If you still think “Battlestar Galactica” means Lorne Greene, faux-Egyptian space helmets, a male Starbuck, and a midget in some kind of space dog costume, you’re behind the times. The Sci Fi Channel’s re-imagining of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA surprised everyone a couple of years ago by bucking not only the trend of juvenile, campy science fiction television series such as LEXX and FIREFLY but also that of the expectations most reasonable people had for Sci Fi’s DINOCROC-caliber original program. The new GALACTICA was edgy, smartly written, incredibly tense, and about themes a lot bigger than spaceships and robots. It was a show about humanity’s struggle to survive against not only impossible odds but also in the midst of fear, suspicion, prejudice, spiritual upheaval, and political maneuvering.

I don’t watch much television and rarely get involved in any current series, but BATTLESTAR GALACTICA hooked me from the first episode and even despite some sloppy writing and rushed resolutions, I still think the show is one of the best I’ve ever seen.

So when Fantasy Flight Games announced that it had licensed the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA property for a board game, my response was a hearty “Frack yeah!” I couldn’t imagine a better company to bring the world of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA to the table. FFG’s track record with licensed games is very nearly impeccable and the licensed games they have produced over the last several years such as WAR OF THE RING, STARCRAFT, and A GAME OF THRONES have been top-shelf material respectful of their sources and largely successful in conveying the stories, characters, and settings of these properties to the board gaming medium. Announced as a cooperative game with a traitor mechanic, it was pretty clear early on that right design decisions were being made. With designer Corey Koniecszka (STARCRAFT, TIDE OF IRON) in the admiral’s seat there shouldn’t have been any doubt that we were in good hands all along, and at the end of the journey what we have to show for the trip is not only one of the very best games of 2008, but one of the most thematically dense games that I’ve played in the past decade.

Let’s get it out of the way up front- you don’t have to know Lee Adama from Gaius Baltar to get into and fully appreciate the game. A little knowledge about the basic concept is really the only completed homework you need to bring to it. In a nutshell, humanity gets wiped out by Cylons, a race of bio-mechanical replicants created by humans themselves. The surviving humans flee in the titular ship along with a ragtag assortment of civilian ships, looking for the planet Kobol, which promises to point the way to Earth.

Along the way, characters are revealed as Cylons and Cylons infiltrators wreak havoc and generate paranoia. It’s obviously much more complex than that, but the game actually manages to flesh out the story quite a bit, even for the uninitiated. With fairly complex rules encompassing a lot of interlocking mechanics and subsystems, the game is not as accessible as I expected it to be, considering that it is based on a mainstream, hit TV series. It is definitely a hobby market game, but fans of the show patient enough to deal with learning the game will be richly rewarded in ways that hobby gamers and the mainstreamers alike can appreciate. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, unlike so many of today’s games that emphasize clever mechanics, is actually about playing and creating a solid, engrossing narrative.

Three to six players get to assume the role of one of GALACTICA’s principle characters, who each come packaged with a special ability, a one-time use special ability and a drawback that negatively affects their gameplay. My favorite is Colonel Tigh’s alcoholism. Each character also has two or three skills, which indicate which skill cards they will have access to throughout the game- players will use those to resolve crisis cards and to perform certain tasks. Galactica (and Colonial One, the presidential ship) is abstracted into a handful of areas where players can take specific actions. A turn consists of getting your prescribed skill cards, moving, taking an action, and then resolving a crisis card. Pretty simple stuff, and as long as players remain attentive it flows seamlessly. Expect anywhere from two to four hours depending on the number of players.

The mule-kick to the whole thing is that players also receive a loyalty card at setup indicating whether or not they are actually a Cylon, who must through various clandestine means derail humanity’s struggle for survival. Halfway through the game, another set of loyalty cards are dealt and players who thought they were human all along might find themselves batting for the other team- just like in the show. It’s a simple mechanic, obviously inspired by the traitor mechanic from SHADOWS OVER CAMELOT but the possibility of one, two, or no Cylons creates an even greater sense of tension, unease, and suspicion throughout the game. There is also a lot more nasty stuff for the Cylons to do- some of which is incredibly sneaky and potentially disastrous for the human players. The Cylons are looking to damage six sections of the Galactica or to zero out one of the resource dials representing food, population, fuel, and morale.

I was amazed at how many ways the Cylon players can act as a monkey wrench. At the end of each player’s turn, a crisis card (generally depicting an actual event from the show) is drawn. The skill card could be a decision to be made by the active player or it could be a skill check. Of course, if it’s a decision then the Cylon player is faced with risking the bad choice and being called out for it or playing nice and using the good outcome as a smokescreen. In a skill check crisis, each player can contribute certain skill cards towards its resolution in an attempt to reach a target number. However, skill cards that are played into the resolution pile that do not match the called-for skills subtract their number so a Cylon can sabotage the skill check to get the negative result. And to make matters more complicated, two blind cards are drawn as a baffle from a prepared deck, so even if there’s no Cylon then those negative cards may turn up and create paranoia.