Ah, Cosmic Encounter.
Let's explain - my love is a new love. I am not someone who played earlier editions, nor am I someone who had even heard about the game except occasionally mentioned by others fondly, before Fantasy Flight announced it was reprinting this awesome game.
Let me be frank and up front - the reason Cosmic has lasted so long is because it is a work of genius.
Not because it is complicated. Oh no! Far from it.
Let me start with what it is NOT.
It is NOT a game of space battles and whoosh bang explosions. No. If you are looking for a space battles game, this most categorically is not it.
It IS a game of negotiation and adaptation, cunning and misdirection.
======How DO I win?======
The aim of any game of Cosmic Encounter is to gain a number of "colonies" on other players' planets. you do this by defeating them in battle and establishing a base there.
The way Cosmic works is that it starts from a very simple game, and then messes with it in fun and exciting ways. Each of these can be added to your games as you like, creating extra chaos if you want it, or keeping things relatively simple.
======So what's this Simple Game then?======
Ah, my old friend the bold question and answer format!
The simple game here is a majority number game.
You are assigned by a deck of cards to an "encounter" - this is simply a very abstracted combat sequence.
You send a number of ships to the encounter (at least one, not more than four) then both sides play a card. You add the number on the card to the number of ships you sent to the fight, highest number wins, ties to the defender.
If you're unhappy with the result and have "reinforcement" cards in your hand, you can add those to this fight, typically increasing your score by 1 to 5 points.
======Wow. That is simple. And rubbish.======
Frankly, yes.
So in the deck of cards are a couple of different ones; a negotiate card, that lets you make a mutually beneficial deal with you opponent, and a morph card that is always counted as identical to your opponent's card.
Both of these are joined by "artifacts" which are just simple "special" cards allowing you to take actions not normally possible.
======OK, that's sounding a little more interesting======
But still not wonderful, right? I hear you.
How about this for another building block. 237
When you're involved in an encounter (either attacking or defending) you can ask the players not yet involved if they'd like to help you out. Of course, they will reap the benefits of a victory, so is it worth asking for their help? Or will it help them more than it helps you?
======Wouldn't you just hold onto good cards?======
No! Here's the clever thing with your hand of cards - it starts at eight, but you don't get new ones til you've used or got rid of ALL the encounter cards you had. That card with a zero on it? You'll have to use it at some point!
A quick note added after a reply (below) - at this stage you will need to point out to players that an artifact card is NOT an encounter card. This is important because once you have no encounter cards in your hand you must discard anything you have left and draw a new hand, so don't hold onto that cosmic zap for too long, or you'll lose it!
======Nice! But come on, more variety, please!======
I'm a big fan of variable player abilities, so lets talk about the single most important aspect of the game - alien powers.
Each player in the game chooses at random (or from several picked at random) at least one power. This is simply a way in which they can break the rules. FFG have included 50 different ones here. That means you could play 50 successive games and never have the same Alien. For me, that is magnificently crazy.
Let's look at a couple for examples:
Normally when you play a card for your encounter, it is discarded. If you are the CLONE however, you get to choose whether to take it straight back into your hand or not - bearing in mind the other players now know what it is.
Can't win an encounter? No worries! LOSER aliens get the option to "declare an upset" and reverse the outcome, so the loser wins and the winner loses. Problem is, you must decide to do this before you play your cards.
Hopefully you can see how ingenious these powers are in changing the game.CLONE has a quandary - is that card worth taking, since everyone knows what it is? 755