I agree with Skowza that Fleet Mobilizaiton  can be game-breaking with the cylon fleet board. I've also seen times when it's like Dakuth's scenario and there's one basestar down or something so nothing much happens. 

I'd offer one more anecdote about my experience with Exodus that might have something to do with the different results players are experiencing and that's that two cylons from loyalty seem to win more frequently post-Exodus than pre- while loyalty-sleeper and sleeper-sleeper seems to be a heavy lift for the cylons than it was before. I haven't tried too hard to go under the hood on this and figure out why, but it's been the case in my home games. 

dakuth said:

Outlaw or someone else whos been around for a while can correct me if I'm wrong, but we discussed this at one point on the forums and it was decided that each icon on FM moves the Cylon jump track forward, so it goes up four times… worst case scenario in that case is that FM gets played anytime ever.

Skowza said:

I just read through that whole thread… and wow. The main takeaway for me is I'm flabbergasted by the claims of players playing humans in a less-than-optimal way (really badly even, with false briggings, not XOing every single turn, able to get away with clearly bad moves and not get brigged immediately…) and yet have a nearly 50% win rate.

Without giving the humans the +2 to all resources there is no *way* the humans would stand a chance in our play group if they didn't do every single turn right*. We often joke for the cylons to win all they have to do is reveal on turn one, then walk away from the table. How these people get the humans to win at all surprises me, let alone with extremely bad play!

* - Admittedly there are plenty of times where their are equally good (or bad) options in a turn. There are also clearly WORSE options that many people are espousing in that thread they claim they could get away with!

As to the character selection, though, I see there is still a fair bit of debate and I think by the end I was basically convinced there wasn't enough "in it" for us to worry about picking "the best" characters. Admittedly I even struggle to see much synergy between the characters, so maybe I just can't see the big picture. Typically I just make sure we have plenty of politics and plenty of leadership so we have ICs and XOs to call on.

I should stop here… but I have a question: I'm not sure I fully understand the love for Tory. I like her and have played her 2 out of 4 exodus games… but it sounds to me like her "awesomeness" comes from 2 things: Her ability to gain cards when Quorums are played, and a good skill selection. I agree with the skill selection (it's why I picked her) but I've found her OPT pretty lack-luster. I don't play many games where Quorum cards really get played. We find them pretty underwhelming (and in fact dangerous more-often-than-not.) When I picked Tory we said "Let's play a Quorum-heavy game." And… it just didn't happen. We parked in the President's office and XO'd her regularly, but there are not many worthwhile Quorum cards, in my opinion. I wish there were. It disappoints me it's so weak. So following on from that opinion - her OPG is decent in that it could make Quorum's actually useful, but since I don't rate them that highly….

As an example: One game I played Anders. Humans won because we used his OPG to guarantee the jump to victory. It was a close thing and we couldn't have risked jumping early if not for that. Anders' OPG was game-winning and obviously so. Tory's might line the President up with one of the 5 decent cards in the deck. Not so whelming.

Skowza said:

Ah. I Googled it at the time and BGG had a community-FAQ that said each icon was activated one-at-a-time left-to-right. (Some quote from one of the game designers I believe.) I haven't seen anything 100% solid. I might search for your discussion

 Yes, I agree with Skowza; the pursuit track usually advances all the way and the fleet board dumps to the main board for Fleet Mobilization. It's often game-breaking. What I'm referencing above is that if there's, say, one basestar on the board, it'll just fire, launch raiders, launch heavies, raiders move, etc. without advancing the pursuit track. That's not too bad. But it goes without saying that cylons get to choose when they play their super crises so the card is unlikely to be used when the main board has modest cylon presence. When it has heavy presence or no presence early in the jump track is when the card is most devastating.

Holy Outlaw said:

It's true.

My annoyance is simply that the time you'd THINK would be great for Fleet Mobilisation - that is, when the CFB is loaded up to the gills - would not be a good time to play that super crisis. All that will happen is a single pursuit track movement.

Of course, if it is one step from bringing the whole fleet in anyway - that is a big arrival and a lot of activations :)

This is assuming you're playing the "left-to-right" rule where I got it from:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Battlestar_Galactica_FAQ

"Q: When multiple activation symbols or instructions appear on a card (such as the Fleet Mobilization Super Crisis), how do you resolve them?
A: (Tim, FFG, citation needed): Resolve each one separately in left-to-right order. If playing with the Cylon Fleet option from Exodus, note that each activation may advance the pursuit track, possibly resulting in ships appearing on the board between activations (which could then be moved/activated by subsequent icons)."

YMMV. It's not 100% official.

dakuth said:

Consider:
1.  In groups that play the Humans sub-optimally and still achieve a 50% or more win rate, the Cylon players probably play poorly too.  It seems unlikely that dumb luck puts the poor players on the Human team and the good players on the Cylon team; although the game itself is stacked against the Humans, failing to take advantage of opportunities as a Cylon means the Humans could squeak by.
2.  Those groups might very well be adding to the starting resources to give the Humans an advantage.  One of the major complaints that seems to come up is "everyone always wants to be a Cylon!" and if thats the case, some groups may increase the starting resources to ensure more Cylon losses so that players enjoy being Human.  They aslo may increase the starting resources because:
3.  Those groups might be non-gamers who play because they are fans of the show.  My group is a bunch of hardcore gamers with thousands of hours of gaming experience with hundreds of different games, we're obviously going to make different decisions than a group that enjoys the game thematically and doesnt play other strategic board games.
4.  Some choices may seem like common sense until you sit down and really think about them.  For example, when I first heard the "never use the Quorum deck under any circumstances" argument, my first thought was "wth are you thinking?"  but when I read through it I was converted almost right away.

dakuth said:

Thats less-than-optimal play right there imho 

Skowza said:

Well, yes, so you say. But not exactly on par with wasting turns with activating the administration, admiral's quarters, or using Galactica's guns on a raider! *My point* was that Anders might be getting a bad wrap, because he sure played a major role in our win in that game whereas my games with Tory - the real star player - she didn't have that great of an impact. (Actually her endless ICs from the press room and her normal draw kinda did… but still. Anders is OK. Leave him alone!)