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Review of Cosmic Incursion
Blurb from the publisher: 'Over the years, alien empires have risen and fallen. The Vacuum has failed to eliminate the Zombie, the Virus has spread far and wide, and the Loser has turned defeat into victory. 50 different species have tried to conquer the galaxy, and each have made their mark on the universe. Their warring has not gone unnoticed.
In Cosmic Incursion, the exciting expansion for Cosmic Encounter, 20 new alien races explode onto the galaxy! Players will face the sticky terror of the Fungus, scratch their heads at the perplexing Magician, and shudder in fear as the Locust consumes their planets in one gulp.
Cosmic Incursion also makes the Cosmos even bigger, adding a 6th player to the game. Finally, as if that wasn't enough, Cosmic Incursion introduces a new variant to the game - the reward deck, which offers exciting new cards such as kickers and rifts to those aliens who ally with the defense.
This is not a standalone product. A copy of the Cosmic Encounter Core Set is required to play.'
What you get: Your USD 24,95 or equivalent will buy you Cosmic Incursion, one of the six expansions for the Cosmic Encounter game line. It is reminded that the Cosmic Encounter 42nd Anniversary Edition is the game's current base game and the newest iteration of the 3-5 player classic boardgame of exception-based aggression, simultaneous bidding, hand management, bluffing and deceit. Depending on the number of players and their familiarity with the game's nature, expect a game to last around two hours. The present expansion can be purchased autonomously of any other expansion. No expansion is a prerequisite for another.
In addition to the 2 pages of rules that can also be downloaded from the publisher's website free of charge, the game contains the following: 55 cards (32 Rewards, 20 Flares, 3 Destiny), 20 Alien sheets, one Player Colony marker, 5 Player Planets, 20 plastic Ships, and 30 Cosmic tokens.
Gameplay: Cosmic Incursion includes the components for a sixth player, it doesn't however do just that. The 20 new aliens cover all levels of difficulty, with 10 easy ones, 5 moderately difficult, and 5 hard. They include the Bully (force a player to lose particular ships), the Sniveler (catches up when left behind), and the Disease (spreads to other planets).
The new Flare and destiny cards are similar to those found in the base game. All cards bear the mark CI. One can thus easily add them or remove them to the ones of the base game.
The Reward Deck is a new subsystem that can be used in parallel with the Cosmic deck. Defensive allies may pick from this slightly stronger deck when receiving defender cards. A player may pick from either the Cosmic deck or this one when he picks an allocated reward. However, used cards from this deck go to a separate discard pile that cannot be tampered by any of the effects that affect the Cosmic discard pile. The new types of cards in the Reward deck are the following: negative attacks (attacks with a negative value), crooked deals (cards which boost the bonuses or mitigate the failure of reaching a deal), a second morph (works exactly like the one in the base game), kicker cards (they multiply attacks or compensations), and rift cards (return ships from the rift, on the other hand however they explode when taken from a player's hand). The deck also contains eight standard attack cards with values from 10 to 23, new reinforcements with a value up to +6, as well as new Artifact cards.
In a more chaotic variant, the Reward deck can be shuffled directly into the Cosmic deck. In such a case, its cards are treated like regular Cosmic cards. Knock yourself out!
The strong points: One more player, more options, more chaos... not however by unduly increasing game time. You won't need more than a few seconds to integrate the expansion's components to the base box as well as explain the few new rules. This expansion is as plug-and-play as they can be.
The expansion mostly follows a more-of-the-same approach, this is not however a bad thing. Cosmic Encounter thrives on sub-systems as much as it thrives on the diversity of its alien races. At times the difference between some of the new races and the ones in the base game might feel marginal, a few plays however demonstrated the additional nuances convincingly.
The new Reward deck is a good idea. It is fairly balanced in terms of content, and raises the stakes. The cards are overall stronger, on the other hand however the standard Cosmic deck has some even stronger values, if that is what you are after. Add in the fact that these cards cannot be manipulated while in the discard pile, and you have a few additional decisions to take (and gambles to make) round after round.
Six players can turn out to be a lot for a game like this. Sometimes it will work, while others it won't. If you introduce people to Cosmic Encounter, start them from lower player counts. When you have experienced players however, don't hesitate to bring the game out no matter how silly things become.
The weak points: The obvious things first. Cosmic Encounter is a particular beast. You may like or dislike it for what it is, this cannot however be changed by an expansion. This is more about thinking on your feet and making the best out of the things you already know, than about strategizing for the far future. There's chaos, there's playing the players, there's grudges and slapstick comedy. If you didn't like all that in the first place, I don't see why you will like it now.
'Do I need this expansion?', I hear you ask. It really depends on how often you play the base game. If it likes in tatters, yes, it is a valid addition. If you play once a year for the laughs, you can probably live without it. The more-of-the-same elements are cool, they don't however make it an absolute necessity.
The expansion has not been brought in line with the current, 42nd Anniversary Edition base game. There are no suggestions on how to use certain aliens with others, there are no combos, there is nothing... at least not inside this box. Scour the net for more info on how to create interesting matches.
The plastic components' production values were also not aligned to those of the new base game. Two years after that box's publication, the sixth player tokens in the expansion remain opaque as opposed to the new edition's transparent, shiny ones. Seriously? The issue is not just aesthetic, mind you. Basic human psychology suggests that the guy with the different, more visible tokens, will be targeted more often. This shouldn't have happened, full stop.
The box/insert combination is a joke. If you sleeve your cards, the components fit only if you arrange them chaotically. This is a typical case where the publisher cares about the components getting to you, but not about you keeping them safe and usable forever. Booo!
The price is expensive for what the game includes. Frankly, it should have been around the USD 15 to 20 mark. It shouldn't be impossible to find it at those prices as opposed to its catalogue price.
Conclusion: If you like Cosmic Encounter as much as I do, you will find Cosmic Incursion to be a solid addition to the base game. The one single sub-system works, while aliens, the game's blood and bones, get a swathe of worthy competitors than can keep you hooked up for a very long time.
For more info on Cosmic Incursion visit Fantasy Flight Games at https://www.fantasyflightgames.com.
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