•depth of strategy
-Characters with a OPG ability, and weakness in addition to a special move
-Quorum card deck
-Other decks too like Destination cards, and the wide variety of crisis cards
-there's also a sense of spatial locality, namely, space combat. For example, it's typically worse to have 8 raiders vs. 4 raiders, but when those 4 raiders are one activation away from destroying 4 civilian ships, whereas the 8 raiders 3 activations away, then in the short term, the 8 raiders is actually a better situation for the humans. Moving characters about the ships, and knights in SOC doesn't really count as "spatial locality" as characters in BSG to for example move anywhere on Galactica (well, no hazard spots) with just one move/ment, while in SOC, it takes one Heroic action to move to any quest, so distance nor the layout of the locations aren't a factor in those regards.
-reveal powers in BSG
-Also, SOC's accusation has a way to force a player to reveal his identity. In BSG, until you get to Pegasus or Exodus expansions' execution mechanic, there's no way to force him to reveal his identity
•suitability for new players (length of time to explain, etc.)
All variables equal, BSG is roughly twice the game play time as SOC. However, it's also got more depth. If I have the time and group that's up for it, I'd much rather play BSG. However, it's easier to teach SOC. And more people are familiar with dragons and Arthurian legends than the new BSG TV series. However, an explanation should be enough for most people (e.g. explain what "jumping" is, what a cylon is, the state of the 12 colonies)
•overall feel of the game
•what situations you would recommend playing each of them in.
BSG takes 2.5 to 5 hours. Average times about 3.25 hours. Also a higher learning curve. SOC takes 1 to 2 hours, and teaches fairly quickly, but there's less options. For example, people feel in BSG, stuff happens between turns like playing a die roll modifier, or how whenever there's a skill check, everyone can participate.
•anything else you think should be included in regards to comparing and contrasting them
I will say that I'm a fan with BSG with all 3 expansions. There's a whole wall of opinions on what's best, but it seems there's more love for the better expansions here than just Merlin's Company for SOC.
Also those who don't like BSG cited as one complaint how you can turn cylon halfway through. Some like it because it forces the humans to play a bit conservatively in case someone gets turned. Others hate having their work undone. With SOC, since you deal out n cards out of n + 1 Loyalty deck, with only 1 Traitor card, there's the possibility that there may be NO traitor. If you guarantee a traitor, it changes the dynamics knowing that it's gotta be someone, and makes accusations less risky. If there ends up not being a traitor (again, NOT because you played the fully-coop version), then those who don't enjoy fully-co-op games feel like they got robbed of the real deal.
Oh, SOC does scale better. Some purists will only play BSG with exactly 5p. I'm more flexible. However, SOC is hard for the loyal knights with only 3p or 4p, and gets harder for the traitor in a 7p games on account of # of loyal turns between the traitor's own.