The Valley of Darkness

I really like this Battlestar Galactica Variant ... not only does it deal with many of the small issues of the game, but it has a few new characters. Some of the concepts were already in other variants, but I think this brings them together nicely.

And don't worry, Tiffany, I can't modify my set in time for tonight. Although I haven't played in over a month ... perhaps the next saturday we get together...

Cylon Wedding

Our first game (after Race) was .... BSG. Big shock. Jacqui, Travis, Chris, Dennis and Me. We had no cylons off the deal. After a horrific start (with something like one jump in the first 6 cards despite scouting and Roslin's power). As I declared in the middle of the game, I was destined to became a cylon with a brutal human victory.

So I becamse a cylon ... the only good news was that Dennis jumped on his turn right before my turn, and I was admiral. So I could pick a horrible jump, reveal (brigging the others) and hope. So I jump into an ambush, and Dennis's crisis forces him to brig someone if he fails. D'OH! So no brigging anyone for me. I did get the "Massive Assault" super-crisis, but it was too late. I never got another turn. Chris revealed as Roslin, which was a mistake, but the humans were going to win.

The second game added Michael and Tiffany and subtracted Dennis and Travis. I was Roslin and a cylon off the deal. Another horrible start, but with a sudden jump and cleared. I did some minor tweaking on the crisis deck, but basically played it straight, trusting the Maker to provide a good knife point. After the jump things got confusing a bit. I let Chris (as Boomer) get out of the brig. The problem was that he very well could have been a Cylon, so I wasn't sure what to do. Jacqui revealed on her turn, and it was open. I decided not to reveal on my turn, since Roslin's ability was so good, and re-brigged Boomer via Presidential Order. Then disaster struck. Both crisis cards I drew were a: non-jumps and b: not really horrible. [33 when lots of cylons were already on the board, and something else]. So now people were pretty sure it was me. (Adama jumped into an ambush or something to keep doubt alive for a bit).

But it didn't really matter. Boomer was in the brig, Michael grabbed the presidency and played two executive orders to boost morale, but forgot to assign the VP. Since I wasn't in the brig, I re-ran for president and won, and gave up all pretense of Humanity. I got to take advantage of a "President chooses" and generally messed things up. In the end, the married Cylons prevailed. Roslin is just immensely powerful.

After that Michael, Chris and I played Le Havre. I liked it, butI'll have to play a few more games to decide if on if it's good, great, or other. A few games of Race rounded out the evening.

In other news FFG published some variants, including a "No sympathizer" variant. (You start with a few less resources, and Cylons draw 3 cards instead of 2. I think that perhaps the Alexfrog/7 Spirit variant may address that better... reduce, food/pop/morale by one, the first cylon to reveal gets two super-crisis cards, the last cylon to reveal gets to take an cylon action after revealing...). I don't like the gami-ness of the Sympathizer, since it forces humans to act like Cylons and vice-versa.

Saturday Gaming with a Celebrity

Jacqui and I will host this Saturday from 10:00 am (or perhaps a touch earlier) until whenever. And perhaps we can entice the Chit Chatter of Today. Or perhaps not.

Update: Borders has BSG for $40. And those of you who have Borders Rewards can get it for under $30. So there will be a copy here. Just in case.

To Havre & To Holde

Nothing is as sweet as a new game package. Sadly, I just got back from my workout and I can barely lift a cup of water without my hand shaking, so I probably won't break it open until tomorrow. But the vegimeeples look nice.

This is probably my only Christmas game, unless I can trade for a completely necessary 3rd group copy of BSG. And just to make Sean happy...

The REAL Cylon Detector

It looks like a mere finger spinner.

Looks are deceiving.

I have seen Dennis unleash the might of this futuristic technology at the beginning of two Battlestar Galactica games. "To choose who goes first," he says. But clearly, it's no simple trinket but a technological marvel that always points to magnetic northEVIL.

Both times, he has brought it out and set it to work BEFORE the loyalty cards are dealt out, giving each of us our roles.

Saturday's Battlestar Galactica game: the finger spins and stops at Steve.
The cards are then dealt. Result? Steve is a Cylon.

Monday's Battlestar Galactica game: the finger spins and stops at Michael.
The cards are then dealt. Result? Michael is a Cylon (oh, and the Pope is Catholic).

DETECTION RATE: 100%

I recommend everyone to carry at least one of these things. You never know when you may have a Cylon in your midst. (Well, if Michael's around, you KNOW, but besides that...)

Monday night saw our attempt at a 7 player game (Scott, Dennis, Michael(cylon), Sean (playing his first game and, of course, being a Cylon), Jon, me and Brian) and it seems to work well. The dials increased by one also seems to be a good break point, as both times I've seen it played with dials at start position +1 at the beginning, it has been a narrow human victory (although I agree with Michael that Monday's game was not quite as close as the dials would indicate). I think I'm ready for some variant goodness.

Tiffany brought her friend Raquel to the group and played Tikal with her. Unfortunately, our BG game ran fairly long, and we didn't get to play games with Raquel or get to talk to her much. Hopefully, she makes a return appearance and we can find some fun stuff for her to play with the group.

Sean brought Wasabi! and taught Tiff and me how to play. Cute game with good production, easy rules and some player interaction in a short period of time. Short games always seem to go over pretty well in our group.

(On BGG, they say that you can pass without playing ingredients and instead discard as many recipes as you want as a legal move. This prevents the logjam of having recipes you can't legally complete, which just didn't seem to make much sense.)

Brian, Michael and Dennis Raced around the Galaxy several times, and Jon, Scott, Sean, and Brian got in a game of Dominion as well.

Dennis and I picked up our new WoW mini deluxe starter kits, and Tiff found a Harry Potter book. Just trying to keep DL in business.

In other news, I'm putting in my game order tomorrow night (shopping around for the best deal). Here's what I've got so far:
Me: Dominion and Neuroshima Hex
Michael the Cylon: Dominion
Jeff: possibly Race, possibly some other things
Tiff: possibly some games

Send me Geekmail or email or whatever before about 10pm tomorrow night and I'll add you in.