Cosmic Encounter is My Favorite Thing

Release Date: 2008

Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games

# of Players: 3-5 (Each expansion also adds one more player)

I am a huge fan of board games and this is one of my favorites.

Cosmic Encounter's story is based around many different alien races trying to take over the galaxy. The creators put a lot of thought into this game because each of the fifty aliens (110 if you have all three expansions) have their own story and information. This is the type of game that if you have get discouraged by huge rulebooks easily, then you will be scared to play this game. Though the rulebook is big, the game is very simple to play at its core. 

Alien Power Card

A

Flare Card

You first start out the game by dealing out two alien power cards called flares. These cards determine which special alien power you will have. You choose one card to be your power, then you discard both cards into the deck. These flares do not tell you what your power is. If you would happen to get a flare card in your hand you do one of two things: if you are that particular alien, you use the super part of the card, if you are not that alien, then you use the wild part of the card. You will have another type of card that tells you specifically what your alien power does. Each player is then dealt eight cards. This is where the game gets simple because it is played in seven phases.




Regroup: During this phase each player can choose to research their technology. Also, the player whose turn it is may choose to take one ship out of the warp if they have any there.

Destiny: The player then draws from the destiny deck. These cards determine who the player is going to attack. They will either draw another players color, a wild destiny, or a special destiny. The special destiny card has them attack either the player with the fewest ships in the warp, most foreign colonies, or most cards cards in their hand. The wild destiny card allows to players to choose who they are going to attack. If a player draws a card of their own color they may choose to either draw another card or attack a player that is in their own home system.

Hyperspace Gate

Launch: After the destiny card, the player then chooses which planet in the other player's home system they are going to attack. The put 1-4 ships on the hyperspace gate and aim it at one of the defending player's home planets.

Alliance: During this phase both main players (the offense and the defense) may ask for allies. They are not required to ask. Each player starting with the person to the left of the offensive player may choose to send either 0-4 ships to either side of the battle. If you ally with the defense and win, you get to draw cards depending on how many ships you gave to the battle. If you ally with the offense and win, you get a foreign colony on the defense's planet you were attacking.

Ships who have lost battles and are in the warp

Planning: During the planning phase each main player must choose a card from their hand to play. They may play either an attack card or a negotiate card. If both players play an attack card, then you need to figure out who won the encounter. Each player adds together their ships in the battle to the card that was played. This includes ships that your ally gave in the battle. For example if the blue player (4 ships) is attacking the red player (2 ships) and the green player allied with the red player (3 ships) this is what could happen. The red player flips over a card that says 10. The blue player flips over a card that says 23. In this instance the red player has 15 (10+2+5) and the blue player has 27 (23+4). The blue player wins and all of the red and green players ships must go to the warp. The blue player then has a foreign colony on the red players home system.

Three Attack Cards and a Negotiate Card

Another card that you can lay down is a negotiate card. If one players lays a negotiate card and another plays lays down an attack card then the side that lays down a negotiate automatically loses, but they may pick cards from the other players hand equal to the number of ships they had in the battle. The allies of the player who laid the negotiate card do not get anything and their ships are sent to the warp.

If both players lay down negotiate cards then they have one minute to make a deal of their choosing. These deals must have monetary values. They can both choose to trade cards or colonies. In this case allies go back to their own colonies and do not receive anything.

Reveal: This is where each main player must reveal which ever card they set out. The players then add up their total number of ships and cards.

Resolution: This is where the battle has already been decided and you clean up the playing area. All losing ships go to the warp, cards go to the discard piles and allied ships either go back to their home colonies or a foreign colony.

Here are some other factors of the game:

Flare Cards: I mentioned these up above. The special thing about these cards are that go back into your hand after you use them, but you may only use a flare once per encounter and only one flare an encounter, so if you have multiple flares in your hand, you must make the decision on which one you may use during the encounter. If you are that particular alien, you use the super part of the card. If you are not that alien, you use the wild part of the card.

Artifact Cards: These are one time use cards. Their are different artifacts that are used in different situations. Some cancel the use of an alien power. Others cancel a card effect (except for negotiates, attack, and reinforcements). There are also other types of artifacts in the deck.

Morph Cards: These are another card you can play rather than attack or negotiate. They change your card into whatever card your opponent played.

A pile of technology cards

Technologies: These are an optional part of the game. At the beginning of the game you may deal out two technologies. Like the alien powers, you pick only one. There is a number in the bottom righthand corner. That is how many ships are needed to complete the power. During each regroup phase (not just your own) you may put one ship on the card. This ship is out of play until you either research your technology completely or disband it altogether. These technologies can range from requiring two ships to nine ships and can add special powers such as draw four cards, reset all hands to eight cards, and even blow up or create another planet.

Alien Powers: This is the part of the game where it gets interesting. At the beginning of the game you choose your alien power. The base game has fifty different powers plus twenty more for each expansion you have (there are three of them). That results in 110 different powers you can have. These powers each have their own uses. For instance, the Macron has each of their ships worth four instead of one, but they may only send one ship per encounter. The Zombie's ships never go to the warp when they lose, but back to their own home colonies. The Remora gets to draw a card every time another player draws a card and gets a ship from the warp every time another player gets a ship from the warp. These are what makes Cosmic Encounter a fun game to play.

This game has a lot of originality to it. Each game is different and that is why I like this. I have found out that it depends on your group of people whether they will have fun or not. I have two groups that I have played this with. One group argues the whole game and we only play once and then we are done. The other group loves the game and we will play over and over again until we have to leave. I would recommend to anyone to try this game out if you see it sitting on a store shelf. I know that Barnes and Noble have the game online and you can also find it on Amazon.