Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game returns in a new edition

Ghost Galaxy made a surpise announcement on 22nd October with the news they are bringing the highly rated and sought after Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game back to the table. The publisher has reached an agreement with Universal Consumer Products & Games and Fantasy Flight Games to produce a new edition, which will be heading to crowdfunding in early 2027.

Ghost Galaxy’s CEO, Christian T. Petersen, oversaw the original game’s publication at Fantasy Flight Games for its 2008 release. He says the team wants to build on the original design, but hasn’t as yet revealed any details about what may change. There is also no news on whether the games expansions, Pegasus, Exodus and Daybreak, might also see a subsequent return to print.

I had the pleasure to oversee the publication of this phenomenal board game during its first lease on life”, said Christian T. Petersen CEO of Ghost Galaxy (and formeer CEO and founder of Fantasy Flight Games). “We’re having a lot of fun retuening to the great characters and story of Battlestar Galactica, and we’re working hard to ensure that our new edition will make a great design even better!

A fleet held together by suspicion

Designed by Corey Konieczka, the original game puts three to six players aboard the Galactica and its accompanying fleet as humanity searches for a new home. Most players are humans trying to keep the fleet alive. One or more players, however, may secretly be Cylons working to bring it down.

Players manage crises, protect the ship and its dwindling resources, and try to advance the fleet towards safety. They contribute cards to skill checks, but those cards are played face down and shuffled together, so the table cannot be sure who helped the group, or who may have helped sabotaged it. The Cylons hide their allegiance, sowing distrust and choosing when to reveal themselves. In the base game, the humans must get the fleet far enough to reach Kobol; the Cylons win if they can exhaust the fleet’s resources or otherwise destroy it first. The game proved to be immensely popular, and not just with battlestar Galactica fans but the wider board game community, due to its gameplay and cooperative, bluffing, and hidden role mechanics. The game usually took between 2-3 hours to finish.

From the 2008 original to a new edition

Fantasy Flight Games published the original game in 2008. They followed it with three expansions: Pegasus in 2009, Exodus in 2010 and Daybreak in 2013. Together, they added characters, boards and optional rules that gave groups more ways to explore the series’ journey, and sow distrust.

For years, the out-of-print status has made second-hand copies the main option for anyone wanting to play. Current eBay UK listings show used or unpunched base games offered around £80–£100, a sealed base game at about £172, and sealed Pegasus copies listed above £220. One complete set with all three expansions is listed for more than £1,450! These are asking prices, not confirmed sale prices, and condition, completeness and postage make a substantial difference. Still, they show why the game has acquired a “hard to find” reputation among collectors, and why a new print run could appeal to many players who have been priced out of the original and never thought they’d be able to own a copy.

Who are Ghost Galaxy?

Ghost Galaxy is a tabletop publisher founded by Petersen in 2019. Its current work includes KeyForge, which it acquired from Asmodee in 2022, and Mindbug, which it publishes in partnership with Nerdlab.

Petersen founded Fantasy Flight Games 1995, building it into a major publisher, with a slate of original and licensed titles. He sold the company to Asmodee in 2014, becoming head of Asmodee North America before leaving at the end of 2018.

The news that Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game is coming back will please a number of people, and something that many thought would never happen given the complex web of licenses for the IP of the show alongside the game mechanics and design of the board game requiring multiple partners to agree, and get their cut, to the deal. Fantasy Flight Games have used the system that appeared in the Battlestar boardgame in their 2021 release Unfathomable, which replace the sci-fi theme and cyclons, with a steamlining and the Cthulhu Mythos, set in the Atlantic Ocean in 1913 with swarms of Deep Ones.