Across the cosmos, warring races fight for galactic domination. With the approaching Cosmic Storm , an expansion for Cosmic Encounter , twenty-five new aliens join the battle for interstellar supremacy. In earlier previews, we looked at the space station variant introduced in Cosmic Storm, and we heard from designer Jay Little about his experience working on this expansion.

Today, we will introduce four more aliens who will come blasting out of the upcoming Cosmic Storm and on to your gaming table.

The Sloth

The Sloths will eventually arrive in force to take over the sector. Any time now. Just wait for it. They should be here soon.

The ‘Laziest in the Galaxy’ title certainly belongs to the Sloths, likely placing them in the running for ‘Laziest in the Universe.’ Indeed, the Sloths fully intend on conquering the galaxy and ruling over the Cosmos. However, with the power of Laziness , the Sloths often have a hard enough time even sending a few ships into battle. When a Sloth is the offense or an ally, instead of sending ships to an encounter, the Sloth sends the Sloth token instead. Only after encounter cards are selected can you count on the Sloth ships to show up. That is, of course, if they show up at all.

The Tide

The Tide’s cultural philosophy is simple: go with the flow. From an early age, members of the Tide’s army are trained to react and respond to even the slightest change of plans. While some may consider the Tide’s approach to military and diplomatic matters wishy-washy, the Tide seem resolute to vacillate on issues and continue to change their minds at a moment’s notice.

The Tide are excellent at letting a situation play out, and responding to its changing variables. The Tide don’t let anything keep them down for long, because in their experience, circumstances are always shifting.

With the power to Ebb and Flow , the Tide adds tokens to his alien sheet each time he wins an encounter, and the Tide player and each of his allies can draw one card for each token on the sheet. Conversely, when a Tide player loses an encounter, he discards one of the tokens from his alien sheet, and the opposing player and allies must discard one card for each token on the sheet.

The Grumpus

The Grumpus is indeed a stodgy curmudgeon. Other species prefer not to interact with the Grumpi, lest they be drawn into a long-winded conversation about how the Universe was better back in their millennium. And be careful where you tread when visiting the Grumpus home world; they cannot stand it when there are aliens on their lawn.

The Grumpus, as a race, has been around the proverbial space station, and could tell you a thing or two about these new-fangled alien technologies. Pull up a chair, sonny, because the Grumpus, naturally, have the power to Grump . Any time one of the Grumpus’ colonies is removed from a planet, the grumping begins. Every other player with a ship on that planet must send one ship to the warp, because, let’s face it, a trip to the warp is preferable to listening to the Grumpus pout and complain.

The Brute

What the Brutes lack in subtlety, they make up for in simplicity. They tend to be an aggressive race, with blunt, thuggish tactics where they can use their strength and massive frames to intimidate any opposition in their way.

The Brutes are a fairly straightforward species of alien, and interaction with a Brute is relatively easy. Simply give them whatever they request, and allow them to move on to someone more fun to intimidate. Brutes have the power to Threaten , and they are very, very good at painting a picture of what might happen should one not comply. Though Brutes aren’t big on words, their gigantic fists, determined attitudes, and overall intimidating appearance is usually enough to get a Brute what he wants.

As a main player or ally, a Brute may use his power to Threaten an opposing player. No one says no once they have been threatened by a Brute, so that player must allow the Brute to look at his hand and choose a card for himself. Or, the Brute can choose to remove all ships that player has committed to that encounter.

These four aliens aren’t the only ones who will emerge from the upcoming Cosmic Storm . Keep checking back here for more on which aliens will be included, and more information on Cosmic Storm . Also, be sure to check out our Facebook page, where we will be previewing aliens included in Cosmic Storm that won’t be discussed on our website!

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.