1. It says that the first player does not get his first 5 Skill cards befor the game, but on his first round, so does he get the starting 5 + the normal 5 he would get in his turn or is he 5 cards short?

2. where the is a Crisis cards (the one that shows the picture with ships on in to be place that way), do you reset the board and place just the ships the way showed on the picture, or do you keep the other ships in play (vipers, civs and cylons) and just add the number of new ships to proper space areas...?

Rozy said:

He receives 5 cards. This is better than the 3 cards everybody else receives.

Rozy said:

As with every other thread that asks this question and the manual: You simply add those ships. If there is a shortage in ship miniatures and counters, the current player decides which ships to place.

Mike said:

He's getting those 5 cards from his first draw though... Which everyone else also gets when it's their turn.

So on the first player's turn he just gets his regular draw in cards. Meanwhile on the 2nd players turn he gets his regular allotment of cards and already has 3 from the start of the game... correct?

Snarfmaster said:

He's getting those 5 cards from his first draw though... Which everyone else also gets when it's their turn.

Yes, that is correct.

[EDIT - Quotes are kind of messed up...]

The idea behind giving everyone EXCEPT the starting player 3 cards is to start the game as if several rounds had already been played.  If only one player, the start player, had any cards on the first turn, the Cylons wouldn't be able to keep straight faces when the first crisis card comes out.

TK