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Table of contents

Introduction

This rulebook is intended to be a single resource for the official rules of Battlestar Galactica by Fantasy Flight Games, including its 3 expansions. The goals are for it to be complete and unambiguous, incorporating the published rules included with the games as well as clarifications and rulings made later, so that no one has to dig through 4 rulebooks, errata, official FAQs, unofficial FAQs, and rulings by FFG employees in response to customer questions.

For beginning players, it’s probably best to use the official base game rulebook to learn the game. This rulebook has lots of detail, even when all the expansions are turned off, which is probably going to hurt more than help. But if you are playing the game and have a question that the official rulebook doesn’t seem to answer, take a look. An experienced player should be able to use this to teach new players the game, since they can explain the basics themselves and know what details can be ignored to start.

Configure which expansions and options are being included by using the form at the top of the page. Some rules change based on which expansions or options are included, and the rulebook will change as you configure it.

By default, this rulebook sticks to the official rules and rulings by Fantasy Flight Games. However, some options are available for variants, including one by Alexander DeSouza called “Allies for All Seasons” which pulls in the “ally” mechanic without the rest of the Ionian Nebula ending.

The basics

Humanity has been decimated in a surprise attack by the Cylons, a race of machines who were created by humans and rebelled against them. After 40 years of peace, the remaining members of the human race are suddenly on the run, fleeing through space and fighting for survival. In the escape, however, it becomes clear that the Cylons have evolved – there are models that are completely indistinguishable from humans, and some don’t even know that they are Cylons.

During the game, the human fleet will attempt to escape the pursuing Cylons, moving toward the final objective in a series of faster-than-light jumps. The humans have re-formed their government and what’s left of the military still follows a chain of command… but can those in authority be trusted?

Each player will select a character and be dealt Loyalty cards. Characters have different skills and abilities, and a well-balanced team of players will help the humans succeed and survive. Players take turns, where they can draw cards, move, and take an action, but at the end of each turn all players must deal with a crisis. It could be a surprise Cylon attack, or a dilemma with no clear answer. All this time, some players are secretly Cylons, or may become Cylons partway through the game, so trust is a critical factor. A hidden Cylon could choose to sabotage at a critical moment, or cause infighting amongst the humans. Cylons can also choose to reveal themselves, causing damage along the way and allowing the Cylon to openly fight the humans.

Strategy

As a “real” human, you will want to focus on conserving the fleet’s resources so that you can survive to the end of the game (which you’ll want to bring about as soon as possible). Different characters have different strengths, so players will want to help out in the areas that they are able to. The biggest threat to the humans is hidden Cylons, who could strike at a critical moment. Keep an eye on negative Skill cards, and carefully consider when other players make questionable decisions whether they are being honest. If another player is a Cylon, it’s very important to get them thrown in the Brig as soon as possible. While in the Brig, a Cylon doesn’t harm the fleet when they reveal themselves, and they’ll only be able to put 1 card into Skill checks so they won’t be able to hurt too much. At the same time, remember that you may become a Cylon during the Sleeper Agent phase… it might turn out that you don’t want to help your team out too much.

As a Cylon, you do not want to give away the fact that you are a Cylon until the right moment. Pretend to be a human just like everyone else, but try to find reasons and excuses for not helping out. A negative card or two could set the humans back, but be careful that it does not also point back to you. If you’re the only pilot, and suddenly pilot cards start hurting the humans, you’ll immediately be the top suspect. Try to make other players look like the suspicious ones instead. Players in leadership roles often have to make tough decisions with no right answer, so take opportunities to criticize them and call them into question. Getting thrown in the Brig is a setback because you won’t get to add more than 1 card to Skill checks, and you won’t get to do damage when you reveal yourself.

A properly timed reveal could be devastating to the humans, especially if your reveal power is just what the humans don’t need. You can also go rogue without using your reveal power, openly harming the humans by wasting resources, making harmful decisions, and generally sabotaging the fleet. This is especially useful when you hold a position of power, or if you see an opportunity to do more harm through regular actions. Of course, the humans will quickly catch on and take you down, but they’ll have to spend turns and resources to do that.

After revealing, focus on the humans’ weakest point and attack it. Go after the lowest resources as much as possible. Crisis cards usually lower morale, and civilian ships usually contain population. You can also give heavy raiders and centurions a boost, making them even more of a threat and forcing the humans to take care of them quickly. When drawing cards, piloting and engineering are usually negative for Skill checks.

Game setup

Game board

Setting up the game board is fairly straightforward. The resource dials are set to their defaults, skill cards go next to their respective spaces on the bottom, vipers and raptors go in the reserves, and the fleet marker goes on the jump track. All other components and decks are placed somewhere near the board for use later. The Skill card discard piles are face-up next to each Skill draw pile.

When an expansion includes a “fancy” version of an existing component, such as the plastic basestars and Centurions, they are used instead of those components, not along with. The number of components is important, because they are not treated as unlimited resources.

Even though the Daybreak expansion isn’t being used in this game, if you have it, it can be useful to use Miracle tokens to track who has and has not used their once-per-game ability.

The starting layout of ships is:

See text description below

  • One basestar and 3 raiders in front of Galactica (left space area)
  • Two vipers below Galactica (one in each space area with the launch tube icon)
  • Two civilian ships behind Galactica (right space area).

Kobol ending

The Kobol ending does not require any additional setup. Give the Kobol objective card to the Admiral and follow its instructions when the indicated distances are reached or exceeded.

Choosing characters

Determine a first player randomly. They will choose their character first and take the first turn. Both character choice and gameplay will proceed clockwise from there.

Players may not choose “alternate” versions of characters that have already been chosen. Note that “Boomer” and “Athena” are not alternates of each other, they are separate characters that may both be chosen in the same game.

Each character has a category: Political, Military, Pilot, and Support. Support characters may be chosen at any time. The other 3 categories must be chosen evenly. For example, if the first two characters chosen were Political and Military, players may not choose another Political or Military character until a Pilot has been selected.

Once all characters are chosen, distribute titles to the highest in the lines of succession.

Loyalty Deck

The back of the Loyalty cards

First, build two decks of Loyalty cards: the “You Are a Cylon” and the “You Are Not a Cylon” decks. Set aside any Loyalty cards that have titles other than these two.

Shuffle both decks separately, then form the initial Loyalty deck according to this table:

Players Cylon cards Not a Cylon cards
3 1 5
4 1 6
5 2 8
6 2 9

If a player chose Sharon “Boomer” Valerii (Pilot), add 1 more “Not a Cylon” card.

If a player chose Gaius Baltar (Political), add 1 more “Not a Cylon” card.

If playing with 4 or 6 players, get the “You Are a Sympathizer” card, and set it aside. Don’t add it to the Loyalty deck yet. It is added to the Loyalty deck after the first round of cards go out.

Keep the “Not a Cylon” deck, taking care to keep it separate from the actual Loyalty deck. It might be used later to add more cards to the Loyalty deck. The unused cards from the “Cylon” deck are now removed from the game without revealing them.

The Loyalty deck is now complete. Shuffle it and distribute 1 card to every player. As per his weakness, Gaius Baltar (Political) receives 2 Loyalty cards instead of 1. After the first round is dealt, add any cards that were set aside to be added later, like the Sympathizer or Sympathetic Cylon.

First hand of cards

Every player except the first player draws 3 Skill cards to start the game. (As always, when a player is drawing Skill cards they must come from within their skill set unless otherwise specified.) The first player will get to draw their normal hand of cards in the first turn.

Assemble the Destiny deck by taking 2 of each Skill card type and shuffling it. Whenever the Destiny deck runs out, make a new one in the same way.

Rule reminders

Before starting the game, check that:

  • The main board was set up with a basestar, 3 raiders, 2 vipers, and 2 civilian ships.
  • Each player except the first player drew 3 Skill cards.

It might be a good idea to remind all players of the following:

  • When choosing a character to send to Sickbay or the Brig, you must choose someone who can actually be moved there if possible.
  • Cylon players can choose to ignore effects on Crisis cards.
  • Centurions don't "push" each other on the Boarding Party track, more than one can occupy the same space.
  • Even if a resource reaches zero, the humans have until the end of the current player's turn to raise it back up before they lose.
  • All players must discard down to 10 Skill cards at the end of each turn if they have more.
  • Revealed Cylons should never reveal any more Loyalty cards, even if they say to "immediately reveal this card". They can hand them off later in the Resurrection Ship.
  • Super Crisis cards are immune to character abilities and any ability that says it affects Crisis cards.

Playing The Game

Starting with the first player (as selected during setup), each player takes a turn in clockwise order until the game ends. The game ends when either the humans lose, or the final jump occurs.

The humans can lose in the following ways:

  • Being out of a resource at the end of a player’s turn or at the end of the game.
  • Centurion Invasion: A centurion reaching the “Humans Lose” space on the Boarding Party track
  • Galactica Destroyed: Galactica is destroyed when 6 or more locations are damaged at once.

If the humans run out of a resource, they can avoid losing if they manage to replenish that resource before the end of the current players turn. In all the other cases, the game ends immediately.

Game turn

A player’s game turn consists of the following steps:

  1. Receive Skills:
    • Human players receive cards according to their character sheet.
    • Cylon players draw two Skill cards of any type.
  2. Movement: The player may take 1 move.
  3. Action: The player may take 1 action that is available to them.
  4. Crisis: The player draws and resolves a Crisis card unless told otherwise. Cylon players always skip this step.
  5. End turn. The next player clockwise gets to take a turn.
    • All players must discard Skill Cards down to the 10 card limit now.
    • If any resource is at 0 or lower at this point, the humans lose.

Throughout the game, players must adhere to the rules about secrecy, and follow the instructions on cards and character sheets that they have. In addition to the text on character sheets, players must also only draw Skill cards from their skill set unless otherwise stated.

If, at any time during a turn, the fleet earns more distance, finish resolving the card that added distance then immediately check the Admiral’s Objective card to see if the total distance has met or exceeded any milestones. If it has, all other gameplay pauses while the instructions on the Objective card are resolved, after which gameplay resumes. This could be the Sleeper Agent phase, or the beginning of the end of the game.

Player terminology

The word “player” refers to any player in the game, human or Cylon. A “Cylon player” is a player who has revealed as a Cylon. Any player that is not a “Cylon player” is a “human player”, even if they are secretly a Cylon.

If a player has both a “You Are a Cylon” and a “You Are Not a Cylon” card, they are a hidden Cylon.

Players who have a hidden “You Are a Cylon” card are secretly Cylons, but until they reveal they follow all the rules for human players (and should probably pretend to be human until the time comes to reveal). Even if a player is very obviously sabotaging the humans, or even admits to being a Cylon, they are still a “human player” until they reveal their Cylon card. Cylons always win or lose with the Cylon team, even if they never reveal themselves.

Secrecy

As a game of hidden agendas and secrets, secrecy is very important. Without any rules about secrecy, the humans could simply interrogate everyone about their contributions and actions, making deception almost impossible. In a real life or death situation that would be a good strategy, but for a game it’s no fun. As such, the following rules are critical for giving players plausible deniability:

  • Players may not discuss the exact strength of cards in their hands. Vague terms like “a lot” and “a little” are allowed, but statements like “I am adding 5 Engineering cards” are not.
  • Players may not identify which Skill cards they added to a Skill check, or talk about what types of cards they have added or are planning to add.
  • When players get to look at the top card of a deck, they may not disclose specific information about that card. This also applies when a player is allowed to look at another’s Loyalty card.
  • Players may not reveal the specifics of civilian ships that they have seen.
  • Revealed Cylons may not say which Super Crisis card(s) they have.
  • When a card is directed to be placed at the bottom of a deck, players may not look at it. It was put there to be kept secret.

Players are always allowed to speculate and accuse players of being Cylons or humans, and are also allowed to lie. If a player sees another’s Loyalty card, they may disclose (or lie about) whether it was a Cylon or not (but not specific information, like what the reveal power was).

Other rules about secrecy will depend on the desires of the players. The rest of these are guidelines, but not necessarily hard-and-fast rules.

Generally, players are allowed to use terms that are polar opposites, like “a lot” or “a little”, but not “pretty high” or “medium”, to describe cards. “Good” and “Bad” are also acceptable. When playing multiple cards into a Skill check, players are allowed to say that they are helping “a medium amount” (since this is basically the same as saying “some high and some low cards”). They may also include information that is already public, like “I am adding 3 high cards to the check”.

Public information includes the number of cards in each player’s hand, in each Skill card deck, the Quorum deck, and the Destiny deck, and the number of cards that a player is adding to a Skill check. The top card of any discard pile is also public, but not the number of cards in it.

Players are allowed to ask for cards, like “I’m about to use FTL, does anyone have a Strategic Planning?”, and others may choose to respond that they do or do not. This should not be abused; do not ask for information about every single card.

Resolving rule conflicts

This rulebook attempts to be as comprehensive and unambiguous as possible, but Battlestar Galactica is a complex game and individual opinions and interpretations can differ. When trying to resolve ambiguity, try to follow these guidelines:

  • Read the text carefully, and try to take it literally. Game text usually means exactly what it says.
  • More specific overrides less specific. For example, the text on a Crisis card or character sheet may contradict a normal game rule, and in those cases the game rule is overruled.
  • Try to resolve as many effects as possible, and skip any that cannot be resolved. Do all that you can, and ignore anything that you can’t.

That said, this rulebook covers a lot of fiddly details. There are sections with guidance about specific locations and character abilities, and in-depth descriptions of exactly how most events are resolved. You might find details by searching for the name of the card or ability on this page. Looking at the section pertaining to the event you’re in the middle of will also probably lend some clarity to how the situation should be resolved (and might even have an exact answer).

Component limitations

Obviously there are not an infinite number of ship tokens and other items in the game, so it is possible that they will run out. Follow these rules when a game effect cannot be followed because there are not enough tokens or other pieces.

In the event of component limitations for ships, the current player decides the order of placement, and if necessary, which ones are placed and which are not placed.

If a heavy raider cannot become a Centurion due to component limitations, the heavy raider remains on the board.

When instructed to “draw and destroy a civilian ship”, there are special rules that apply when the normal stockpile has run out.

When a pilot uses the Hanger Deck, if there are no vipers in the reserves then the pilot may return an unmanned viper in a space area to the reserves and then launch using it.

When a deck runs out of cards, shuffle its discard pile to create a new deck. The only exception to this rule is the Loyalty deck, which is not shuffled or used again after it is depleted. In the rare event that the “Not a Cylon” deck is depleted, it should be re-shuffled with all the discarded “Not a Cylon” cards.

Die rolls

Various events during the game depend on the results of a die roll. When a player initiates an action that requires a die roll, that player performs the roll, even if they are not the current player. This is important for characters with the ability to affect “their” die rolls. Be careful to check whether an ability specifies “on your turn” or “during your action step” as well.

When an ability allows a die roll to be redone, any abilities that were played before the first roll, such as “Strategic Planning”, are still in effect for the re-roll. Players can choose to add new effects to the new roll as well (for example, playing “Strategic Planning” if it wasn’t played before).

Die rolls can be changed by game effects, but the result cannot be made greater than 8 or less than 1. Effects that modify die rolls do not apply when a die roll is skipped, such as Kat’s “Hot Shot” ability.

Timing

This rulebook is very specific about the separate phases of resolving various cards and events, so if two players wish to use “interrupting” abilities at the same time, refer to the appropriate procedure. There may be guidance about which ability occurs first, or it may indicate that the two abilities actually occur in different steps. Skill Checks, in particular, have a surprising number of steps where different abilities can apply.

Otherwise, in general when multiple players want to perform abilities in the same “timing window” or a choice needs to be made about what order things happen in, the choice is up to the current player. For example, if two players want to use abilities before a Skill Check, the current player chooses which one happens first. The rejected ability is either withdrawn or that player may still choose to use it after the first is resolved. If the withdrawn ability was on a card being played, the player takes the card back.

The current player also chooses which components to place and which to skip if there is a shortage, and which space areas are resolved first when activating Cylon ships.

When playing a card, it ceases to be “yours” or “in your hand” when resolution of the card text begins. For example, if you have 5 cards in your hand, then play a card like Pegasus’s “Support the People” which allows players with 4 or less cards in hand to do something, you count as having 4 cards. Technically, as soon as a card is played it should be discarded (unless the text indicates that it should be kept in play), although in practice players will probably want to keep it on the board while the card is resolved. This shouldn’t make any difference unless the discard pile needs to be reshuffled while the card is being resolved. If this happens, the played card should be included in the shuffled deck.

If multiple players are instructed to do something that involves drawing cards, start with the player who initiated the action, if applicable, otherwise the current player, and proceed clockwise until each player has completed the instruction. If the instruction involves multiple steps, each player performs all of the steps. For example, when following “All players discard 1 Skill card and draw 1 Treachery card”, the current player does their discard and draw, then the next player discards and draws, and so on.

If multiple players are instructed to discard cards with no card drawing involved, the discard happens simultaneously. In other words, each player must select the card(s) that they will discard before seeing the other discarded cards.

Players must be given a reasonable opportunity to use abilities. For example, you may not rush to put cards into a Skill check to prevent players from using a card that can only be played before cards are added.

Resources

The fleet has 4 resources which are tracked by dials on the main game board: fuel, food, morale, and population. Increase or decrease the dials as directed by game effects.

If any resource is at 0 at the end of a turn or the end of the game, the humans lose. It is possible for the humans to avoid losing by replenishing a resource before the turn ends.

Character sheets

Each character’s sheet lists these items:

  • Type. Used for selecting a well-rounded group of characters to start.
  • Abilities. These include
    • A standard ability, which may be an action or a passive trait.
    • A “once-per-game” ability, which can only be used once per game.
    • A negative ability which must be followed during the game.
  • Skill Set. These are the types of cards that your character draws.
    • The numbers indicate how many of each type to draw at the start of your turn. For “multi-skills” like “1 Leadership/Engineering”, you may choose between the two types while drawing.
    • Otherwise, when drawing Skill cards, they must be present in your skill set unless otherwise instructed.
  • Setup instructions. This tells you how to start the game with your character.

A character ability that affects Crisis cards or Skill checks does not affect a Super Crisis card.

The number next to each Skill type only applies to drawing cards at the start of a turn. If, for example, “Helo” was instructed to draw 2 Skill cards, he could choose 2 Piloting cards despite the line saying “1 Piloting”. He could not draw any Politics cards because he does not have Politics anywhere in his Skill set.

Players with “multi-skills” of multiple cards, like “2 Leadership/Politics”, are allowed to split their choices, so a draw of 1 Leadership and 1 Politics is allowed.

Once per game

The “once per game” ability on a character sheet can be chosen by a player up to once in a single game. After that, it cannot be used again.

Even when not playing with Daybreak, it’s convenient to use that expansion’s Miracle tokens to track whether each player has used their once-per-game or not.

Loyalty cards

Players receive Loyalty cards at the beginning of the game and at the Sleeper Agent phase. Players must keep them secret unless another player is directed to look at them, not discussing their text or any other details other than claiming to be human or Cylon. Players may imply things about their Loyalty cards (for example, “I wouldn’t examine my Loyalty cards if I were you” or “This is a waste of time”) but may not discuss any specifics about the card’s appearance or text.

A player is on the Cylon team if any of their Loyalty card states “You Are A Cylon”. Having both a “Cylon” and “Not A Cylon” means that you are on the Cylon team, even if you’re still hidden. A hidden Cylon still wins or loses with the Cylons.

When a player is allowed to examine just one Loyalty card from another player, it is chosen randomly. When choosing a target to inspect Loyalty cards, players must select a face down Loyalty card that doesn’t belong to themselves if possible. If this is not possible, for example a player who is President and Admiral being instructed to inspect the President or Admiral’s Loyalty card, nothing happens.

The Sympathizer

This card is sometimes added to the Loyalty deck after the first round of cards go out (so it will appear in the Sleeper Agent phase). As it states on the card, this Loyalty card is immediately revealed and resolved when dealt to a human player. If any resource is in the red zone, The Sympathizer is sent to the Brig but remains a human player. If there are no resources in the red zone, The Sympathizer follows the procedure for revealing as a Cylon player, but does not draw a Super Crisis card. They are also not allowed to use the “Cylon Fleet” location.

Cylon Players

Players who have not revealed as Cylons are considered human players, not Cylon players, even if they are secretly a Cylon. Only revealed Cylons have the immunities listed below.

Cylon players may choose to ignore the effects of Crisis cards and Skill Checks, unless they specifically say that they apply to Cylon players.

Cylon players are not allowed to:

  • Move to non-Cylon locations (or be sent to the Brig or Sickbay).
  • Use abilities or actions on Skill cards, Quorum cards, or their old human character sheet, including their once-per-game ability.
  • Be the target of an “Executive Order” or Quorum cards.
    • If a Cylon reveals as the first action of an Executive Order, they are not allowed to use the second action.
  • Contribute more than 1 card to Skill Checks.
  • Reveal Loyalty cards, even if they say to “immediately reveal this card”.

Cylon Reveal resolution

Revealing as a Cylon is an action, as described on the “You Are A Cylon” Loyalty card.

  1. If you revealed yourself as an action, complete the action listed on the “You Are a Cylon” card. If you are in the Brig, you do not get to take the action.
    • Note that it says to only reveal this card, not others. Keep any other Loyalty cards secret!
  2. Discard your hand of Skill cards down to 3.
  3. Discard any Quorum cards attached to your character (these are cards like “Assign Vice President”, not the hand of Quorum cards).
  4. Lose any titles to the character highest in the line of succession for that title. All resources that are tied to that title (the hand of Quorum cards, nuke tokens, Destinations) travel with the title as-is, they are not discarded.
  5. Move to the “Resurrection Ship” location. If piloting a ship, that ship is returned to the Reserves.
  6. Draw a Super Crisis Card unless instructed otherwise.
  7. Keep your Loyalty cards hidden, and do not reveal any Loyalty cards for the rest of the game, even if they say to "immediately reveal" them. They can be passed off to other players at the Resurrection Ship.
  8. From this point on, follow the rules for a revealed Cylon. This includes not drawing a Crisis card at the end of your turn.

Titles

Titles can only be held by human players. When a human is revealed to be a Cylon, the first player in the line of succession for that title claims it.

President

The President controls the hand of Quorum cards on behalf of the fleet and has to make choices on Crisis Cards.

The hand of Quorum cards belongs to the human fleet as a whole, but is controlled and kept secret by the President. If the President title is transferred to another player for any reason, the new President also takes control of the hand of Quorum cards. They are not discarded or kept by the outgoing President. The President title card provides an additional action to draw Quorum cards, and some locations can only be used by the President. There is no card limit for the hand of Quorum cards.

Admiral

The Admiral controls the human fleet’s nuke tokens and can use them with the action on the title card. The Admiral also chooses the destination when a jump occurs, and makes choices that specify the Admiral. In addition, if a game effect states that a civilian ship is to be placed, but does not say which space area, the Admiral may choose any area.

If the Admiral is in the Brig, they are stripped of their title. The new Admiral is the highest human player in the line of succession who is not in the Brig. The previous Admiral does not regain their title automatically upon leaving the Brig. If all eligible players are in the Brig, the title goes to the highest in the line of succession until a player leaves the Brig.

Lines of Succession

Lines of succession

Click the image above to see it full-sized in a new tab.

Unlike in real life, players do not gain titles solely because they are the highest in the line of succession. For example, if Helena Cain gets out of the Brig, she does not regain her Admiral title, even though she is first in the line of succession. When a player holds a title, they always keep it until they are instructed to give it to someone else.

Actions & Abilities

Cards, character sheets, and locations have various actions and abilities that are available to players to use. Players may play cards to use their abilities, use abilities on their own character sheets or on title cards that they hold, and use the action for their current location. A pilot may also use an action to activate the viper that they are piloting.

An action will be indicated by the word “Action:”, and can be used only when a player is granted an action. Other abilities indicate when they can be played and the effect that they will have.

Cylon players are not allowed to use actions and abilities on old human character sheets, human locations, or Skill cards.

Moves

A player who is granted a “move” may move their character token to a new location. A move to a location on the same ship can be performed at no cost. There is no die roll or number of “spaces” that tokens have to move, the token simply moves directly from one location to another.

Using a move to go to a location on another ship requires the player to first discard a Skill card. If a player has no Skill cards, they will not be able to move themselves to locations off of their current ship. The destination must be selected before the discard occurs, and the player’s token is not moved until the discard is fully resolved.

Players may not choose to move to “hazardous” locations, they can only be sent to them by game effects that specify that exact location. Human players are not allowed to move to Cylon locations and vice versa.

Players piloting a viper may move their ship to an adjacent space area when granted a move. They may also discard a Skill card to move to a location on any ship and return their viper to the Reserves. Neither of these counts as a viper activation.

Skill Cards

The back of a Skill card

Skill cards have a type, a strength, and an ability. At the end of any player’s turn, a player with more than 10 Skill Cards must discard down to 10. When discarded, Skill Cards go face up next to their respective deck. When a deck runs out, shuffle the discard pile to create a new deck.

Cylon players are not allowed to use the text abilities on Skill Cards.

Types

  • Politics: This skill represents a character’s ability to control morale and help the fleet overcome crises. This is the most common skill type required by Crisis Cards. Some politics cards also provide the ability to allow a player draw Skill Cards from outside his skill set.
  • Leadership: This skill represents a character’s ability to take charge of situations and command other individuals. This is the second-most common skill type required by Crisis Cards. Some leadership cards allow players to move other characters and grant them a bonus action.
  • Tactics: This skill type represents a character’s ability to plan missions as well as to physically overcome obstacles. Tactics cards allow players to gain bonuses to die rolls as well as scout the galaxy for new destinations.
  • Piloting: This skill represents a character’s ability to fly vipers. Piloting cards allow players to reroll enemy attack rolls as well as gain additional attacks.
  • Engineering: This skill represents a character’s strength in the mechanical and scientific fields. Some engineering cards allow players to repair vipers and locations aboard Galactica.

Destiny Deck

To create the Destiny deck, take two of each type of Skill Card and shuffle. These are used in each Skill Check to add uncertainty and plausible deniability for hidden Cylons. After the last card is used from the Destiny deck, form a new one.

Crisis card resolution

  1. Draw a Crisis card.
  2. Reveal the Crisis card and read it.
    • Starbuck’s “Secret Destiny” takes place before Baltar’s “Delusional Intuition”. (Baltar’s text should really say “after revealing”.)
  3. Resolve the Crisis based on whether it is a Cylon attack, a Skill Check, or an event.
  4. Activate Cylon Ships as directed by the bottom left corner of the Crisis card.
  5. If the “Prepare for Jump” icon is present in the bottom right corner, advance the fleet token 1 space. This may trigger a jump.
  6. Discard the Crisis card unless otherwise indicated.

Cylon Attack cards

A sample Cylon Attack card

Each Cylon Attack Crisis has 3 steps:

  1. Activate: Fully resolve the indicated Cylon ship activation before adding new ships to the board.
  2. Setup: Place new ships on the board as shown in the image. The text lists the exact numbers.
  3. Special Rule: The given special rule now applies. If the rule does not say to “keep this card in play”, the Crisis card is discarded afterward.

The ships shown are new ships to be placed. Any existing ships on the board stay where they are when performing “Setup”. If there are not enough ships, follow the component limitation rules. Abilities that occur when a ship is placed, such as Apollo’s “Alert Viper Pilot”, may take place immediately after the setup phase is complete.

Event Crisis cards

A sample event Crisis card

An “Event” Crisis card has a bar below the picture that says “[Someone] Chooses”, with a specific player or title named, as well as an “or” bar between the two choices.

The indicated player must choose which box to resolve before play can continue. In some cases, both boxes simply have text to be resolved. In others, one of the choices is to attempt a Skill check.

When making a choice, unless specifically stated otherwise a player may select which box gets resolved even if they know that they will not be able to actually fulfill that option. For example, if the choice is between “lose 1 morale” and “the President discards 5 Skill cards”, the second option can be chosen even if the President has no Skill cards. However, remember that restrictions apply to which players can be sent to the Brig or Sickbay.

Super Crisis Cards

The back of a Super Crisis card

Abilities that apply to Crisis cards do not apply to Super Crisis cards. Super Crisis cards are also immune to all character abilities affecting Skill checks. Otherwise, they are resolved using the same procedure as Crisis cards.

Skill Check resolution

A regular Skill Check card

Each Skill check has a strength in the top left corner, a title, a picture, and colors which count as positive. Any color not “lit up” is negative, and will subtract from the positive cards. Two cards from the Destiny deck are secretly added to the Skill check when it begins.

Starting with the player to the left of the current player, each player secretly contributes their choice of cards, face down, into the Skill check. The current player goes last. Human players may normally contribute any number of cards, including zero. The number of cards added is public knowledge. Cylon players and players in the Brig may only contribute up to 1 card.

The result of the Skill check will determine which of the boxes at the bottom will take effect. A Skill check is passed if it meets or exceeds the strength in the top left corner. There may be a “partial pass” result if the strength reaches a certain threshold but doesn’t fully pass, but otherwise the Skill check fails.

The full, detailed procedure for resolving a Skill check is as follows:

  1. The Skill check begins.
    • Resolve any abilities that cause the entire check to pass or fail without any attempt required, such as “Political Prowess” or Boomer’s “Mysterious Intuition”
  2. The “pre-card” abilities can now occur, with the exact order chosen by the current player if multiple cards are played at once.
    • This includes abilities with text that says:
      • “before making a skill check”
      • “before cards are added to a Skill check”
      • “when a player activates [some location]”
    • When the current player chooses an effect to go first, the rejected effect can be withdrawn. If it was on a card, the owner takes the card back.
  3. Add 2 cards face down from the Destiny deck
  4. Starting to the left of the current player and proceeding clockwise, each player plays cards face down into the Skill check. The current player goes last.
    • Unless otherwise specified, a player may play any number of Skill cards into the check, including zero. The number of cards that a player is adding is considered public information.
  5. Shuffle the Skill check cards
  6. Reveal the Skill check cards
    • Caprica Six’s “Human Delusion” occurs before Cally’s “Quick Fix” if both are attempted
  7. Total the net strength of the cards (positive minus negative), taking into account any effects that modified them
    • Of course, players are allowed to do their own counting at any time. This step simply indicates calculation of the final result.
  8. Determine outcome: Pass, partial pass, or fail
    • “A Second Chance” now applies if it was played
    • Abilities that change the amount required to pass a Skill check do not change the amount required for a “partial pass”.
  9. Resolve the outcome’s effects
    • “Install Upgrades” now applies if it was played
  10. Discard Skill cards into their appropriate discard piles
    • William Adama may override this with “Command Authority”

Activating Cylon ships

Appropriately, Cylon ships follow certain programming when activated. Cylon players don’t pilot or otherwise control these ships directly.

When resolving a result with multiple Cylon activations, resolve them in left to right order.

If there are not enough tokens to place ships on the board, the current player chooses which to place, and the rest are skipped due to component limitations.

When these icons appear on a Crisis card, do the following:

  • Activate raiders: Each Cylon raider is activated once. Resolve one space area at a time, with the current player choosing the order of space areas. If there are no raiders on the board, each basestar launches two new raiders. If there are no raiders and no basestars on the board, nothing happens.
  • Launch raiders: Each basestar launches 3 raiders. If there are no basestars, nothing happens.
  • Activate heavy raiders and Centurions: Follow the procedure for activating heavy raiders and Centurions. If there are no basestars, centurions, or heavy raiders, nothing happens.
  • Activate basestars: Each basestar attacks Galactica. If there are no basestars, nothing happens.

Activating a raider

Cylon raiders follow a simple program when they are activated. An individual Cylon raider always does the first available action in this list and then stops:

  1. Attack an unmanned viper in its space area
  2. Attack a manned viper in its space area
  3. Destroy a civilian ship in its space area
  4. Move one space area closer to the nearest civilian ship. If two such space areas are equal in distance, the raider moves clockwise.
  5. If there are no civilian ships, the raider attacks Galactica.

When all Cylon raiders are activated, they are resolved one entire space area at a time. If multiple space areas have raiders in them, the current player chooses what order they are resolved in, and sometimes this makes a big difference!

If a raider moves to another space area that hasn’t been resolved yet, it is not activated a second time. Make sure to keep it separate from the ships that have not been activated yet.

Activating heavy raiders and Centurions

When heavy raiders are activated, do all of the following steps:

  • Move all centurions on the board one 1 space further on the Boarding Party track
  • If a heavy raider is already in a space area with a launch icon, it is removed from the board and replaced with a Centurion on the start of the Boarding Party track (if there are not enough Centurion tokens, leave the heavy raider in space).
  • Move all heavy raiders on the board one space area closer to the nearest viper launch icon
  • If there were no heavy raiders on the board to start, launch one from each basestar.

When something says to “activate heavy raiders”, that always includes Centurions as well unless otherwise stated. If something does say to activate heavy raiders but not Centurions, skip the first step but do all of the rest.

Multiple Centurions can occupy the same space at the same time, they do not “push” each other forward.

If a heavy raider would normally enter a viper launch tube, but there are no Centurion tokens, it stays on the board since it cannot be converted to a Centurion. As always, the current player decides which order to resolve them in.

Jumping the fleet

The human fleet normally jumps by either activating the “FTL Control” location on Galactica, or having the fleet token reach “Auto-Jump”.

When “FTL Control” is used to jump, the player activating it must first roll a die, and on a 6 or lower, the population indicated by the current Jump Preparation space is lost (either -3 or -1). After this is finished, the jump can begin. (The base game rulebook incorrectly refers to the player activating “FTL Control” as the “current player”.)

The procedure for jumping is:

  1. All ships on the game board are removed and returned to their respective pile, the Reserves, etc. unless otherwise specified. Pilots who were flying ships move to the Hanger Deck. Centurions are not removed.
  2. The Admiral draws 2 Destination cards and, without discussing or showing them, chooses 1 as the next destination for the fleet. The other Destination card is placed at the bottom of the Destination deck and remains secret.
  3. Follow the instructions on the chosen Destination card.
  4. The fleet gains the distance indicated at the bottom of the card. If the Objective card specifies something that happens at this new distance, resolve that event completely.
  5. Reset the Jump Preparation track to the start.

Sleeper Agent phase

At the Sleeper Agent phase, more Loyalty cards are dealt to every player. Players who were not Cylons may discover that they were sleeper agent Cylons all along. It begins when the distance specified on the Objective card is reached.

Upon reaching this distance or more, deal 1 Loyalty card to every player, including revealed Cylon players. Revealed Cylons must ignore any text that says to “immediately reveal this card”.

Revealed Cylons during the Sleeper Agent phase

Revealed Cylons get their extra Loyalty card, but are not allowed to reveal it (even if it says to “immediately reveal this card”). Instead, they can choose to pass them off as an action in the Resurrection Ship when the game resumes. Existing Cylons are never allowed to reveal another Loyalty card. A Cylon player who receives the “You Are a Sympathizer” card may choose to instead hand it off to the human player of their choice as soon as they receive it.

Sharon “Boomer” Valerii normally receives 2 Loyalty cards in the Sleeper Agent phase instead of 1, as per her negative ability. But if “Boomer” has already revealed as a Cylon, her negative ability is supposed to no longer apply. Since following this rule would result in a Loyalty card not being dealt, deal the extra card to “Boomer” despite technically no longer having that weakness so that there is not a card left over.

Combat ship attack table

Ship being attacked Result
Cylon raider 3–8: Destroyed
Heavy raider or Centurion 7–8: Destroyed
Basestar With viper: 8 to damage
With Galactica: 5-8 to damage
With a nuke:
  • 1–2: Damaged twice
  • 3–6: Destroyed
  • 7–8: Destroyed, and also destroy 3 raiders in the same space area
Viper
  • 5–7: Damaged
  • 8: Destroyed
Battlestar Galactica With raider: 8 to damage
With basestar: 4–8 to damage

When a human combat ship is destroyed, it is removed from the game. If it was piloted, that character is moved to Sickbay. Cylon ships are not permanently destroyed by an attack, they are just returned to the pile next to the board.

Basestar damage

Basestars are destroyed after taking 3 damage tokens. When a basestar is damaged, draw a token and put it face up next to the damaged basestar. Each token has an additional side effect:

Image Name Effect
Critical Hit Critical Hit Counts as 2 damage tokens instead of 1
Disabled Hangar Disabled Hangar When this basestar launches raiders or heavy raiders, instead nothing happens
Disabled Weapons Disabled Weapons When this basestar fires on Galactica, instead nothing happens
Structural Damage Structural Damage When this basestar is attacked, add 2 to the die roll

If a game effect instructs you to “destroy a basestar”, it is destroyed without drawing damage tokens. Additionally, do not draw a damage token if a basestar with 2 damage is damaged again.

Damaging Galactica

Galactica is the main military ship in the fleet. It is destroyed when it has 6 damage tokens on it. If Galactica is destroyed, the humans lose.

When Galactica is damaged, draw a Galactica damage token randomly and reveal it. If it shows a resource icon, lose 1 of that resource and remove that damage token from the game. If it shows an image of a location, that location is damaged. When a location is damaged, any characters in that location at that time are sent to Sickbay. Leave the token on that location to indicate that it is damaged. Damaged locations can be moved to as normal, but the action on a damaged location cannot be used until it is repaired again. When it is repaired, the damage token is shuffled back into the damage token pile.

Human combat ships

Civilian ships

Civilian ship tiles represent vulnerable ships in the human fleet. Civilian ships have no defenses; when attacked they are immediately destroyed with no die roll. The tile is turned over to reveal its contents. The fleet loses the indicated resources (usually population) and the ship token is removed from the game.

When instructed to place a civilian ship and no space area is specified, the Admiral may place it in any space area.

Drawing and destroying

When an event instructs players to “draw a civilian ship and destroy it”, they are drawn randomly from the stockpile of ships next to the board first, not the main game board. If the only civilian ships left are those on the main board, however, the current player must choose one to destroy.

Raptors

Raptors aren’t used in space areas. Instead, certain game actions will “risk” them (presumably, you are sending them on a dangerous mission to deep space), and a failure will cause them to be destroyed. Just like the other human ships, when destroyed they are removed from the game. If there are no raptors left, players may not use abilities that require risking a raptor.

Vipers

A player who is activating a viper can do one of the following:

  • Launch the viper from the Reserves and place it in one of the two space areas with a viper launch icon
  • Move the viper to an adjacent space area. (There is no flying “above” or “below” Galactica, even though this is outer space.)
  • Attack a Cylon ship in the same space area with the viper.

When damaged, a viper goes into the “Damaged Viper” box on the board. It may not be launched or used until it is repaired.

The “Evasive Maneuver” card can only be used when a viper is being “attacked”. When any other effect says that a viper is damaged or destroyed, such as “Main Batteries”, an “Evasive Maneuver” cannot be used because it is not being attacked.

Piloting

Any character with piloting in their skill set is allowed to fly a viper themselves. These characters have a piloting token in addition to their regular character token, used to represent which viper they are flying. These are manned vipers, as opposed to unmanned ones. Manned vipers follow the same rules for activation, however a manned viper can only be activated by its pilot. The pilot of a viper that is damaged or destroyed is sent to Sickbay.

When granted a move, a pilot may move their ship to an adjacent space area at no cost. By discarding 1 Skill card, a pilot may move to a location on any other ship just like other characters.

A pilot may activate their own viper as an action. This could mean moving twice in a single turn, first as a move and again as a viper activation. Note that discarding a card to move to another ship is not available as an action or activation, it is strictly a move.

Unless otherwise indicated, whenever a pilot stops piloting, their viper is returned to the Reserves. This includes voluntarily moving to a ship location by discarding a card or being involuntarily moved to the Hangar Deck, Sickbay, Brig, Resurrection Ship, etc.

Character ability notes

When Helo uses “ECO Officer” to re-roll a die that had “Strategic Planning” applied to it, the re-roll also receives +2 to the result. Players may also choose to apply “Strategic Planning” to the re-roll if it wasn’t used originally.

Helo’s “Moral Compass” allows him to choose which box is resolved on a “[Someone] Chooses” Crisis. He cannot, however, influence any choices that must be made within that box. For example, if the chosen box says that the President must either give up their title or go to the Brig, Helo does not have the power to influence the President’s decision.

If Helena Cain uses “Blind Jump” while a “Mission Specialist” is assigned, ignore the “Mission Specialist” instructions for that jump, leaving it in place for later. Always follow the normal rules for “drawing and destroying” civilian ships.

When “Kat” uses her “Hot Shot” ability, there is no die roll, so cards that affect die rolls cannot be used. An attack on a basestar with structural damage does not get +2 with “Hot Shot” for the same reason. She also cannot defeat Scar with a “Hot Shot”, because he can only be destroyed by a die roll. Kat cannot use this ability outside of her regular action step on her turn, and she also cannot use this ability if another player is taking an action during her action step (for example, if she used an Executive Order).

If Ellen Tigh steals a title using “Manipulative” but then loses it before the end of her turn, she is no longer capable of following the instruction to return it and it therefore stays with whoever now has it. If she attempts to return it but the player it belonged to is no longer capable of holding the title, it goes to the first in the appropriate line of succession. Even if, during her “Manipulative” turn, she gains or regains the title “legitimately”, for example using “Administration”, she must still follow the instruction to return the title at the end of her turn. She cannot use “Manipulative” to become Admiral if she is in the Brig.

Hoshi’s “Dutiful” ability can be used once for each location listed. So, for example, if he used his “Organized” once-per-game on those 3 locations, he could also use “Dutiful” each time on them.

Tom Zarek (Military)’s “Necessary Steps” applies to all players, even himself, and even applies at the start of the game when he draws a Mutiny card due to his “Disreputable” weakness.

Lee Adama (Political)’s “Choose a Different Path” and Helo’s “Moral Compass” both apply to “[Someone] Chooses” decisions. Lee’s ability allows him to create and select a new, additional box on “[Someone] Chooses” cards, whereas Helo’s allows him to intervene when a box is chosen and force a different one to be chosen instead. Lee could use “Different Path” to choose his special option, and Helo could subsequently force his choice back to any of the original choices. If Helo uses “Moral Compass” first, Lee cannot use “Different Path” to override Helo because Lee’s choice has already been set, and it is too late to select the new option even if it were added.

Doc Cottle can use abilities on Engineering cards, just not actions.

Location notes

Commmand

The wording on Command should actually be “Perform up to 2 unmanned viper activations”, because you are allowed to target the same viper twice. This also means that you may launch a viper for the first activation and then activate it again for the second.

The Brig

Players may only move out of the Brig if they pass the Brig’s Skill Check, or an effect says to move a player and specifically mentions the Brig. For example, a card that says “send the President to Sickbay” cannot be used to transfer the President from the Brig. If, however, it said “move a character from the Brig to Sickbay”, such a move would be allowed. In particular, Kat’s “Stim Junkie” and Lee Adama’s “Alert Viper Pilot” cannot be used to escape the Brig.

The text on the board says that characters can move to “any location” after passing the Skill check, but the base game rules specify on page 18 that they can move to any location on Galactica. (That page also incorrectly refers to the player taking the action as the “current player”.)

Players may use any action they wish in the Brig. The only restrictions that apply to them are the move restriction and the number of cards they may play into Skill checks.

Choosing players for Sickbay/Brig

In general, players are allowed to make choices even if they know that they cannot actually fulfill the consequences of that choice. However, one exception is targeting players to be sent to the Brig or Sickbay. Players who are incapable of moving to the indicated location for any reason are not allowed to be chosen as the target. This includes any character with restricted movement (characters that are in the Brig, Helo while he is “Stranded”, revealed Cylons) and characters already in that location. If possible, a character must be targeted that can actually be moved from somewhere else to the indicated location.

If no characters exist that can be legally targeted, nothing happens and gameplay continues. If a subsequent effect depended on which character was chosen (for example, “Choose a character to send to Sickbay, then look at one of their Loyalty cards”), the subsequent effect is also skipped because no player could be chosen.

Note that this restriction only applies to choosing which character gets moved. Players are still allowed to select the “choose a character to send to the Brig/Sickbay” option even if they know that there are no legal targets. Similarly, if the option does not offer a choice, like “Send the President to Sickbay”, the option can still be chosen if the specified target is not capable of being moved. Again, the result is that nothing happens.

Cylon Fleet location

When choosing to “activate all Cylon ships of one type”, the chosen activation is resolved exactly as it is when it appears on a Crisis card, including moving Centurions if heavy raiders are activated.

The other option, “launch 2 raiders and 1 heavy raider from each basestar” does exactly that and nothing more.

Ending the game

Human loss

If the humans lose, the game immediately ends and the Cylon team has won. (Note that if the humans run out of a resource, they have until the end of the turn to replenish it before they have actually lost.)

Final jump

After the final distance indicated on the Objective card is reached, the next time the fleet jumps will end the game. When this happens the normal jump procedure is skipped, so there is no “Remove Ships” step and no Destination card is drawn. The “FTL Control” location does still trigger a population loss if the die roll is 6 or lower, since this happens before the jump.

When resolving any end of game effects, unrevealed Cylons continue to be treated as human players but they still ultimately win or lose with the Cylons.

If the humans have not run out of resources or lost by any other means when everything is resolved at the end of the game, the humans win!