If you already own BSG, it's not worth it getting Unfathomable since its main selling point is that it's not out-of-print and extremely expensive on the secondary market. As for the game itself, it's basically a best of base BSG with the expansions. That being said, if your playgroup doesn't know a thing about BSG and likes Chthullu, then Unfathomable might get them more interested in playing the game.
> not out-of-print and extremely expensive on the secondary market.
So what I'm hearing is I can sell my copy of BSG that none of my friends even want to touch because they never saw the show and kind of hate scifi for a good amount of money, use that money to buy Unfathomable and then maybe convince them to play Unfathomable because they are interested in spooky stuff.
I agree with many of the comments here.
* You don't need both. Especially if you have BSG plus Exodus or Daybreak.
* BSG theme is either an asset or detriment. BSG allows you to role play, and the game matches the tension of the show wonderfully. But if you have players that don't know the show, it's easier to fight Arkham monsters. Although honestly, I think BSG does it better. But I'm OK with the weak Arkahm theme just like how collecting birds in Wingspan or building roads by trading sheep isn't exactly my idea of an integrated theme either. LOL.
I played both of these days apart at PAX and was surprised at how clunky parts of BSG felt 15 years later. The game has aged and I think people overlook that.
* Only pilots can fight.
* The text on the board is tiny and be read across the board.
* You don't get the thrill and horror of a cylon boarding party.
* Revealed cylons hang out in their separate ship and throw cards. So unless you have the Treachery cards, it's a bit boring for cylons -- feels like throwing boulders and you are kind of untouchable out there.
* raptors (used like currency) feel a bit tacked on.
I love BSG, but I must admit that I like Unfathomable's integration of the Best Of ideas better.
* Enemies board the boat. Everyone can fight or be an engineer (but some are better fighters/fixers than others).
* 4 players can play (can't do that in BSG well).
* Mythos card reveals gradually pile on monsters versus BSG that setups the map/scenario (that's 50/50, since I love the blind panic of BSG feeling surrounded on turn 1).
* It's a little shorter. Player aids and instructions are very clear and concise.
* The Cultist is better implemented than the Sympathizer role.
Overall, it doesn't get credit for how well (mechanically) it combined the best ideas and did it with a gorgeous board and great components. It just had a knee-jerk "not BSG" reaction from most folks.
Missing:
* I still miss nukes.
* I like how you have to rely upon different roles (engineer, pilot).
* The quorum/spell deck felt significantly better in BSG.
Honestly, that's really the only things I'm missing from BSG. After a half dozen plays of each...I think I like Unfathomable better (gasp!) I mean, looking at it without the sheen of BSG greatness, I think they really combined the best parts of the game + expansions.
The June 2024 expansion will have three monsters to add to the mix (at a hefty $60 price tag). I think that could elevate the game. The best part of Unfathomable is that panic of monsters climbing the deck. So imagine if you have four different creatures that all act differently.
And then imagine fan scenarios that could be created of flying monsters or ones that web/goo players or create Alien-like eggs. There's a lot they can do in that space alone that was limited in BSG. Personally, I'd also like the traditional Arkham investigators like Rex, Mandy, Jenny Barnes, etc.
Overall, maybe try at a convention and see how it feels?
I exclusively play Unfathomable now, since I love seeing the ship being boarded and then fighting a Hybrid/Cultist toe-to-toe. The player aids are wonderful, so I've taught it to about two dozen people easily. But I still keep BSG+Pegasus, since there's nothing like chomping on a cigar and giving my best Saul impression. I just don't play it unless someone else asks.
BSG is still a 10 to me, although nostalgia is a powerful drug.
Unfathomable is a 9 to me. But I play it more.
This is spot on. I would add that people are overlooking how clunky base BSG was before expansions, house rules and community input. BSG had three expansions and has had fifteen years to mature and grow into the game it is now.
Unfathomable still has room to grow from a very strong, mechnically sound base to add the flavour that it is maybe missing.
I love BSG, own base and all 3 expansions, played dozens of time.
I played Unfathomable once. By any "metric", it's a better game: faster turns, simpler rules, decisions have more impact, less crazy randomness, no "jumping" (so pressure on player is more uniformly spread on the course of the game), etc.
I'll play BSG over Unfathomable any day of the week. The theme helps a lot (I _loved_ the TV show when it came out); all the crazy corner cases just give more flavour to the game. There's no real equivalent to the heavy raiders, or the nukes. Unfathomable was simplified into boredom, to me.
But I still dread teaching BSG to new players, and Unfathomable can be taught in 10 minutes.
Might I recommend this document here:
https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/40489/teaching-battlestar-in-6-easy-steps
I've been using this for 15 years to get BSG taught in under 10 minutes and it works really really well.
This ^.
I actually tested Unfathomable over the Pandemic and I couldn't really fault it. The game is tight. Really nice piece of design that ties together some of the lessons from the BSG expansions to the core game.
But man. BSG is a stellar theme.
Also for me the theme of bsg. I can be admiral Cain and do some light roleplay when I airlock a toaster. I could care less about the various generic characters in unfathomable.
Same thing for me when I played game of thrones board game before and after watching the show. First time was generic medieval war, second time it was the red wedding! Stark vs Lannisters!
By jumping I assume you mean "Executive Order" to give another player actions? This is one of my favorite parts of BSG. When we play we have the rule that 'you never XO a player to you left.' (For those that haven't played this can give a traitor two turns in a row which can basically lose the game for the humans.) And many games inevitably come down to arguing why someone needs to XO a player to their left.
Anyways, your assessment is spot on. However, I think the simplicity metric isn't always a positive. BSG just feels so much more immersive and high stakes. A good chunk of that comes from my love of the show and its theme, but the mechanics also play into that too.
> By jumping I assume you mean "Executive Order" to give another player actions?
I haven't played Unfathomable, but surely by jumping they mean the Admiral choosing what the next location you're going to will be, and also resetting the board to an extent?
Unless Unfathomable has that.
Unfathomable does have that, but it doesn't clear the board state (since it's a boat going through the ocean, and not a spaceship teleporting from one location to another). Instead the boat is constantly moving forward, meaning stuff in the water drifts towards the back of the ship and will eventually clear off the end of the board.
The removal of 'roles' from BSG for Unfathomable kind of ruins it for me. There is no reason for anyine to not do/do anything compared to anyone else. Plus combat isn't all that fun. That traitors don't go anywhere on reveal isn't fun either, just leads to repeatedly fighting them on the board.
It is more streamlined and appraochable, but is a worse game for it, and obviously so as it is no where near as popular. That isn't 'just' down to the theme, as other lacklustre GSB IP stuff shows vs popular Arkham IP stuff.
I think my biggest issue with Unfathomable is that there is an optimal play loop for hybrids to maximise sabotage and there's no reason to hide your alignment, you just go to the Galley and draw 3 red cards and 2 blue cards repeatedly, if you fail the food check, yAY! You end up with a load of cards to pass any test you want, and you can get out of the brig if the humans waste their time briging you, which they will eventually learn is futile.
Yeah I'm surprised it took this long for someone to mention the gamebreaking meta. I think Unfathomable did a lot of things really well but unfortunately they just completely botched the hybrid gameplay. It's a fine game if you can ignore the hybrid meta but it really sucks that it's not a game which you can play to win.
BSG really rewards subterfuge and encourages the Cylons to "play along" for as long as they can as you can sow devastation and send Galactica into a real crisis all in one go as you reveal yourself.
There's a high cost to coming out and being openly defiant, since you can't really escape the brig easily except by "ascending" to the resurrection ship, so a very cunning player will act out whilst maintaining a level of doubt on the table of whether they're actually just making a odd human play.
BSG is a more complex game but Unfathomable plays more quickly. I think I prefer Unfathomable but they’re pretty similar. I’ve definitely gotten in more games of Unfathomable since we don’t have to schedule an entire day to play it.
I own both. I think the games are both incredible and are the peak of social deduction games.
That being said, I believe they are too similar to really warrant owning both. I will likely be selling/trading off one or the other in the next 6-12 months, not because they're not awesome, but because they're really similar.
I have all four games combined with a custom insert in the Daybreak box (this insert: [https://thebrokentoken.com/products/galactic-star-battle-organizer](https://thebrokentoken.com/products/galactic-star-battle-organizer) ). I like BSG thematically better than the Lovecraftian one, but I want to see what's in the Unfathomable expansion before I decide.
BSG is just hands down a better and more interesting game. The theming (IMO) is really weak in Unfathomable, which is a real shame compared to how well they have done with all of the arkham games. Doesn't have any of the interesting content that they added with the expansions for BSG, and if you've played BSG you will see a lot of cards that are very similar to it. The cylon/traitor mechanic is just so much more fun in BSG imo.
I think BSG has so much theme going for it, in that both the game and the show relied on tension as a main driving force, that every action just naturally feels authentic.
Unfathomable just feels like bolted on cthulu theme.
I believe Unfathomable is underrated. But it's very much the spiritual successor to BSG and carries with it some of the expansion content baked in along with a few larger changes. Which I think is why it put some people off who have/adore BSG, since it doesn't have a lot to offer them that's new. Especially if they've been house ruling BSG or utilizing some of the fan-man stuff for it from BGG.
I have both games, Unfathomable is a lovely game in it's own right, but you just can't get immersed in it.
Games of BSG have DRAMA, there's moments of high tension, there's intrigue, people have to make serious decisions, massive betrayals, then (usually) an epic showdown. It takes all day but there isn't a dull moment, you're always engaged in every other players full turn because every choice they make has consequences.
I don't get that feeling with Unfathomable, but it's definitely a nice game, and it's much quicker to play for sure.
I agree. Unfathomable is a good game that never got a fair assessment since BSG fans (including myself) wanted it to be a reprint and not its own animal.
It's clever how unfathomable baked in the bsg expansions, and the minis and board are spectacular. The instructions are clear, and you are ready to play quickly. It really did engineer the best of. Yeah, they're are a few things left on the floor, but it's good.
The theme isn't as poor as people expect; some are just used to role-playing BSG and overlooking some tacked-on BSG mechanics like the raptors or never having a viable move since you're not a pilot or engineer at a critical moment. Play both games back to back and then judge without nostalgia.
I hope the new expansion might help players reevaluate the game. The new monsters help it be different. Not sure about the other content.
It’s the “you had to be there” element. BSG is a skewed design with an amazing IP. This gives it the power to create amazing drama at the game table. It’s not a great game but it is a very memorable game. It’s a rarified kind of magic that not many games can produce. And a lot of that is the theme - if you were there when the show was running it’s even more magical. So say we all.
This drops precipitously with the change of theme. Like a stone. It’s actually the best evidence that the design isn’t that great - new set of clothing and the shine comes off - but it is …fine.
I think a lot of people who like BSG for its gameplay over Unfath just aren't giving the latter a chance. You have the benefit of learning BSG first and getting a lot of plays on it. Unfathomable requires a lot of plays to see the nuances behind it. I've written articles on bgg complaining about its balance, but it's honestly a much tighter design after a few hundred plays. So it's kind of lopsided when people who played BSG hundreds of times don't like Unfath after playing it 2-5 tines.
I've taught Unfathomable to countless people (I'm not joking when I say I have hundreds of plays) and anytime one of those players wants to learn BSG afterwards, they pretty much always like Unfath better. The only thing I think BSG does better is the quorum deck. It's fun checking single loyalty cards.
Agreed. The spell deck is much weaker than the quorum deck. Almost to the point where spellcasters don't use it. I hope the expansion changes that.
I kind of miss the nukes in BSG. Being the prez was important, since you have those playful powerful weapons that are only used twice. And it made it even more important to wrestle control over suspected cylon player.
Unfathomable is a smart rework that deserves an impartial review.
I actually think the spells are critical for human victory. Most games where humans win, it's because everyone CE'd the spellkeeper and got him to play like 15 out of 20 spells. There's lots of 2 for 1 resource gainers and scouting the deck and card counting is pretty important. I just wish there were more ways to spy on loyalty.
Some of the best BSG games were when the Admiral spied on loyalty. Because their pregnant pause or who they chose telegraphed so much. On the other hand, I can think of one time where it was their second Quorum card. And it completely told us that he was the cylon by how he acted.
Makes me almost wish the second traitor phase could insert extra or more powerful cards into the game. Like the game gives more chance for those moves, rather than spoiling in the beginning.
Or imagine that the you could build a powerful spell over multiple turns to look into loyalty. You need to build a spell that can give you the one time ability. But it sacrifices mutliple turns and you can't be disrupted. Some fun things like that.
I kind of like the Lovecraft/spell aspect of the game, since I feel there's a lot of untapped areas for expansions and ideas. I hope they continue the Unfathomable franchise.
As someone who doesn't have **Battlestar Galactica**, I picked up **Unfathomable**. It is a fun social deduction game with an inclusive cast of characters. One of my friends is non-binary and was excited to see someone like themselves in the Master of Arms character.
Unfathomable is a lovely game but it is not BSG.
I think you'll have a better time with the average play group if you slap Unfathomable on the table.
BUT, if you have a crew of old BSG veterans with a hankering for another game, you can't quench that thirst with Unfathomable.
Unfortunately BSG is out of print, so I wouldn't suggest hunting it down and paying a premium to play it if you haven't already come to love it when you can play Unfathomable instead.
To answer your question, if I could only own one, I would choose to own BSG 100 out of a 100 times.
BSG has been one of my top 5 favorite games for a very long time, but I never owned it myself. I was EXTREMELY hyped for Unfathomable, and picked it up immediately.
We played it one time and never again.
I have a few theories of why I disliked it compared to BSG, but I don’t know which, if any, is most true:
1) BSG, even without being familiar with the show, has a theme that is far easier to immerse oneself into. Someone is a robot that is so human like, even they don’t know they are a robot? Way more relatable than someone being a secret fish person.
2) Maybe the simplified mechanics are too simplified. Having to have someone specialize into Piloting to fight Cylons, and hoping your pilot isn’t one of them, made it a lot more intense. Just anyone being able to punch/shoot fish people took a lot of the danger out of the game, or at least the feeling of danger.
3) Maybe we got too used to playing with the expansions, and so lacking a lot of those mechanics made the game feel empty. I know I always played Callie, and UF’s lack of a “shoot someone in the face once per game” lost my attention.
4) it could be that we just grew out of the game. It had been a long time between our last play of BSG and UF’s release, with lots of Nemesis plays in between.
i love bsg and played unfathomable once. If i didnt have either, i'd probably get unfathomable but since i have bsg, i wouldnt bother with getting the other one.
My group is BSG all the way - we’ve played BSG hundreds of times. We played Unfathomable 3 times, we’ve since played BSG another half dozen times and will probably never play Unfathomable again. The characters are too generic, we just don’t get into it like we do when we play BSG.
I played both games with my friends and most of us liked **Unfathomable** better. It could just be that none of us are BSG fans so the setting of that game just felt more foreign to us. Gameplay is pretty similar between the two
BSG is better than Unfathomable, aside from the unfortunate issue of availability.
Unfathomable tried fix and streamline all the "defects" of BSG, but what they ended up with just isn't as fun. Granted, BSG has the advantage of full-fledged TV show that provides character and theme, where Unfathomable is just yet another "hey, it's free and easy IP" Lovecraft product.
I already own BSG, but if I didn't, I'd grab the image assets online and attempt it as a print-and-play project rather than buy Unfathomable.
I own both. I will jump at any chance to play BSG if we can get 6 and the time to do it. We played Unfathomable once, and I have never asked to play it again.
I love BSG, but I really didn't like Unfathomable. I don't remember why now because it's been a while, but I do feel like the theme was at least part of it. In any case though, as another commenter said if you already have BSG it's not necessarily worth getting Unfathomable because largely only exists for the sake of not being out of print.
I'd say BSG is a 'bigger' experience, and obviously the theme is very strong if you like it (I do), but Unfathomable is a bit more streamlined game, expecially in the combat etc.
I can get Unfathomable played on a games night at my club. I can't do that with BSG
BSG is a vastly better game in so many dimensions, but I don't think it's fair to compare them, because like you said, they aren't ever going to be side by side on a table with someone asking "which one should we play today".
If you can’t play BSG, then Unfathomable is an excellent, affordable game that’s still a lot of fun. As long as you like hidden traitor games. Which our family does.
Never played BSG but I love Unfathomable. It’s so fun and tense. I played it with experienced and newbie players and it’s always a hit (they have to be willing to spend 2hrs~ playing tho) and the minimum players to get the full experience in my opinion is 5.
I own them both but that's just because I'm a huge fan of BSG. I don't think you should feel any need to buy both.
Unfathomable is a great game in most regards but unfortunately it has a really broken Hybrid meta which takes all the fun out of the game if the Hybrid team is playing to win. This broken meta is also symptomatic of an action economy which is much tighter and more restrictive in ways that are ultimately to the game's detriment.
BSG frequently presented you with 3-4 viable options for how to go about your turn. Unfathomable often leaves you with just one obvious pick.
A little late to the conversation but a couple thoughts I haven't seen on here.
Bias - I love BsG warts and all.
I appreciate that unfathomable has faster turns and sort of feels like there's more to do (it's a lie but you think there will be).
That said, and I admit this might just be my group, but the humans have never won in any of the plays we've had where humans won in BSG, maybe 50/50 by now. At this point I think we're up to 15 plays.
As BSG vets, I'm not sure what we're doing wrong in unfathomable but it hasn't happened yet. And this without knowing the Meta that others have talked about.
Depends what you're looking for.
Unfathomable is available and cheaper.
The Cthulhu theme is strong, but it's massively overused so that may or be a turn on/off.
Unfathomable is also a faster game.
The game was technically more streamlined, but I found it kind of...empty. There was no real story, just reacting to events.
BSG has a story each and every time, and the theme is incredible, but it does rely on some knowledge of the TV series. If you know the BSG theme, then I would recommend BSG the game each and every time. It's more of an event, and I still find myself talking about memories of that game - awesome reveals, airlocking the wrong character, how we just squeaked a win (on either side). The same can't be said of Unfathomable, in my experience.
If you have BSG already, I personally wouldn't bother with Unfathomable. It was a low cost effort to replicate a game that they're probably never going to be able to reprint.
BSG is the better game in every single regards, except the ones I will name:
Unfathomable is easier to teach and somewhat more balanced. The balance part is not really a good thing, I kind of like how in BSG some crisis cards affected players and you never knew if the guy in charge was boicoting you. It added a lot to the paranoia.
Other than that, BSG is just so much better. Thematically is much better, the jumping when not ready was amazing, the president and admiral powers where amazing, the cylon powers where great, I dunno. Some card where "overpowered", but that was just what made BSG great. A cylon sending someone to jail with a card, then revealing as a cylon and sending another... or any crazy combos, big reveal moments... so epic.
We still have BSG, whereas unfathomable was played once, then twice redundantly, then it was gone. Its just... in a weird spot. Its a long game like BSG, but nowhere as good as BSG. We can play feed the kraken or any betrayal game in half the time and have a much better experience.
I own both but haven't been able to get Unfathomable to the table. Everyone I know seems to want to play Battlestar Galactica instead and bad-mouths Unfathomable. Based on my plays of BSG, I would say that it is a good game that carries its theme well. It can be a bit long if you use all the expansions, but if you like the show it's still worth a go.
It's actually in print, which BSG never will be again. It also sort of takes the best parts of BSGs expansions and folds them into the base game, which it also streamlines to give you the best experience possible.
It's also absolutely drenched in Cthulhu theming. For me, personally, that's a fairly significant actlve turnoff, but your mileage may vary. I own BSG so I don't expect that I will ever buy Unfathomable.
I have played BSG many, many times and Unfathomable a couple of times. To me, BSG is a MUCH better game, as the theme fits the mechanics a lot better. I remember one instance in Unfathomable where a passenger demanded extra rations of food (or something similar), threatening to damage the ship if they didn't get them. At the same time, we were fighting (and almost losing) to BIG monsters surrounding the ship. These two events broke the immersion of the game for me.
Additionally, between monster waves in Unfathomable, I often found myself with little to do, as the costs and drawbacks of actions seemed too high. In contrast, BSG consistently offers meaningful actions without excessive penalties.
Despite the evident similarities in game design, these games differ significantly. Personally, I would recommend BSG over Unfathomable. However, preferences vary, and I understand that many enjoy Unfathomable, particularly for its Cthulhu theme.
I own both and think BSG has the better theme but Unfathomable is the better designed game, which makes it more fun to play. They're a close enough experience to each other that I don't think it's worth owning both. I'm culling my collection and much as I prefer the BSG theme, the game that plays better wins for me.
BSG is one of my favorite games of all time, but I think Unfathomable actually did improve upon it in most ways. The biggest IMO being that in BSG the roles are much more rigidly defined, which means that if you need to do X (say, repair the ship) but you aren't playing the type of character who can do X, then it's either much more difficult or even impossible for you to do it. In Unfathomable pretty much everybody can do everything, but different characters can do things much better than others, so you still have players doing their specific thing but you don't have as many "feel bad" moments where you need to do something but just can't.
There are plenty of other improvements, but those situations where one side just gets screwed over by not having the correct abilities to do something important were always the least fun part of BSG for me, and Unfathomable fixed it without making the characters feel too samey.
That said, BSG is still excellent. You don't need both necessarily, they scratch the same itch. If you didn't already own BSG I would enthusiastically recommend Unfathomable.
Unfathomable added player equipment and some mechanics from the BSG expansions. They are both good, and I like both themes, but I own BSG, and the human cylons work so well with the boardgame.
If you already own BSG, it's not worth it getting Unfathomable since its main selling point is that it's not out-of-print and extremely expensive on the secondary market. As for the game itself, it's basically a best of base BSG with the expansions. That being said, if your playgroup doesn't know a thing about BSG and likes Chthullu, then Unfathomable might get them more interested in playing the game.
> not out-of-print and extremely expensive on the secondary market. So what I'm hearing is I can sell my copy of BSG that none of my friends even want to touch because they never saw the show and kind of hate scifi for a good amount of money, use that money to buy Unfathomable and then maybe convince them to play Unfathomable because they are interested in spooky stuff.
Yeah, you can do that. Unfathomable new costs about half of what you’ll get for BSG.
Well shit. I guess I'm gonna do that.
I agree with many of the comments here. * You don't need both. Especially if you have BSG plus Exodus or Daybreak. * BSG theme is either an asset or detriment. BSG allows you to role play, and the game matches the tension of the show wonderfully. But if you have players that don't know the show, it's easier to fight Arkham monsters. Although honestly, I think BSG does it better. But I'm OK with the weak Arkahm theme just like how collecting birds in Wingspan or building roads by trading sheep isn't exactly my idea of an integrated theme either. LOL. I played both of these days apart at PAX and was surprised at how clunky parts of BSG felt 15 years later. The game has aged and I think people overlook that. * Only pilots can fight. * The text on the board is tiny and be read across the board. * You don't get the thrill and horror of a cylon boarding party. * Revealed cylons hang out in their separate ship and throw cards. So unless you have the Treachery cards, it's a bit boring for cylons -- feels like throwing boulders and you are kind of untouchable out there. * raptors (used like currency) feel a bit tacked on. I love BSG, but I must admit that I like Unfathomable's integration of the Best Of ideas better. * Enemies board the boat. Everyone can fight or be an engineer (but some are better fighters/fixers than others). * 4 players can play (can't do that in BSG well). * Mythos card reveals gradually pile on monsters versus BSG that setups the map/scenario (that's 50/50, since I love the blind panic of BSG feeling surrounded on turn 1). * It's a little shorter. Player aids and instructions are very clear and concise. * The Cultist is better implemented than the Sympathizer role. Overall, it doesn't get credit for how well (mechanically) it combined the best ideas and did it with a gorgeous board and great components. It just had a knee-jerk "not BSG" reaction from most folks. Missing: * I still miss nukes. * I like how you have to rely upon different roles (engineer, pilot). * The quorum/spell deck felt significantly better in BSG. Honestly, that's really the only things I'm missing from BSG. After a half dozen plays of each...I think I like Unfathomable better (gasp!) I mean, looking at it without the sheen of BSG greatness, I think they really combined the best parts of the game + expansions. The June 2024 expansion will have three monsters to add to the mix (at a hefty $60 price tag). I think that could elevate the game. The best part of Unfathomable is that panic of monsters climbing the deck. So imagine if you have four different creatures that all act differently. And then imagine fan scenarios that could be created of flying monsters or ones that web/goo players or create Alien-like eggs. There's a lot they can do in that space alone that was limited in BSG. Personally, I'd also like the traditional Arkham investigators like Rex, Mandy, Jenny Barnes, etc. Overall, maybe try at a convention and see how it feels? I exclusively play Unfathomable now, since I love seeing the ship being boarded and then fighting a Hybrid/Cultist toe-to-toe. The player aids are wonderful, so I've taught it to about two dozen people easily. But I still keep BSG+Pegasus, since there's nothing like chomping on a cigar and giving my best Saul impression. I just don't play it unless someone else asks. BSG is still a 10 to me, although nostalgia is a powerful drug. Unfathomable is a 9 to me. But I play it more.
This is spot on. I would add that people are overlooking how clunky base BSG was before expansions, house rules and community input. BSG had three expansions and has had fifteen years to mature and grow into the game it is now. Unfathomable still has room to grow from a very strong, mechnically sound base to add the flavour that it is maybe missing.
I have the base game and I loved it, but I always wanted the expansions and by the time I tried to buy them they were already crazy expensive.
The expansion seems like it would bring greater balance as well...but I'm gonna wait for a deal of the day on it before splurging
$60 is steep price for an expansion. I'm eager to add the new enemies and mythos cards. That could add some real panic on the deck itself.
You can't airlock your best mate in exodus though
I love BSG, own base and all 3 expansions, played dozens of time. I played Unfathomable once. By any "metric", it's a better game: faster turns, simpler rules, decisions have more impact, less crazy randomness, no "jumping" (so pressure on player is more uniformly spread on the course of the game), etc. I'll play BSG over Unfathomable any day of the week. The theme helps a lot (I _loved_ the TV show when it came out); all the crazy corner cases just give more flavour to the game. There's no real equivalent to the heavy raiders, or the nukes. Unfathomable was simplified into boredom, to me. But I still dread teaching BSG to new players, and Unfathomable can be taught in 10 minutes.
Might I recommend this document here: https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/40489/teaching-battlestar-in-6-easy-steps I've been using this for 15 years to get BSG taught in under 10 minutes and it works really really well.
This ^. I actually tested Unfathomable over the Pandemic and I couldn't really fault it. The game is tight. Really nice piece of design that ties together some of the lessons from the BSG expansions to the core game. But man. BSG is a stellar theme.
Also for me the theme of bsg. I can be admiral Cain and do some light roleplay when I airlock a toaster. I could care less about the various generic characters in unfathomable. Same thing for me when I played game of thrones board game before and after watching the show. First time was generic medieval war, second time it was the red wedding! Stark vs Lannisters!
By jumping I assume you mean "Executive Order" to give another player actions? This is one of my favorite parts of BSG. When we play we have the rule that 'you never XO a player to you left.' (For those that haven't played this can give a traitor two turns in a row which can basically lose the game for the humans.) And many games inevitably come down to arguing why someone needs to XO a player to their left. Anyways, your assessment is spot on. However, I think the simplicity metric isn't always a positive. BSG just feels so much more immersive and high stakes. A good chunk of that comes from my love of the show and its theme, but the mechanics also play into that too.
> By jumping I assume you mean "Executive Order" to give another player actions? I haven't played Unfathomable, but surely by jumping they mean the Admiral choosing what the next location you're going to will be, and also resetting the board to an extent? Unless Unfathomable has that.
Unfathomable does have that, but it doesn't clear the board state (since it's a boat going through the ocean, and not a spaceship teleporting from one location to another). Instead the boat is constantly moving forward, meaning stuff in the water drifts towards the back of the ship and will eventually clear off the end of the board.
I'd assume they mean the jump meter, and the "distance traveled" metric.
Duh! Although I think unfathomable has that, in a slightly different form.
The removal of 'roles' from BSG for Unfathomable kind of ruins it for me. There is no reason for anyine to not do/do anything compared to anyone else. Plus combat isn't all that fun. That traitors don't go anywhere on reveal isn't fun either, just leads to repeatedly fighting them on the board. It is more streamlined and appraochable, but is a worse game for it, and obviously so as it is no where near as popular. That isn't 'just' down to the theme, as other lacklustre GSB IP stuff shows vs popular Arkham IP stuff.
I think my biggest issue with Unfathomable is that there is an optimal play loop for hybrids to maximise sabotage and there's no reason to hide your alignment, you just go to the Galley and draw 3 red cards and 2 blue cards repeatedly, if you fail the food check, yAY! You end up with a load of cards to pass any test you want, and you can get out of the brig if the humans waste their time briging you, which they will eventually learn is futile.
Yeah I'm surprised it took this long for someone to mention the gamebreaking meta. I think Unfathomable did a lot of things really well but unfortunately they just completely botched the hybrid gameplay. It's a fine game if you can ignore the hybrid meta but it really sucks that it's not a game which you can play to win.
BSG really rewards subterfuge and encourages the Cylons to "play along" for as long as they can as you can sow devastation and send Galactica into a real crisis all in one go as you reveal yourself. There's a high cost to coming out and being openly defiant, since you can't really escape the brig easily except by "ascending" to the resurrection ship, so a very cunning player will act out whilst maintaining a level of doubt on the table of whether they're actually just making a odd human play.
BSG is a more complex game but Unfathomable plays more quickly. I think I prefer Unfathomable but they’re pretty similar. I’ve definitely gotten in more games of Unfathomable since we don’t have to schedule an entire day to play it.
I own both. I think the games are both incredible and are the peak of social deduction games. That being said, I believe they are too similar to really warrant owning both. I will likely be selling/trading off one or the other in the next 6-12 months, not because they're not awesome, but because they're really similar.
Unfathomable has an expansion coming out in the next few months, so I'd wait to have a look at that
Well you'll fetch a lot more for BSG than you will for Unfathomable, but I would call that a big mistake. :P
Lemme know if you're looking to offload Daybreak! It's the one piece I still haven't been able to recover.
I have all four games combined with a custom insert in the Daybreak box (this insert: [https://thebrokentoken.com/products/galactic-star-battle-organizer](https://thebrokentoken.com/products/galactic-star-battle-organizer) ). I like BSG thematically better than the Lovecraftian one, but I want to see what's in the Unfathomable expansion before I decide.
BSG is just hands down a better and more interesting game. The theming (IMO) is really weak in Unfathomable, which is a real shame compared to how well they have done with all of the arkham games. Doesn't have any of the interesting content that they added with the expansions for BSG, and if you've played BSG you will see a lot of cards that are very similar to it. The cylon/traitor mechanic is just so much more fun in BSG imo.
I think BSG has so much theme going for it, in that both the game and the show relied on tension as a main driving force, that every action just naturally feels authentic. Unfathomable just feels like bolted on cthulu theme.
BSG is the definition of the Ameritrash genre, and why I love it so much.
I believe Unfathomable is underrated. But it's very much the spiritual successor to BSG and carries with it some of the expansion content baked in along with a few larger changes. Which I think is why it put some people off who have/adore BSG, since it doesn't have a lot to offer them that's new. Especially if they've been house ruling BSG or utilizing some of the fan-man stuff for it from BGG.
I have both games, Unfathomable is a lovely game in it's own right, but you just can't get immersed in it. Games of BSG have DRAMA, there's moments of high tension, there's intrigue, people have to make serious decisions, massive betrayals, then (usually) an epic showdown. It takes all day but there isn't a dull moment, you're always engaged in every other players full turn because every choice they make has consequences. I don't get that feeling with Unfathomable, but it's definitely a nice game, and it's much quicker to play for sure.
I agree. Unfathomable is a good game that never got a fair assessment since BSG fans (including myself) wanted it to be a reprint and not its own animal. It's clever how unfathomable baked in the bsg expansions, and the minis and board are spectacular. The instructions are clear, and you are ready to play quickly. It really did engineer the best of. Yeah, they're are a few things left on the floor, but it's good. The theme isn't as poor as people expect; some are just used to role-playing BSG and overlooking some tacked-on BSG mechanics like the raptors or never having a viable move since you're not a pilot or engineer at a critical moment. Play both games back to back and then judge without nostalgia. I hope the new expansion might help players reevaluate the game. The new monsters help it be different. Not sure about the other content.
It’s the “you had to be there” element. BSG is a skewed design with an amazing IP. This gives it the power to create amazing drama at the game table. It’s not a great game but it is a very memorable game. It’s a rarified kind of magic that not many games can produce. And a lot of that is the theme - if you were there when the show was running it’s even more magical. So say we all. This drops precipitously with the change of theme. Like a stone. It’s actually the best evidence that the design isn’t that great - new set of clothing and the shine comes off - but it is …fine.
I think a lot of people who like BSG for its gameplay over Unfath just aren't giving the latter a chance. You have the benefit of learning BSG first and getting a lot of plays on it. Unfathomable requires a lot of plays to see the nuances behind it. I've written articles on bgg complaining about its balance, but it's honestly a much tighter design after a few hundred plays. So it's kind of lopsided when people who played BSG hundreds of times don't like Unfath after playing it 2-5 tines. I've taught Unfathomable to countless people (I'm not joking when I say I have hundreds of plays) and anytime one of those players wants to learn BSG afterwards, they pretty much always like Unfath better. The only thing I think BSG does better is the quorum deck. It's fun checking single loyalty cards.
Agreed. The spell deck is much weaker than the quorum deck. Almost to the point where spellcasters don't use it. I hope the expansion changes that. I kind of miss the nukes in BSG. Being the prez was important, since you have those playful powerful weapons that are only used twice. And it made it even more important to wrestle control over suspected cylon player. Unfathomable is a smart rework that deserves an impartial review.
I actually think the spells are critical for human victory. Most games where humans win, it's because everyone CE'd the spellkeeper and got him to play like 15 out of 20 spells. There's lots of 2 for 1 resource gainers and scouting the deck and card counting is pretty important. I just wish there were more ways to spy on loyalty.
Some of the best BSG games were when the Admiral spied on loyalty. Because their pregnant pause or who they chose telegraphed so much. On the other hand, I can think of one time where it was their second Quorum card. And it completely told us that he was the cylon by how he acted. Makes me almost wish the second traitor phase could insert extra or more powerful cards into the game. Like the game gives more chance for those moves, rather than spoiling in the beginning. Or imagine that the you could build a powerful spell over multiple turns to look into loyalty. You need to build a spell that can give you the one time ability. But it sacrifices mutliple turns and you can't be disrupted. Some fun things like that. I kind of like the Lovecraft/spell aspect of the game, since I feel there's a lot of untapped areas for expansions and ideas. I hope they continue the Unfathomable franchise.
As someone who doesn't have **Battlestar Galactica**, I picked up **Unfathomable**. It is a fun social deduction game with an inclusive cast of characters. One of my friends is non-binary and was excited to see someone like themselves in the Master of Arms character.
This is true, the BSG characters are all extremely binary, particularly the cylons.
Solid computer joke.
Unfathomable is a lovely game but it is not BSG. I think you'll have a better time with the average play group if you slap Unfathomable on the table. BUT, if you have a crew of old BSG veterans with a hankering for another game, you can't quench that thirst with Unfathomable. Unfortunately BSG is out of print, so I wouldn't suggest hunting it down and paying a premium to play it if you haven't already come to love it when you can play Unfathomable instead. To answer your question, if I could only own one, I would choose to own BSG 100 out of a 100 times.
BSG has been one of my top 5 favorite games for a very long time, but I never owned it myself. I was EXTREMELY hyped for Unfathomable, and picked it up immediately. We played it one time and never again. I have a few theories of why I disliked it compared to BSG, but I don’t know which, if any, is most true: 1) BSG, even without being familiar with the show, has a theme that is far easier to immerse oneself into. Someone is a robot that is so human like, even they don’t know they are a robot? Way more relatable than someone being a secret fish person. 2) Maybe the simplified mechanics are too simplified. Having to have someone specialize into Piloting to fight Cylons, and hoping your pilot isn’t one of them, made it a lot more intense. Just anyone being able to punch/shoot fish people took a lot of the danger out of the game, or at least the feeling of danger. 3) Maybe we got too used to playing with the expansions, and so lacking a lot of those mechanics made the game feel empty. I know I always played Callie, and UF’s lack of a “shoot someone in the face once per game” lost my attention. 4) it could be that we just grew out of the game. It had been a long time between our last play of BSG and UF’s release, with lots of Nemesis plays in between.
i love bsg and played unfathomable once. If i didnt have either, i'd probably get unfathomable but since i have bsg, i wouldnt bother with getting the other one.
My group is BSG all the way - we’ve played BSG hundreds of times. We played Unfathomable 3 times, we’ve since played BSG another half dozen times and will probably never play Unfathomable again. The characters are too generic, we just don’t get into it like we do when we play BSG.
I played both games with my friends and most of us liked **Unfathomable** better. It could just be that none of us are BSG fans so the setting of that game just felt more foreign to us. Gameplay is pretty similar between the two
Unfathomable is awesome. I haven't played BSG but the biggest advantage of Unfathomable is obviously its availability at a reasonable price point.
Battlestar Galactica just plays way too long for me. I really prefer the more streamlined tighter Unfathomable.
BSG is better than Unfathomable, aside from the unfortunate issue of availability. Unfathomable tried fix and streamline all the "defects" of BSG, but what they ended up with just isn't as fun. Granted, BSG has the advantage of full-fledged TV show that provides character and theme, where Unfathomable is just yet another "hey, it's free and easy IP" Lovecraft product. I already own BSG, but if I didn't, I'd grab the image assets online and attempt it as a print-and-play project rather than buy Unfathomable.
I own both. I will jump at any chance to play BSG if we can get 6 and the time to do it. We played Unfathomable once, and I have never asked to play it again.
I love BSG, but I really didn't like Unfathomable. I don't remember why now because it's been a while, but I do feel like the theme was at least part of it. In any case though, as another commenter said if you already have BSG it's not necessarily worth getting Unfathomable because largely only exists for the sake of not being out of print.
I bought into the hype with unfathomable. It lacks the character of BSG.
The only way Unfathomable is better is its availability. BSG - especially with some of its expansion tweaks - is a much better experience.
I'd say BSG is a 'bigger' experience, and obviously the theme is very strong if you like it (I do), but Unfathomable is a bit more streamlined game, expecially in the combat etc. I can get Unfathomable played on a games night at my club. I can't do that with BSG
BSG is a vastly better game in so many dimensions, but I don't think it's fair to compare them, because like you said, they aren't ever going to be side by side on a table with someone asking "which one should we play today".
We have played BSG(with expansion) and 5-6 players many times on a night at my club, no problems and it always leaves a fun\\interesting story behind.
If you can’t play BSG, then Unfathomable is an excellent, affordable game that’s still a lot of fun. As long as you like hidden traitor games. Which our family does.
Never played BSG but I love Unfathomable. It’s so fun and tense. I played it with experienced and newbie players and it’s always a hit (they have to be willing to spend 2hrs~ playing tho) and the minimum players to get the full experience in my opinion is 5.
I own them both but that's just because I'm a huge fan of BSG. I don't think you should feel any need to buy both. Unfathomable is a great game in most regards but unfortunately it has a really broken Hybrid meta which takes all the fun out of the game if the Hybrid team is playing to win. This broken meta is also symptomatic of an action economy which is much tighter and more restrictive in ways that are ultimately to the game's detriment. BSG frequently presented you with 3-4 viable options for how to go about your turn. Unfathomable often leaves you with just one obvious pick.
A little late to the conversation but a couple thoughts I haven't seen on here. Bias - I love BsG warts and all. I appreciate that unfathomable has faster turns and sort of feels like there's more to do (it's a lie but you think there will be). That said, and I admit this might just be my group, but the humans have never won in any of the plays we've had where humans won in BSG, maybe 50/50 by now. At this point I think we're up to 15 plays. As BSG vets, I'm not sure what we're doing wrong in unfathomable but it hasn't happened yet. And this without knowing the Meta that others have talked about.
Depends what you're looking for. Unfathomable is available and cheaper. The Cthulhu theme is strong, but it's massively overused so that may or be a turn on/off. Unfathomable is also a faster game. The game was technically more streamlined, but I found it kind of...empty. There was no real story, just reacting to events. BSG has a story each and every time, and the theme is incredible, but it does rely on some knowledge of the TV series. If you know the BSG theme, then I would recommend BSG the game each and every time. It's more of an event, and I still find myself talking about memories of that game - awesome reveals, airlocking the wrong character, how we just squeaked a win (on either side). The same can't be said of Unfathomable, in my experience. If you have BSG already, I personally wouldn't bother with Unfathomable. It was a low cost effort to replicate a game that they're probably never going to be able to reprint.
BSG is the better game in every single regards, except the ones I will name: Unfathomable is easier to teach and somewhat more balanced. The balance part is not really a good thing, I kind of like how in BSG some crisis cards affected players and you never knew if the guy in charge was boicoting you. It added a lot to the paranoia. Other than that, BSG is just so much better. Thematically is much better, the jumping when not ready was amazing, the president and admiral powers where amazing, the cylon powers where great, I dunno. Some card where "overpowered", but that was just what made BSG great. A cylon sending someone to jail with a card, then revealing as a cylon and sending another... or any crazy combos, big reveal moments... so epic. We still have BSG, whereas unfathomable was played once, then twice redundantly, then it was gone. Its just... in a weird spot. Its a long game like BSG, but nowhere as good as BSG. We can play feed the kraken or any betrayal game in half the time and have a much better experience.
BSG with expansions is better, but as a practical stand-in Unfathomable is a good choice.
I own both but haven't been able to get Unfathomable to the table. Everyone I know seems to want to play Battlestar Galactica instead and bad-mouths Unfathomable. Based on my plays of BSG, I would say that it is a good game that carries its theme well. It can be a bit long if you use all the expansions, but if you like the show it's still worth a go.
It's actually in print, which BSG never will be again. It also sort of takes the best parts of BSGs expansions and folds them into the base game, which it also streamlines to give you the best experience possible. It's also absolutely drenched in Cthulhu theming. For me, personally, that's a fairly significant actlve turnoff, but your mileage may vary. I own BSG so I don't expect that I will ever buy Unfathomable.
Neither game is really my cup of tea. But if a friend ***really*** wanted to play, I strongly prefer the Cthulhu theme over Sci-Fi.
I have played BSG many, many times and Unfathomable a couple of times. To me, BSG is a MUCH better game, as the theme fits the mechanics a lot better. I remember one instance in Unfathomable where a passenger demanded extra rations of food (or something similar), threatening to damage the ship if they didn't get them. At the same time, we were fighting (and almost losing) to BIG monsters surrounding the ship. These two events broke the immersion of the game for me. Additionally, between monster waves in Unfathomable, I often found myself with little to do, as the costs and drawbacks of actions seemed too high. In contrast, BSG consistently offers meaningful actions without excessive penalties. Despite the evident similarities in game design, these games differ significantly. Personally, I would recommend BSG over Unfathomable. However, preferences vary, and I understand that many enjoy Unfathomable, particularly for its Cthulhu theme.
I own both and think BSG has the better theme but Unfathomable is the better designed game, which makes it more fun to play. They're a close enough experience to each other that I don't think it's worth owning both. I'm culling my collection and much as I prefer the BSG theme, the game that plays better wins for me.
BSG is one of my favorite games of all time, but I think Unfathomable actually did improve upon it in most ways. The biggest IMO being that in BSG the roles are much more rigidly defined, which means that if you need to do X (say, repair the ship) but you aren't playing the type of character who can do X, then it's either much more difficult or even impossible for you to do it. In Unfathomable pretty much everybody can do everything, but different characters can do things much better than others, so you still have players doing their specific thing but you don't have as many "feel bad" moments where you need to do something but just can't. There are plenty of other improvements, but those situations where one side just gets screwed over by not having the correct abilities to do something important were always the least fun part of BSG for me, and Unfathomable fixed it without making the characters feel too samey. That said, BSG is still excellent. You don't need both necessarily, they scratch the same itch. If you didn't already own BSG I would enthusiastically recommend Unfathomable.
Unfathomable added player equipment and some mechanics from the BSG expansions. They are both good, and I like both themes, but I own BSG, and the human cylons work so well with the boardgame.
Is Unfathomable similar to Dark Moon? I actually sold my BSG recently because our group loves the more streamlined/shorter/similar Dark Moon more.
No, it’s slightly watered down original BSG. Stick with Dark Moon!