Battlestar Galactica

A Game of Starfighter Combat

Review by Ernest Rowe II

By Jordan Weisman and L. Ross Babcock III
FASA Corporation P.O. Box 6930, Chicago, IL 60680
Released: September, 1984
Catalog No. 6001
Price: $15.00
Complexity: Beginner
Solitaire Suitability: Good

This is a good "beer and pretzels" game that I enjoyed playing. Battlestar Galactica is a fairly simple starfighter combat game that offers either oneon-one combat or multi-player per side combat. You can also have all or most of the players on one side attacking the Galactica or a Base ship. I found that the average combat between two fighters takes less than one hour and even multi-fighter combat takes only one hour. The key factor in the different combats is selecting the correct fighter to use.

The parts for this game are of very good quality. The different counters for the fighters are a quality one might expect in a much larger game of a higher price. The art almost produces a three-dimensional effect on the counters for the fighters, asteroids, and explosions. The two different base ships are just flat drawings on map sheets for the fighters to fly around.

As I said in the beginning, I enjoyed playing the game and was able to play, three games in about two and one half hours (that included going over the rules and other interruptions). The other player and I had a lot of fun no matter which side we played, Raiders or Vipers. We also found that enough strategy is required to make this game as much fun the second time as it was the first time.

Except for movement, the rules for Battlestar Galactica were easy to follow and use. The movement rules could use clarification because the movement point cost for a vector change is not exactly clear. The players have to take an educated guess on the subject by what they think the rules and examples are saying. The combat rules are very simple and straightforward. Your weapons fire straight ahead, in a three-hex arc out to the maximum range of the weapon.

The chance to hit is simply a base number with certain modifiers (range in hexes, gunner skill and movement modifiers), added to or subtracted from it, and rolling that number or higher on two six-sided dice. if a hit is achieved the damage to the struck fighter is rolled on one of six possible tables with six possible results by rolling two six- sided dice of different colors, one for the table and one for the result. As a fighter takes damage, its effectiveness decreases.

The key factor that I discovered while playing the game is that the fighter's fuel supply is a very limiting factor in the length of a game and what a player can do during the game. The maximum length of any game is 30 turns since this is the fuel supply of all of the fighters, and if no one does any attacking or special movement, it costs one fuel unit per turn to move and fire.

This game involves a lot of strategy since the different fighter pilots attempt to maneuver into a position where they can fire on the enemy but the enemy cannot fire back. Movement is written down for each turn and then done simultaneously; so the different pilot don't know where their opponent will be at the end of the turn, giving the game a nice suspense factor. Many of the concepts used in this game have been around for a long time but this game has combined them into a simple and playable format.

I would recommend this game for just about anyone who likes space combat and can get past preconceived notions about the game brought on by the title. It is a good game for y the beginner.

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