BSG: Pegasus Expansion - News

The rules have been posted now, so I'm going to have a quick read to see if my one hope has occurred - that the Sympathizer has now disappeared and been replaced by the Cylon Leader (i.e. 6-player game will have 3 humans, 2 revealed cylons, and a Cylon Leader) or not.

Southernman wrote:

The rules have been posted now, so I'm going to have a quick read to see if my one hope has occurred - that the Sympathizer has now disappeared and been replaced by the Cylon Leader (i.e. 6-player game will have 3 humans, 2 revealed cylons, and a Cylon Leader) or not.

Your wish is granted... If a Cylon Leader is in the game, there is no Sympathizer, though the Cylon Leader has a Sympathetic allegiance of some kind.

I think the Sympathizer rules are fine as they are, though.

Grudunza wrote:

I think the Sympathizer rules are fine as they are, though.

You obviously haven't spent many games as the (cylon) sympathizer just sitting through the last half of the game choosing the worst of two Crisis cards as your only turn (fuck - the crisis card happens by default normally) and playing the odd single skill card into checks ... BORED SHITLESS is a phrase that comes to mind, especially in a recent game when the luck of the draw meant my skill cards were virtually all 1s or 2s.

I've read half them so far and there is enough of a totally different game in there to make the expansion game sound very interesting.

Ah gee, you're right... I've only ever experienced the Sympathizer being a Human and thrown in the Brig, which I think is fine. But yeah, I didn't realize that not only do Cylon Sympathizer's not get a Super Crisis card, but they can't use "Cylon Fleet". That is lame.

In any case, it appears that the expansion will prevent that, as long as there is a Cylon Leader in play.

After reading through the rules there seems to be more options for a group depending how involved you want to get; Pegasus only, Pegaus and New Caprica, Cylon Leaders, Sympathetic Cylon, Sympathetic or Hostile agendas.

Two things to think about (so far):

- still haven't got my head around a Cylon Leader 'infiltrating', surely as soon as they boarded you would Brig them. I can only assume that, because you know if they have a sympathetic or hostile agenda, you would leave them alone if you thought they were arriving to assist ... BIG frakkin risk though.

- with the New Caprica board, the game ends as soo as the Admiral decides to make the final jump. There is no jump preps or anything, the Admiral says 'Game over time' and jumps ... so you better be frakkin sure he/she is a human otherwise - Galactica arrives, (cylon) Admiral jumps at his first opportunity and ALL civvies are lost. Obviously requires that the last cylon doesn't reveal at all.

Bit of a laugh here - this is from the newsletter of a UK online site (where I've just ordered 4 copies of the game):

xxxxxxxxxx Newsletter
New releases are two less than I told you on Monday. Fantasy Flight discovered that Chaos in the old World and Pegasus were due to be released in the UK last Friday and on Tuesday asked Esdevium the distributor to delay the release until the 21st of August (the American release). It's horrible to think of those shiny new games sitting un played in a dark warehouse.

Looks like FFG got caught out a bit

- still haven't got my head around a Cylon Leader 'infiltrating', surely as soon as they boarded you would Brig them. I can only assume that, because you know if they have a sympathetic or hostile agenda, you would leave them alone if you thought they were arriving to assist ... BIG frakkin risk though.

It's impossible to say until we've seen what the Cylon Leader agendas actually are, not to mention that it's hard enough to brig or airlock someone as it is. if it looks like the humans have their hands full, that's a good time to infiltrate, since it'll be tougher to pass those skill checks (especially since the cylon leader can chuck in more skill cards).

SanIlDefanso wrote:

- still haven't got my head around a Cylon Leader 'infiltrating', surely as soon as they boarded you would Brig them. I can only assume that, because you know if they have a sympathetic or hostile agenda, you would leave them alone if you thought they were arriving to assist ... BIG frakkin risk though.

It's impossible to say until we've seen what the Cylon Leader agendas actually are,

Yes - I think that is obvious, and I said so.

... not to mention that it's hard enough to brig or airlock someone as it is. if it looks like the humans have their hands full, that's a good time to infiltrate, since it'll be tougher to pass those skill checks (especially since the cylon leader can chuck in more skill cards).

Not so - an infiltrating Leader only gets to throw in 2 cards, so skill check of 7 to brig and then skill check of 8 to airlock (Leader down to 1 card) although you would probably make him/her waste their turn returning to the Resurrection Ship than sending them there for free.

I guess in all of our games, brigging isn't always an easy option, since a lot of people aren't at all convinced someone IS a Cylon. I figure with the Treachery deck, a Cylon Leader will have a pretty easy time of throwing a skill check.

Of course, the Airlock is one of a couple spaces where Treachery is positive, so what do I know?

I'm still wait-and-see on Pegasus. I think that BSG is a great game except that it's unbalanced in favor of the Cylons. Knowing FFG, they will probably re-balance the game with this expansion. The Pegasus board looks fun, but the New Caprica board doesn't, and replacing the current endgame is unnecessary and undesirable. I don't know what to make of the new cylon stuff and the treachery cards. So I will be waiting for reviews and session reports.

I'm getting my copy tomorrow night, from a gaming buddy who was at GenCon. I'll try and get it played this weekend and post some stuff on it.

My wildly BSG-addicted (100+ plays) group played four rounds with Pegasus yesterday. Long story short, we liked it, except for one thing (see below).

Humans had been winning about 60% in our group. With Pegasus they went 3-1. No clear change with that sample size. Three of the four games were exciting and down to the wire; in one of the Cylon losses, Leoben closed with four basestar shots at Galactica, and would have won if any had hit fuel (two missed, two hit Hangar Deck and Armory).

There are so many mechanics now that every game plays a *lot* different than the last. In three games we didn't touch the Engine Room at all, while in the fourth we relied on it heavily. We only had two reckless skill checks, but one was critically important. I'm hoping this increases the game variety and reduces groupthink and "accepted" moves.

Cain and Kat are awesome. Dee's Communications ability is nice, but her card draw leaves her useless on a lot of checks, and she seems to die a lot (As Dee in Game 1, I was proud to be the first person executed, though it was due to a failed skill check rather than an airlocking). We only used Ellen once and didn't get a good feel for her. Cavil and Caprica Six are both fine, while Leoben sucks; his Cylon brothers are always getting in his way (he can't voluntarily move to an occupied spot, and there's precious few Cylon locations).

The New Caprica phase moves quickly and smoothly, and creates surprising tension, especially when Galactica returns. How much effort do you expend on prepping/evacuating ships versus protecting them in the air? I expected not to like this, but it may be my favorite addition.

Our biggest concern is the Agendas. It's not just that they vary wildly in difficulty, though they do. In Game 1, Cavil had "Humans win, but all dials at 3 or lower." It is ridiculously hard to get food down to 3 when (a) our group always discards on Water and Food Shortages, (b) you can often go the 7 distance to New Caprica in only three jumps, (c) Cain's blind jump can make it even shorter, and (d) only three of the New Caprica crisis cards hit food. In retrospect, his only chance was to draw Super Crises.

But more importantly, at least one of the agendas is game-breaking. In Game 4, a five-player game, Cavil had "Humans win, but you play a Super Crisis." Cavil infiltrated on Turn 1, returned on Turn 2, and drew a Super Crisis on Turn 3. After that he sat on Caprica, kept the *more helpful* of the crisis cards each time (remember that the jump symbols count now), and waited for a moment when his Super Crisis wouldn't hurt (which was easy, since it was Fleet Mobilization, and he played it with no ships out!). Otherwise he played as a human the whole time, helping every crisis check he could. The other Cylon was playing 1-on-4 the whole time and had almost no chance (especially since he converted in the Sleeper Phase). Though we nearly misplayed the endgame by not getting enough vipers out; again, the New Caprica phase is nice.

So two big thumbs up for everything but the Agendas, which will require some more play and maybe some house ruling.

Well Agendas sound like they suck - and I thought in a 5p game the agenda was meant to be hostile, that didn't look particular hostile ?

But more importantly, at least one of the agendas is game-breaking. In Game 4, a five-player game, Cavil had "Humans win, but you play a Super Crisis." Cavil infiltrated on Turn 1, returned on Turn 2, and drew a Super Crisis on Turn 3. After that he sat on Caprica, kept the *more helpful* of the crisis cards each time (remember that the jump symbols count now), and waited for a moment when his Super Crisis wouldn't hurt (which was easy, since it was Fleet Mobilization, and he played it with no ships out!). Otherwise he played as a human the whole time, helping every crisis check he could. The other Cylon was playing 1-on-4 the whole time and had almost no chance (especially since he converted in the Sleeper Phase). Though we nearly misplayed the endgame by not getting enough vipers out; again, the New Caprica phase is nice.

I wouldn't call this game-breaking. An interesting thing about BSG is that the difficulty for the humans is never a constant. It depends on a ton of things, like when the Cylon attack cards come out, the sympathizer, and seating order of the Cylons. Your game almost sounds like one of those occasional sessions where everything lines up just so for the humans. That happened in the game BEFORE the expansion.

Humans had been winning about 60% in our group. With Pegasus they went 3-1.

You have got to be frakking kidding me. The humans win maybe 20% of the time for us. I'm glad to hear that Pegasus balances it out a little though. I never saw it as a balance "problem," but a lot of people do.

SanIlDefanso wrote:

Humans had been winning about 60% in our group. With Pegasus they went 3-1.

You have got to be frakking kidding me. The humans win maybe 20% of the time for us. I'm glad to hear that Pegasus balances it out a little though. I never saw it as a balance "problem," but a lot of people do.

Humans are 6-5 in the games I've played so far (all base game).