This review assumes familiarity with Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game. For those readers unfamiliar with the base game please see some of its numerous excellent reviews and session reports.
The first expansion to FFG's popular game based on the hit TV series adds two new boards, numerous additional Skill and Crisis cards, seven characters including three of a new character type, Cylon Leader, an overlay to the Cylon Locations with revised Cylon powers, and two glorious plastic basestars.
After three plays I am convinced that most of the changes to the core BSG game in this expansion are positive. The expansion has a modular design such that the Cylon Leaders and New Caprica board, the two new features about which I am the least convinced, can be swapped out easily. I recommend this expansion unhesitatingly, and will likely never play BSG without it again.
Components
It's hard to beat the two-piece, light but durable plastic basestars for both component quality and ambience. FFG could likely have gotten away with packaging just the basestars and selling them separately.
The cardboard is generally durable and the Pegasus damage tokens punched out easily without becoming marked in the process. I've had this issue before with the civilian ships in the base game, so it pays to be careful.
The new boards and overlay are well done, though the Cylon overlay is prone to being jostled by Cylon players. That's mildly annoying - but probably the overlay was the best solution possible to maintain the modular design.
The cards are the only component I have a serious complaint about. The card deck in my copy came crimped in one corner. All of the Agenda, Loyalty, and Super Crisis cards were clearly marked in one corner. That isn't acceptable, though fortunately FFG's customer service is good about replacement parts so I have no doubt they will come through with a replacement card deck for anyone who has the same issue. Since I didn't want to wait a week to play with Pegasus, my solution was just to sleeve all my Loyalty, Super Crisis, and Agenda cards with some extra sleeves I had lying around from other projects. Fortunately only one end of the deck, about 10-15% of the large cards, was marked, which did not extend as far as either Crisis deck. 304
I wouldn't have looked forward to sleeving 100+ Crisis cards.
Components are generally of good quality, with the exception of the basestars which are frakking fantastic, and some of the large cards which in my copy were unacceptably marked.
Gameplay
New Human Characters
The new characters are interesting mechanically and generally true to theme, though <PERSON> and <PERSON> might be overpowered with respect to their comparable characters in the base set. Our group's consensus was that <PERSON> is hands down the best military officer in the expanded set with her abilities and lack of a serious drawback, and even more powerful when <PERSON> isn't in play as she can blow her once-per-game and then, if human, respawn as <PERSON> after she is executed. We found <PERSON> to be extremely powerful as well, with a great skill set and a very thematic but mild drawback. <PERSON> seemed situationally very useful, though roughly balanced with the other pilots in power. <PERSON> is hard to figure out - I didn't play as <PERSON> and her once-per-turn ability really needs to be played to be understood well, I think. Any human crew members who allow her to survive until Galactica returns to New Caprica deserve what they get.
Cylon Leaders
Cylon Leaders are for experienced players only. Their specific victory conditions can range from reasonable to extremely difficult depending on the agenda and the Crisis cards drawn. I am concerned that for 6-7 player play the Cylon Leader will often not get enough turns to meaningfully affect the game conditions enough to meet his agenda. However, there is no doubt that, win or lose, a Cylon Leader is extremely fun to play, so a less competitive player might not mind the significant additional challenge. I am reserving judgment on the Cylon Leader mechanic until I have a chance to play more 4- and 5-player games, and until I become more experienced at using the new Cylon locations to steer the game in the right direction. Fortunately if I turn out to dislike it, it is very easy to play without them using the new Sympathetic Cylon loyalty card. The Cylon Leaders may lack in game balance, but nonetheless they are an extremely fun and thematic addition to the game, and I will play them at every opportunity.
Specifically Cavil with a hostile agenda is like a plague visited upon humanity by God. I didn't win when I played Cavil (in a 7-player game) but I came damn close, and rained destruction upon humanity the whole time. 755