Sunday Gaming: Battlestar Galactica and Dystopian Wars

Had a great day of Sunday Gaming today and despite turning up late (as usual) Victor and I managed to get a game of Dystopian Wars in, before settling down for a good game of Battlestar Galactica with Sean and Casey.

Initial setup, Dreadnought and Battleship up the middle

Dystopian Wars was Victors Empire of the Blazing Sun up against my Prussians. It was really a chance to see how much of the new ruleset I managed to absorb after last nights read. In terms of the update to V1.1 I really like alot of what they have done. It feels like there is alot of streamlining, but I need many more games to really get my head around the changes. I also wish I had a quick reference sheet with the model assigned rules (MARS) to help me remember what everything is. I also need to look at sorting out some tokens as we had a lot of damaged ships limping around the table. We kept the game simple and avoided anything flying, as well as too many of the optional (or what we refered to as optional) rules like morale...

Cruisers head to the left flank, enemy in the distance

As it stood my little ships accounted for themselves well cleaning out alot of Victors destroyer screen, but his cruisers then took their toll on the survivors and my battleship. Meanwhile my gunships (think guns of a battleship but speed of a cruiser) worked over his battleship with a little help. In the end we called it a draw. I think I may need to re-read the rules again and perhaps cruise the Spartan Games forum for a few extra gaming aids / FAQs etc - either way a great game and a good test drive for my new islands (I'll have more photos of them soon). Hopefully this week my last two will arrive allowing me to create an island airfield an a table-corner industrial facility for some home-brewed scenarios.

Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game

Next up was BSG - the Fantasy Flight board game. If you like BSG at all, and you like board games at all, then this is a absolute MUST purchase. I've played it a dozen times now and each time is different, nail biting, back stabbing, high quality fun... and we haven't even had a single game yet using the expansions (but now Sean is hooked he will read the expansion rules and teach the rest of us!).

As they say on the site
The Board Game is an exciting game of mistrust, intrigue, and the struggle for survival which places each player in the role of one of ten of their favorite characters from the show. Each playable character has their own abilities and weaknesses, and all must work together in order for humanity to have any hope of survival. However, one or more players in every game is secretly a Cylon, and wants the humans to perish.

The basic premise is that anyone can be a Cylon, it is just luck. As a group you try to get your doomed fleet home whilst the Cylons (who many not even know they are one yet) try to stop you.

Oh really?

Short version of the game, I was everyones favourite (Baltar) and knew that I was a skin-job from the start. I spent the first half of the game hiding, counciling the other players, trying to hide my identity. Mike was playing a confusing game and even though I knew he was a human he had the rest thinking he was a toaster at heart. I changed sides with a bang and proceeded to cause trouble whilst I waited for an ally. In the end it was Casey (Adama) who revealed himself, more through accident than anything else though. In the end the Cylons plucked victory from defeat as the humans were moments away from salvation (not may humans admittedly, more than a few perished after a massive Cylon ambush).

Assuming I make it to the next Sunday Gaming session I very much hope that we roll out another game of BSG!