The basic game mechanics are similar to other CCGs. Cards generate resources—in this case, persuasion, logistics and security—which are used singularly or in combination to build personnel and ships or power other, specialized types of cards, such as events or missions. Cards are deployed in three ranks: The first rank consists of a single base ship and the game's various resources, the second of reserve units not yet in the fight, and a third of front-line ships, politicians, officers and techs ready to take the fight to the enemy.

Each player's strength is measured in terms of influence, which runs from 0 at its lowest to 20 at its highest and which is set by the base ship that player chose to start with. The goal of the game is be the first to reach 20 influence points or to drive all the other players to 0 points. There are many ways to gain and lose influence. The most straightforward is to attack other players with ships or personnel; if they can overwhelm another player's defenses, that player loses influence. Other tools include event cards, which can be used to bolster or weaken cards already in play, and mission cards, which do everything from improving a player's influence to forcing another player to discard cards. Events are powered by resources, but missions typically require that certain combinations of people and units be in play before their effects are resolved.

It's not all about infighting between human factions, however. On every turn, players face the threat of Cylon attack; the more ships and personnel they have in play, the greater the likelihood that the toasters will strike. If they do, players must defend against them just as they would against one another.

The game's starter set contains two 30-card decks used to learn the game, a short quick-start guide demonstrating how to play and a complete set of rules. The cards can be combined to create one legal-60 card deck and contain certain "fixed" cards that appear in every starter (such as Battlestar Galactica and Colonial One base cards), ensuring that everyone who plays can always fall back on that foundation. Boosters contain 15 cards; a complete set numbers 175 cards, 30 of which are foiled.

Faithful complexity

The Battlestar Galactica CCG successfully recreates the intricacies of the series that inspired it, re-creating conflicts that dominate every episode. The game's cards are the key to mirroring this complexity—unlike many CCGs, where each card serves a dedicated role, in the Battlestar game each card has many different uses. At their most basic, unit cards—ships and personnel—are associated with the persuasion, logistics or security resources and can be converted into stacks to produce those selfsame resources. Those stacks can then be used to deploy units as actual units.

It goes beyond mere duality, though. Each card has a "mystic value" that is used to resolve conflicts. When units fight, a card is drawn from the top of each player's deck and added to the unit's overall power. The unit with the highest value wins. This random element keeps everyone guessing, while at the same time forcing players to make the strategic decision to burn possibly useful cards from their decks by attacking or holding off in the hopes of drawing something they can deploy on the next turn.

Each card also has a Cylon value; these are added up and compared to the total power of the players' base ships. If that value is exceeded, the Cylons attack. That, in turn, can trigger other special card abilities as the various Cylon cards in the game, causing players to discard cards or units and even forcing the fleet to jump away, forcing players to sacrifice personnel or ships in the process. This Cylon value is also used to determine how strong the Cylon opposition is when the fleet stays and fights.

The end result is a game that forces players to go beyond the obvious when creating their decks, making sure they've got enough solid mystical values to win battles while managing the ever-increasing Cylon threat.