Players: 2-4
Time: 1 hour
Difficulty: 3 (of 10)
The Components
The Hasbro Cosmic Encounter comes with a stunning array of beautiful components:
- The Warp
- 4 Player Systems
- 80 ships
- 1 mothership
- 4 carriers
- 20 alien cards
- 12 order discs
- 54 encounter cards
- 1 rulebook
Warp & Systems: These 5 cardboard bits--1 warp and 4 player systems--together form the Cosmic Encounter "board". The warp is a circular disc that sits in the middle, while the player systems are crescents that hook up to warp's rippled edges. Each is printed on heavy cardboard and is very large.
The warp is a space for dead ships, while the player system holds the five planets for a player in one of the four player colors: green, red, blue or yellow. There's very little need for detail on these two components, so instead they're filled with a colorful background: starfields, gears, grids, etc.
Overall, these are attractive if overproduced (a theme for the game).
Ships: The 80 ships are molded out of medium-weight plastic, 20 each in the 4 player colors. They're shaped like alien rockets and have some minor detail molded into them. They also stack with each other, to keep them organized during play. They're very cute and the four colors are easy to tell apart from each other.
Mothership & Carriers: These are more or less little hard-plastic toys. The mothership has space for 12 ships in it: 4 in the middle for an attacker and 4 on each side for allies. Like the ships it has some minor molded detail, but is monochromatic and thus surprisingly plain for such a major plastic component.
The 4 carriers each have space for 4 ships in them. They're colored in the 4 player colors and thus look quite attractive.
Overall, these pieces are entirely beautiful and quite sturdy.
Alien Cards: These heavy cardboard cards each depict one of the 20 alien races in Cosmic Encounter. The front shows a (sometime attractive, sometimes incoherent) computer generated picture of the alien race along with a name (e.g., "Vulch") and a description of the race's power (e.g., "Collects discarded artifacts"). The back gives a long description of how the power works, including any potential unusual cases.
There are also four hard plastic stands which are used to stand up the alien cards, so that the player can read the back and everyone else can see the front.
Order Discs: These are used to determine who a player attacks and they're the only unimpressive component in the set. Each is printed on heavy cardboard and shows a colored globe of light in the middle, related to one of the four player colors. (There are 12 discs, with three of each color.)
Encounter Cards: The cards are printed on medium cardstock with no gloss or coating. They're printed full color though with a fairly limited pallette of colors (mostly blues and purples). Most of the cards are Encounter cards which show a number or else a "N"egotiate, and are used for conflicts. Some are artifacts which instead give their player a one-time special power. The numbered cards are all very clear, while the artifacts and negotiates both summarize and explain how they're used. There's also a bit of color text on the cards, mainly a failed attempt to make the number cards less abstract (e.g., "Attack 6: 'Reyuban Rod. It was invented in one day. Too bad they were trying to create a new type of footwear.'").
Rulebook: The sixteen page rulebook is surprisingly printed in black and white on plain paper. It's easy to follow and has lots of examples and pictures, as well as backgrounds for all the alien races.
Box & Tray: The box is quite large, but also the right size for the pieces included. It contains a tray which is well-designed and keeps all the components separated and in-place.
The components of Hasbro's Cosmic Encounter are ... controversial. Almost universally players of previous versions of Cosmic Encounter hate them, while newcomers love them. Though I can't deny they're beautifully produced, I somewhat fall into the former camp. I have two general issues.
First, the components are overproduced to a level that I've never seen in a board game. You just don't need pieces this nice for any game. The price is extremely reasonable given what you get, but I would have preferred an even cheaper price with pieces that just weren't quite as showy. In some cases, especially with all the graphical flourishes on the boards and cards, the overproduction can even muddle the purpose of the components.
Second, the components implicitly limit the game to four players because you can't fit any more systems around the warp (nor do you have space for more players on the mothership). Given that the previous version of the game was designed for six players, this feels like a pretty big loss. Personally, I had to wait months until I only had four players so I could actually try out this new version of the game.
Despite that all, I do have to admit that the components are absolutely beautifully produced. The alien cards and the encounter cards are, in addition, quite easy & intuitive to use. And, as I already said, the components are a great value for the actual cost of the game. So, if you're comfortable with the price point that Hasbro has selected for this game, it does earn a "5" out of "5" for Style.
In Cosmic Encounter your goal is to invade five alien world. You'll probably do this by bringing allies along, quite often setting up a group win.
Setup: Each player starts off with one alien system which contains five worlds, and with four of his space ships on each world. In addition he begins with an alien power which lets him "break one rule in the game" and also has a hand of seven encounter cards.
Alien Powers. The alien powers are what truly make Cosmic Encounter. They make the game asymmetrical by giving each player a slightly different power--and they're not necessarily balanced, which works because of the innate diplomacy of the game. Some powers are very straightforward, such as Macron, who's ship are worth "4" each, but can thus only fit one ship on a mothership or carrier; some require real thought, such as the Healer, who can heal destroyed ships in return for Encounter Cards; and some are just annoying, such as the Vulch, who gets any artifact when it's used or discarded.
The alien powers cover the full range of possible actions in the game. Some affect the player's ships, some affect Encounters in various ways, some allow the revelation or trading of certain cards, some affect the recovery of used Encounter Cards, etc.
Encounter Cards. The majority of these cards are numbers (4 to 30), or else are marked "Negotiate", which are both used in encounters. There are also 8 artifacts which can be used at specific times. They include: Cosmic Zap (block the use of an alien power); Stellar Gas (block compensation); Emotion Control (force a negotiation during an Encounter); Plague (take cards and ships from a player); Mobius Tubes (free all ships from the Warp); and Force Field (block players from participating in an Encounter).
Order of Play: During his turn a player takes the following actions in order:
- Regain Lost Ship
- Receive Orders
- Choose Target Planet
- Invite Allies
- Encounter Opponent
- Take Second Turn
Regain Lost Ship: Each turn starts off with a player recovering a ship from the warp, if he has one there. In addition, if a player has no Encounter Cards at this point, he gets 7 new Encounter Cards.
Receive Orders: You now flip the next Orders chits, which shows you which player's system you must attack. If you reveal any player's color but your own, you will be attacking that player on one of the planets in his home system--not any other player who happens to have set up colonies there. If you turn up your own color, you may either draw again, or else attack an opponent's colony that has been set up in your system.
Choose Target Planet: Next, you choose which planet to attack. This choice doesn't matter much in the first round, since all of the planets will have four ships each, but later on, sometimes a player will have zero ships on a planet (because he's lost it), and sometimes he might have much more.
If you flipped your own color orders, and decided to keep them, you must choose a specific player's colony on one of your planets to attack.
You then take the mother ship and point it at the planet you plan to attack. You must place between one and four of your ships on the mother ship, as your attacking force; these ships may be drawn from any of your colonies, either from within your home system, or else from colonies you've established off-system.
Invite Allies: The offensive player may then invite some, all, or none of the other players to join in the attack; they'll get to land colonies along with the offensive player if he wins.
The defensive player may then invite some, all, or note of the other players to join in the defense; they'll get to collect "Defender Rewards" (ship or cards) if the defensive player wins.
In order each player then chooses to side with the offensive player, the defensive player, or nobody. They do this by placing their carrier ship holding 1-4 ships (again, drawn from any colonies) on one side or the other of the conflict.
Encounter Opponent: Now each player takes one of his Encounter Cards and places it face down. They're then both flipped up at the same time.
If both players played Negotiates all allies go home; players may arrange a trade of up to one colony and as many encounter cards as they want. Usually, players will swap one colony for one colony. If they fail to come to an agreement in 60 seconds, each player loses 3 ships to the warp.
If only one player Negotiates he automatically loses, but collects "compensation" from his opponent--one card from his opponent per ship the main player lost. Anyone who allied with the losing Negotiator gets nothing (but their ships sent to the warp).
If both players play number cards then each player totals their card number plus the number of ships on their side. The higher number wins, with ties going to the defender.
In both these latter cases, if the offensive player wins, all of the defensive ships are lost to the warp and all the offensive ships land on the planet, forming colonies. If the defensive player wins, all of the offensive ships are lost to the warp and all the defensive ships go home; defensive allies may draw 1 card or recover 1 ship from the warp for each ship they had defending.
Alien Powers. The majority of the alien powers affect the Encounter. These include: Zombie (doesn't go to the warp); Laser (makes opponent play a random Encounter card); Virus (multiplies ship total times Encounter card, rather than adding them); Anti-Matter (lower total wins Encounter, not higher); Pacifist (wins if Negotiates versus a number card); Chronos (can replay an Encounter); etc.
Take Second Turn: If the player won his first Encounter, he may take a second one, starting with the recovery of a ship. Only two Encounters are allowed per turn. A player doesn't get a second Encounter if he has no Encounter cards left.
Losing Your Power: If you ever lose three of your home colonies (meaning you have no ships on three of your home planets), you lose the use of your alien power until you recover colonies to bring you back up to three (if you do).
Winning the Game: A player wins the game when he has colonies on at least five planets outside of his home system. This can be a joint win, and often is, because players can ally together for attacks.
Relationships to Other Games
Cosmic Encounter was originally published by Eon Games in 1977. The publisher, Eon, was one of the few companies on the scene at the time doing unique, original games for genres other than war gaming. Many of their games are now considered classics, including Borderlands (1982), Hoax (1981), and Runes (1981), all by the same design team as Cosmic Encounter. This team also created Dune (1979) for Avalon Hill, another classic American strategy game.
The original game featured nine expansions, produced between 1977 and 1983. It was then taken over by West End Games who produced a standalone game in 1986. Mayfair Games then did a comprehensive two box set as Cosmic Encounter (1991) and More Cosmic Encounter (1992), followed up by the introductory Simply Cosmic Encounter (1996). Hasbro took over the game in 2000, producing this standalone version. More recently, Cosmic Encounter Online (2003) was released by the original Eon team.
The West End Games version and the Hasbro version are both very simplistic. They don't include many of the features of the two other, expanded, versions, such as lots more aliens, moons, flares, lucre, comets, kickers, and more. Conversely, the Eon version, with all the expansions, and the two-box Mayfair set are both very comprehensive, producing a richer and more complex game.
Cosmic Encounter is a fairly pivotal game design, as one of the first out there to really give each player a totally asymmetrical starting position, via unique powers. This aspect has doubtless influenced countless games since.
The Game Design
Cosmic Encounter is generally simple, social, and fun. There's a high chaos factor thanks to the alien powers, the artifacts, and their interactions, and that adds to a lot of the feel of the game. Here's some of the best design:
Innovative Alien System: As already noted, the idea of each player having his own alien power was very innovative at the time, and remains a neat and core part of the game today. This system also adds a lot to the replayability to the game.
Interesting Orders Systems: The fact that where you attack is random is an interesting innovation because: (1) it eliminates any potential analysis paralysis; (2) it keeps the game quickly moving forward; and (3) it allows for a wargame with no animosity.
Good Socialization: The ability to ally with players on either side of an encounter keeps every player constantly involved in the game, and cans also result in some fun haggling.
Short & Simple: This is a game that plays fast, particularly among experienced players.
My only complaint is:
Quite Random: The draw of the aliens, the encounter cards, and the order disks can all have massive effects on the game. I tend to think these even out, particularly because the game plays so fast, but it can irritate players who need more control or strategy.
Overall, I'd say Cosmic Encounter has a low-to-medium level of strategy. There's some tactics in figuring out who to invite to ally, who not to, and what Encounter Cards to play when, but beyond that a lot of the play is driven by the game itself. Nonetheless, I think this is largely appropriate for a game of its depth and length. Some of this changes if you play the older versions of the game, with the supplements, but for the current version of Cosmic Encounter, especially weighing in its innovative (and still unique) design, I give it a "4" out of "5" Substance rating.
Conclusion
I don't have any compunctions in recommending Cosmic Encounter. It is a light game, and it does have a randomness factor, so if you take your games very seriously, you might not enjoy it. However, if you like fun "beer & pretzels" games, this is one of the best.
I do have some compunctions in recommending this edition of Cosmic Encounter. If you really like your components, then go ahead and get it, because it has the best pieces that any version of the game ever has, or is ever likely to have. However, I find the recent Mayfair Games version much more personally appealing because there's a lot more depth in the game when it's supplemented (and Hasbro unfortunately seems to have no urge to do so). Last I checked, Mayfair still had very limited copies of the Cosmic Supreme set, which is their Simply Cosmic plus their More Cosmic. It's not as good as the full Mayfair set, but if components are less important to you, I think it's a superior alternative.
