Next to "Traitor" in the Dictionary

Me (Roslin), Travis (Tigh), Brian (Starbuck), Chris (Baltar), and Scott (Admiral Adama) started BSG at 5:30 on Monday. Right off the bat, no one took Chief Tyrol; not a good sign. But we clearly had no Cylon in the early going, and jumped through five units with minimal losses.

After the sleeper phase I was stunned to find that I still wasn't a Cylon. But with the first action after the sleeper phase, for safety's sake, I used a Quorum card to check one of Adama's loyalty cards. Sure enough, he's a Cylon -- but of course, no one believes me at first, because (a) what are the odds?, and (b) I'm always the Cylon, and that's exactly what a Cylon would have said. The loudest proponent of this view was Brian, who quickly modified a crisis card decision and revealed himself as the other Cylon. The good guys sacrificed population left and right to speed-jump to eight units, but couldn't draw any more jump counter moves before Brian took our last drop of fuel with the Inbound Nukes super crisis card. Still, not a bad run -- Galactica was undamaged, we had 4 population, and we were only one jump away.

At that point I had to quickly buy some paint and run to the airport. But as I'm at the register, the guy behind the counter hands me the phone. It's my wife -- the guy I'm supposed to pick up just called and said he never got on the plane. It turns out the rest of the message got garbled; he didn't get on because of some kind of security/visa issue (he's Russian), and is taking the first flight tomorrow morning. So nobody's in trouble. But hey, time for more BSG!

This time it's me (Apollo), Brian (Roslin), Chris (Admiral Adama), Tiffany (Boomer), Jon (Chief), and Michael (Tigh). Before I even begin my first turn Michael is convinced I'm a Cylon, and considers throwing me in the brig. On his first turn a crisis comes up that, if passed, will let him check one loyalty card. Of course I know he's going to check mine, and of course, I *am* a Cylon. I dumped my entire hand to defeat the crisis and still lost, not only revealing myself, but allowing Michael to check someone else's card too. Great start.

The humans reach the halfway point with fuel and food barely in the red, but *13* population. The next loyalty cards come out, and of course, I get the sympathizer. No third cylon, since two dials are red, but I can throw someone in the brig. I decide to go all or nothing, hoping that Michael drew the other Cylon card, because he's always a Cylon too. So I toss Chris (Adama) in the brig, passing his Admiral title to Tigh. And you can guess the result -- Chris was the other Cylon, and even through Brian released him, he was quickly re-brigged before he could reveal. The humans coasted to an easy victory with only fuel down to 1, and even that only on the last crisis. Early Cylon catches and frequent use of scouting cards (Michael's deft hand with the raptor notwithstanding) were the key -- only one Cylon ship card came up the whole game.

Rob, we're talking about doing things on the day after Thanksgiving. I'll have my brother with me and we'll be looking to game while the women shop.