons on board.
Galactica took two damage from a basestar.
Lots of raiders were around before the first jump.
Good stuff for the Humans:
Raiders got blasted before they could do any damage.
The basestars never launched anything after the initial flurry.
The 2 cylons on board were destroyed before any heavy raider cards were drawn.
All damge to Galactica were repaired.
After the first jump, the Humans were at distance 2 with pretty good numbers across the board.
Before the second jump.
Bad stuff for the Humans:
Two Cylon attack cards came out.
Lost 2 population from losing ships to raiders.
Gallactica took two damage from a basestar.
Lots of raiders and heavy raiders were around before the next jump.
Good stuff for the Humans:
Heavy raiders got blasted before they could do anything.
Raiders got beaten back a couple of times.
One basestar was nuked to the point it could not fire or launch raiders so we could ignore it.
The humans were doing so well that Boomer and I started discussing the possibility that there were no cylons on board yet. One of the big factors was that someone played an Investigative Committee on almost every skill check that we chose to try and win. With the cards being played face up, the cylons, if there were any, were kinda stuck. We even had the Prisoner Revolt and decided to lose it on purpose rather than waste cards. Baltar gave up the Presidency to Tom Zarek, even though I asked for the title. We all felt like Zarek was Human.
Right before the second jump which turned out to be 2 distance, we dropped food into the red. In the Sleeper Agent phase, that meant that there would not be a sympathizer. Baltar drew the sympathizer card and went to jail.
Before the third jump.
So we are now at distance 4, have food in the red, and it is still looking good for the humans. A few turns later, on Boomer's turn, I throw a bunch of anti-human cards in a face up skill check so everyone knows I am a Cylon. Baltar also throws in against the humans. The humans lose that check. I am next and do NOT declare that I am a Cylon. If fact, I strongly repeat that I am a human, have identified one of the Cylons (Baltar), can't put him in jail, and play something good for the humans. Next Baltar declares as expected. No one understands why I did not declare and I protest my innocence. The Chief is in the brig and can't do anything his turn and amazingly Admiral Tigh declares on his turn so everyone knows that I can't be a Cylon. In a bizarre twist, my attempt to identify a Cylon has identified both of them but we humans are in big trouble now. We manage to get to distance 7 on the third jump but we are hurting.
Before the fourth jump, if there is one.
Chief finally gets out of the brig but we can't move the ship fast enough. The Cylons are wearing us down and we need 2 jumps. One to get to distance 8 and one to get home. We are at the -1 jump point with all dials at 1. No way to win. Then a miracle happens. We draw the crisis card that allows you to gain 1 distance without jumping. Amazingly, we are now at distance 8 and still at the -1 jump space. We need one card to move us along the jump track. Just one more card.
Of course, we failed the next skill check and died.
It was a great game. The humans never felt threatened in the first half of the game and then all hell broke loose. There was no way to win for the Humans and then it was right there again. What fun! BTW, my great sneaky play to pull out the Cylons was not so sneaky. I will tell you why in my next article. (Now that is sneaky.)