Battlestar Galactica - The Board Game

Assessment criteria: gameplay, difficulty and balance, equipment, instructions, packaging. In the various criteria I forgive points from 1 to 5 and calculate the star rating the mathematical means.

Game History:
With the hint of a grin hemischen Cl begins. Tigh to hum the famous song "All allong the Watchtower" and chasing while 6 stations Galactica into the air. Is there not? Well in the series might not be. In the official board game to the series but certainly possible.
What is the Battlestar Galactica board game? At the core principle, it is a cooperative game against the game mechanism. Similar to pandemic or Arkham Horror, the players are working together to save humanity in which you reach the saving Kobolsystem. However, one or two players play incorrectly and are not really human beings but Cylons. This attempt to intrigue hidden from the people. An evil intrigue with false accusations, betrayal and sabotage begins.

How to play:
Game play is quite simple. The first player's turn. Moves to cards may move his character, an action is allowed to execute and draws after a crisis card. The crisis card is dealt and the next player's turn.
When action must either play a card from his hand or you can use one of the stations of the game board.
The Crisis Cards are mostly events or ability checks. For events the President or Admiral has a choice of two possible effects. The checks a certain result has to be achieved with determined color maps. The cards are covered by the players and two cards are randomly so. When evaluating count cards wrong color than red. Here is the first point where the Cylons can sabotage the match.
The people gain when they reach the target system and do not have resources left.
The Cylons win when a resource reaches 0, which was Battlestar destroyed or Enter attempt succeeds.
Of course there is in the game room also struggle with chic models. These are decided by dice in principle.
While the gameplay has some facets is very easy to learn and is not later than the second round well from the hand. Getting into the game is a bit bulky. Just as newcomers, you do not know what to really do and when to do it. The first few laps therefore often win the Cylons, without having had to act big.
The gameplay in the game also depends greatly on the number of players. It needed at least 3 players ... but the game is really boring threesome. From 4, it is interesting and from 6 players really funny.
Here, I give 4 out of 5 points.

Features:
The decor is handsome. The characters are indeed mere cardboard cutout, but the ships are for the most part models. Unfortunately, the models made of hard plastic and the Cylon Raiders bend easily. The maps and markers are quite high. The wheels require resources already considerable force in building. The illustrations follow the series and are a major triumph. I spend here 3 out of 5.

Balance / Difficulty:
After the initial difficulties (see above), the game is indeed balanced, but in a game like this you have to say that it's just so hard always, like the camouflage of the Cylons. Stay the Cylons long undetected and have the mission already sufficiently sabotaged it is difficult for the people. Especially when a Cylon is discovered and can actively control the Cylon fleet, and the second Cylon is acting concealed it very critical for the people.
The difficulty level of the pure game mechanic (without exposure to Cylons) is also quite high.
I see in the Balance slight advantages for the Cylons. I therefore give in balance 3 of 5 points.

Instructions:
The manual is quite difficult to follow. Many cross-references make quite a while guide Check scroll vital. The rules are, in principle, but very simple. The manual is in my opinion also passages way too long. Illustration and Layout I like very much. Table of Contents and Index are available. 2 of 5 points.

Packing:
The allocation of boxes to work. For the models and markers Ziplockbeutel are included. The cards and Pappständer can be put well in the inlays. 5 of 5 points.

Result:
Gameplay: 4 of 5
Features: 3 of 5
Balance: 3 of 5
Instructions: 2 of 5
Packaging: 5 of 5

So 17 of 25 points, 3.4 (rounded 3) Stars

Conclusion:
The game itself is highly dependent on the appearance. All players should have played the game at least twice before ever even begin to stress can occur. You should have at least three players. With only 3 players the game is boring.
Then there is also strong on the character of the players ... who can not deal with intrigues, may lose badly (which you do in this game, namely fast) and especially can not distinguish reality and game, is not happy with this game and at a game night with this game find only bad blood.
I for one can suffer the game well. The guide, however, is not really easy to understand (in the simple rules really weird) and is confusing. This is also the main criticism, which has significantly panned the vote.
The game, however, with the right people every time again a great event and also for non-fans of the series in our playgroup gerngesehner a pastime.