Review of Cosmic Conflict

Blurb from the publisher: 'An age of uncertainty is here!

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 Conflict, 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 (28 Hazards, 21 Flares, 6 Destiny), 20 Alien sheets, one Player Colony marker, 5 Player Planets, 20 plastic Ships, 14 Cosmic tokens, and 24 Saboteur tokens (16 Decoys, 8 Traps).

Gameplay: Cosmic Conflict includes the components for a sixth player (or seventh or eighth, if you also own Cosmic Incursion and Cosmic Alliance), it doesn't however do just that. The 20 new aliens cover all levels of difficulty, with 6 easy ones, 8 moderately difficult, and 6 hard. They include the Empath (change attacks to negotiations), the Visionary (dictates the encounter card), and the Claw (steals planets from other players).

The new Flare and Destiny cards are similar to those found in the base game. All cards bear the mark CS. One can thus easily distinguish them from the cards of the base game and those of the other expansions.

The Hazard Deck is a new subsystem that can be used in parallel with the Cosmic deck. Some Hazard cards appear once, others twice, and others thrice even. When players draw a Destiny card with a hazard warning on it (the blue circle up left), a Hazard card is drawn. Hazard cards only take effect for the current encounter and are then discarded into their own discard pile. This discard pile is unaffected by other cards. Hazard effects include drawing extra cards which are however known to the other players, altering the encounter's winning conditions, and permanently removing from the game all cards that are played in this encounter. For additional chaos, players can choose to draw a Hazard card for every single encounter.

The Cosmic Quake is an optional rule. Whenever both the draw and the discard pile are empty and a player cannot draw new cards, all cards are reshuffled, including the cards that the players hold in their hands. Each player then draws eight new cards.

The strong points: One of the things I like about Cosmic Encounter is that no matter how many decks or subsystems it adds, its complexity when it comes to understanding the rules doesn't really increase. 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. 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. I really like how the Claw plays, even though it is not an easy faction to handle. The Trickster is one of the most bizarre races out there. If you feel that you are not going to win this encounter, you can reduce the whole ordeal into a flip of the coin. Hah!

The Hazard deck adds chaos. The good news is that players are aware of what is going on before resolving the encounter. If you wanted to boost the game's random elements and make hand management even harder, Hazard is a nice little trick.

If you have both Cosmic Incursion and the present expansion you can play with up to seven players. That 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.

Depending on how often you play the base game you might or you might not need this expansion. If it lies 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. Even more so, you have to answer yourself the question of what exactly you want for your base game. If you want the extra chaos of the Hazard deck, cool. If your prefer a subsystem like the Reward Deck, then you might want to go for Cosmic Incursion. If on the other hand you don't care about increasing the number of players, the Cosmic Dominion and the Cosmic Eons might be more interesting.

Speaking of chaos, it is evident that the Hazard deck can guide player decisions towards particular results. I like it as an additional randomizer (as if the game didn't have enough!), admittedly however it can become too much if you play the game often. In my table it will see use once every two or three games or so.

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 and nine full years after the publication of the present expansion, the tokens for the new player 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.

The box/insert combination is once again 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. What is this, now?

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: More of a 3,5 / 3 than a true 4 / 3, Cosmic Storm is a cool addition to Cosmic Encounter. Its new rules are clearly oriented towards adding chaos, while the more-of-the-same aspects exponentially increase your options and the game's inherent replayability.

For more info on Cosmic Conflict visit Fantasy Flight Games at https://www.fantasyflightgames.com.

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