After several months, Cosmic Encounter is coming back to your local retailer’s shelves next week! This upcoming reprint of the intergalactic board game of ever-changing politics features a brand new cover. While the game itself is unchanged, the new cover art better portrays the rich theme of this beloved game. Can you guess which of its 50 unique Aliens will grace the cover?

If you’re unfamiliar with the galactic intrigue of this classic board game, read on.

What is Cosmic Encounter ?

Cosmic Encounter is a game of cunning and domination for 3-5 players, in which players become the leaders of various aliens, struggling against each other for ultimate sovereignty. Choose from 50 Alien characters, each accompanied by a character sheet that relates the Alien’s history and unique power.

In Cosmic Encounter peace is a myth of ages long past. To ensure the survival of your kind and fulfill your underlying compulsion for galactic victory, your alien race must be the first to have five colonies occupying your opponents’ home planet systems.

In order to reach your goal, you must battle a fellow player through an encounter between your ships and his home planet system. Luckily, you are able to recruit additional players to become your Allies. But do not let your guard down, Allies are still enemy Alien races with their own agendas.

Should you win your galactic battle, your encounter is successful and brings you one ship closer to victory. Will your Alien race triumph over the cosmos?

What do the expansions offer?

While Cosmic Encounter offers players nearly infinite replayability and variety, the two expansion available, Cosmic Incursion and Cosmic Conflict , introduce new decks and players to space.

Cosmic Incursion features over 50 cards, including new Flare and Destiny cards as well as a Reward deck, 20 new Alien sheets, over 30 Cosmic tokens, and the necessary components to add a 6th player. Also included are a new rule, Cosmic Quakes, and a new variant for game play.

Cosmic Quakes occur when a player needs to draw a card from the Cosmic deck and both the Cosmic deck and the discard pile are empty. The Cosmic Quake forces every player to discard their hand, the discard pile to be shuffled and made into a new Cosmic deck, and for eight new cards to be dealt to each player.

The Reward deck is a resource for defensive allies. Whenever a defensive ally receives a defender award he may draw from this special and slightly more powerful deck of cards. This variant gives players a stronger reason to ally on the defense’s side.

The new Reward deck includes Negative Attack cards, Crooked Deals, Second Morph, Kickers, Rifts, and new Artifacts such as Space Junk. Space Junk allows a player to give themselves an advantage by returning a recently used powerful card to their hand, or hindering their opponent by forcing them to reuse an unsuccessful card at some point in the future.

Cosmic Incursion also features an additional game variant for players, should they opt for a wilder and more challenging cosmic experience.

In Cosmic Conflict , players will enjoy 20 new Alien sheets, over 30 new tokens, over 50 new cards, including new Flare and Destiny cards, as well as a Hazard deck, the Cosmic Quakes rule, and a new game variant. Also included are the necessary components to add a 6th player (7th if you have and are using Cosmic Incursion ).

The new Hazard deck adds bizarre space conditions and other events to Cosmic Encounter . These events can crop up at random times during the game; whenever a player draws from the Destiny deck he may draw a card that compels him to draw a Hazard card. These cards are played during encounters and can either have temporary or permanent effects.

Cards such as Alliance are a permanent Hazard card and remain in play for the entirety of the game. It creates a unique situation where you and another player are forced to be permanent allies during the game. A double-edged sword, this card affects the politics of game play, making alliances more thought-provoking.

Cosmic Conflict also features a variant that offers players a more hazardous experience.

Played individually or together these expansions offer a variety of new options for players to try out and enjoy. Make sure you prep your Alien races for an even more epic battle with Cosmic Incursion and Cosmic Conflict , and look for the release of the reprinted Cosmic Encounter next week!

 

Cosmic Encounter is a classic board game that puts players in charge of the fate of an alien race. Three to five players each strive to be the first to conquer five enemy colonies and establish themselves as the dominant life form in the galaxy. With over 50 alien characters to choose from, no two games are ever the same.