Cosmic Encounter (Base Game)

I'm going to preface this review by saying that I own many board games and host a weekly game night at my house to play awesome games with my closest friends. What is this game? The galaxy is at war. You are the leader of a specific alien race. Use your special species specific powers to take control of your opponents planets and claim them as your own. Ally together and negotiate with others to help and hinder each other along the way. At its crazy heart, this is a card game, plain and simple. Yes, there are neat little planets and colony ships to mark who is winning, to "wager" in fights and such, but the vast majority of the action has to do with the cards in your hand and how you manage them. The strategy has to do with alliances forming and melting throughout the game. Also the crazy variety of different aliens with different powers to end up with ensures that every game will be different than the last one. First one to gain five colonies on five opponents planets wins. Should you buy this game? Probably! If you don't mind a bit of randomness. This game provides for some truly epic moments. It's a classic of a game. Strategic yet randomized. The best way to introduce it to new people is: "These are the rules, and this is how your specific power lets you break them." By the way, the rules themselves are at MODERATE so you do have to have at least one person sit down to read through and know them before everyone gets together to play for a smoother teaching and learning experience. (Also, having a sheet with all the different phases of the game written down in order and moving a marker to the current one helps everyone better keep track.) My thoughts: What can I say? I have about 50 board games in my collection, and this one is the best of them all (my game group would contest this). It's awesome. Every game is memorable. Every encounter tense. I'm always jumping at the chance to introduce it to new people and play it every time I can. I see a couple of people who have written reviews on here seemingly haven't read the rules on the Alliance Phase. It is crucial to the games strategy and is by far my favorite mechanic. Hmm... trying to convey joy and fun through typed words is hard. Play this game, if you get the chance. That is all.

Amazing Game!!! LOVE LOVE IT! I’ve played Cosmic Encounter more than any other game, and it’s still just as great every time. RECOMMENDATION TO THE DEVELOPERS: I recommend removing the second turn for the offense after a win. At 6 players, the game can end before the last player even gets two turns. We made a house rule—no second turns after a win—and now everyone gets to play more, and the game feels less dragged out. I highly recommend considering this as a firm rule because right now the game plays best at 5 and only 5. My tweak makes it great at 6 also, and we need more games with higher player counts and flexibility. Also, since tech cards are so fun, we added a rule where everyone starts with the standard tech card and then gains a tech every time they lose a home planet. It keeps tech in play and adds a nice bonus when you’re behind. Thanks for an incredible game!

Ok, so every 4th of July my rather decent sized family (~30 people) gets together and has a great time. A few of us in the younger age range (<30) love to play board games and stuff like that. We had played the same games for several years and I was getting board with the same stuff. I was looking for a new challenge! I searched for weeks, looking for a game that I thought would suffice, and I kept coming back to cosmic encounters. I finally decided to buy it. When it came in the mail I ripped everything open and started discovering the game. I was so excited and hopeful. It looked pretty complicated, ever after watching How-To's online. I tried to get a couple of my friends to play it, but after watching me setup the game (still barely having a clue how to play) they gave up and wanted to play 3's (a simple card game). So there my expensive new game sat for weeks... months... a year! I finally got one of my cousins to play it with me, but we had to switch off playing a third person. We hardly had a clue how to play, but it sparked his interest. The few times we got together after that, we just didn't get the time to play the game but his interest stayed. Finally, a friend of mine and I went up to my cabin, and my cousin happened to be there. I had brought the game, so we decided to finally play it the with the right number of players! After each of us read through the manual, we started playing. There was a fair amount of confusion with the rules, and how the game actually played out, but we managed to finish the game. We then played another, and another after that. The game was a blast! We discovered a new rule or something we hadn't been doing right practically every game. We actually played 3 or 4 whole games before we learned we were supposed to be able to get 2 encounters per turn! Every game we played we got more and more accustomed to the game, and we enjoyed it a little more. I now cant wait to play it again, and I am getting more people involved with it. I am planning on buying the expansions as well! Long story short, it is a somewhat difficult game to learn, but once you do it is a blast! Each game took about 30 minutes to an hour with three people. I definitely recommend it if your looking for a good board game!

This is the best edition of what is, arguably, the best board game ever. I played Cosmic Encounter for the first time, back in 1977, when it was first released, after I saw a demo of it at a science fiction convention. As soon as I bought it, I remember running back to my room to tell all my friends about this great new game. Turns out that between all of us, that we went home with 5 copies of the game, because everyone had the same exact reaction to it. The game is extremely interactive, with lots of opportunities for diplomacy and backstabbing and bluffing and surprises. Every game not only IS different, but feels completely different. This is because of the number of different alien powers in the game (some requiring vastly different strategies or tactics), but also because of how customizable the game is, not even counting all of the optional stuff from the expansions. Every edition of the game has been a little bit different. This one, I consider to be the best of the editions. It has decent components, enough aliens to satisfy, and flares (which previously have always been 'extra', if available at all). It also adds Technology cards as an option, which is cool, though definitely not required to enjoy the game. The rules have come a LONG way from the original Eon Products edition -- because of their explicitness about precedence, and order of events on a turn. As great as the original Eon game was, it could often result in arguments over rules and who did what first, and so on. This edition has reduced the divisiveness of a lot of the game, without reducing the potential to have a really chaotic time, if that's your preference, or a less chaotic experience, if you don't like the chaos. Want chaos, allow multiple aliens and/or hidden aliens, and add in every imaginable optional component and rule and add extra flares. Want simplicity, remove flares,and play a vanilla game. The game adapts to the way you want to play it.

I first played the original Eon CE in 1978 at a friends house, ran out and bought it and all its expansions. When I joined the military I brought CE with me everywhere and played hundreds of games with hundreds of people all over the world. Mayfair brought it back with bad artwork, weird player color choices and some odd new rules, but it was still CE. Hasbro published the game in such a bad way with dismal rule re-writes and a clear effort to prevent expansion or mix with old game elements, that I threw it in the trash after spending the overblown price. Now I've packed up my worn, beloved CE box. CE has returned and Fantasy Flight just GETS the game. It's clear the developers are long term lovers of the game. It's colorful! Artistically Mayfair CE was muddy and...well...not very good. FF CE is beautiful, vivid and has depth without looking cluttered. Everyone knows that when you play old CE your chances of losing one of the ship token are pretty good. FF solved this problem with plastic ships that are cute, clever, and stackable. The alien powers have been heavily play tested and researched. Some changes from the older versions have been made but in all cases to the benefit of the game. But some of the old, highly debated elements, such as the Filch Wild Flare power have been added as Options to the game. So you can use the balanced Filch Flare, or use the optional Eon version as you choose. Nice touch. Initially I was sad to see that the card design was changed so that I can't use my old CE cards with the new, but that's okay because they have produced a good number of Expansions so I don't really need my old game elements. Some of the newer game elements like Tech and Hazards aren't to my taste, but neither were Moons and Lucre neither of which (thankfully) made it to the FF version, but its nice to have choices and neither of them are silly or burdensome or frankly lame, like the aforementioned Moons and Lucre, and are in their own way, vibrant and interesting. I gave the durability of the game a fairly high rating because I'm comparing it to the old versions. The card stock is heavy and matted (and the ships are larger and plastic!). The box is cleverly designed and I was able to easily fit the game and all expansions in the game box. One thing missing might be a sturdy place to put added cards from the expansions, but I have put those in standard card deck boxes for their protection and easy storage. I have only two VERY SMALL critiques of an otherwise spectacular version of my all time favorite board game: -Though the rules were very well written and ordered clearly some were not. For example, Hazards aren not clearly explained. Their backs don't match the standard game cards and appear to be used seperately from the standard deck. None of this is cleary explained in the rules which seems to make assumptions that I am not aware of. -Second, the rules changed the names of various game elements, most of which seem pointless (like Edicts to Artifacts). None of these changes are used by any of our dozens of players. I guess it was just FF's way to put their mark on the game. In closing, after excitedly opening and searching through the last expansion (Cosmic Alliances), I was heart broken when my favorite Edict card, Warp Break, didn't make it to this version! I hope that means they are saving it for another expansion. ;) Get this game! If you're new, you'll love it. If you're an old player, you'll love it all over again!

Cosmic Encounter: 3-5 Players, Ages 10+, Average Play Time = 60-90 Minutes The first thing I noticed about this game was the art style and the visuals...I don't have enough thumbs to clearly express how pleased I am by the components. The color schemes are very sharp and the overall feel of the game fits nicely with a sci-fiesque theme. This game is chaotic, but refreshing all at the same time. I appreciate the functionality of the destiny deck, which prevents bully like behavior and from players being singled out. I played this game with three other kids, all between eleven and sixteen years of age...and you parents out there know how tough it can be to play a competitive game with kids who are constantly seeking to team up against someone else. I felt that the addition of the destiny deck helped to eliminate this tendency well. Sure, the kids could regularly ally themselves with a particular attacker or defender, but their four ships often weren't enough to turn the tides of battle. I have to admit that I didn't play as strategically as I could have, now that I think about it. More often than not, I was out of attack/defense numbered cards and sometimes had two or three negotiate cards in my hand. When the kids saw me only attacking with one ship, they caught on that I was playing a negotiate card. Next time, I think I'll try attacking with a number card but only use one or two ships, just to keep the kids guessing. The game has a lot of replayability, seeing as how there are fifty races available. Since each one has its own unique power(s), and since two flare cards are randomly dealt to each player in the beginning, the result is often a combination of aliens that players have never seen before. They might have played the zombie alien before, but have they played it against, say, the anti-matter alien? Each alien you come up against requires a little bit of strategy in terms of how you approach them. Social interaction is also a big factor, and ends up being a positive one. I say that because players will each be trying to psych the other out in regards to what attack / defense card they are going to play, as well as take into account the allies that may or may not be helping them. To be funny (and it was), the kids' cousin asked for help defending a planet that I was attacking, to which Vinnie Jr and Anthony Jr came to his aid. He ended up playing a negotiate card, which wiped out his own ships and those of his allies for compensation. We all had a laugh, but needless to say, no one came to his aid again. In regards to a learning curve, I see myself needing a few playthrus to get used to how the rules come together. There's a possibility that other, new players may have the same experience. Don't be discouraged...just do your best and have fun. The high replayability factor will help keep the game fresh while you work out the rules and the perfect system. After a few more playthrus, I intend to add the yellow race cards and technology to the game, just to see how that all works out. There are also other variants included in the manual to try out...the short game variant, for example, looks appealing for a number of reasons. I admit that we didn't exactly play perfectly our first time through. We were all still learning the rules and getting used to where and when to use our specific alien powers that we often forgot to allow a successful attacker the chance to attack again. When the defender negotiated, we forgot that the loser can pick a card from the attacker's hand rather than the deck, as we were doing. To be fair, we were playing to have fun, so I just chalked it up to a learning experience and moved on. That's the beauty of playing games...they are meant to be fun...and rules can be forgotten or adjusted as need be so as long as the play experience is overall positive. Overall, I highly recommend "Cosmic Encounter." It's a game that I'm glad I added to my collection.

This game comes with a ton of various colored UFO ships, cardboard planets matching those colors, matching scorekeepers, huge alien race cards, decks of cards, a gateway cone, and a huge dimensional warp circle. Players are dealt two cards from a "Flare" deck, which are powerful cards focusing on a race. The players get the matching alien race cards and pick one. All Flares dealt to the players are shuffled in the main deck and if there's less than ten Flares, that many additional are shuffled in. The main deck is dealt to players, 8 cards, and players seed their five colored planets with four ships each. The second deck, Destiny, is drawn from until a color matching a player is revealed abs that player goes first. The Destiny cards are shuffled again. A third optional deck, Tech, has abilities players can research. They get two and pick one to start with. Player 1 draws a Destiny card after retrieving one ship from Warp and placing it on a controlled colony. This should match a color in play. Some are Wild (attack any) and some are special (attack who has least ships, most colonized, etc). This player is offense. The target color or player is defense. If using Tech, one ship can land on the upside down card. Techs are activated after a number if ships land on them as the card power requires. Offense points the Gateway triangle at a planet. The Gate is prepped with 1-4 UFO ships and offense asks players for help if wanted. Nobody answers yet, though. Defense then asks for help as well. Again nobody admits. Offensive help then places 1-4 ships on the gate, and then defense help follows. Players then lay down a card privately. It is an Encounter card: Attack, Negotiate, or Morph (only one Morph is in the deck - it copies the opposing Attack or Negotiate.) and things happen. Attack vs Attack: These have random numbers, 0-40. Add this to the total UFO pieces on your side. Players and Assistants may have extra cards (like Reinforcements, which alter totals on sides by a couple points) to influence things. If Offense wins, Defense hits the warp portal and offense and allies take the planet. If Defense wins, Offense hits the warp and the defense allies return home but get 1 ship from warp, or 1 card from the draw deck per ship they sent to reinforce. Attack vs Negotiate: Negotiate loses, Attack wins. The offense colonizes if won, warps if lost. Defense stays if won, warps if lost. Negotiator gets to draw one card from the Attacker's hand as compensation. Negotiate v Negotiate: Allies return ships to colonies. The offense and defense have one minute to make a mutual agreement: card swaps, ship colonization that's mutual, etc. If no deal happens, 3 ships per side must go to Warp. Then players score. Do you have 1-5 colonies? That's 0, your starting point value. Do you have 1-2 colonies? Your race power is disabled until you get a third colony. Do you have over five? That's one to five (6-10) points. Five points wins. I wish the warp had scoring saying 1-5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 instead of 0-5, though. Some alien powers and some cards only activate at certain phases in the game, but that's the premise. I love that Cosmic Encounter doesn't really have down time between turns. Every player is almost always actively involved when not offending or defending. There's a learning curve here and several expansions, but they aren't necessary aside from two have additional players. There's tons of races here and I think if Fantasy Flight went with cheap deck expansions and separate huge alien race cards with Flares, the price points on those would feel safer for buying. As is this game is awesome and other than the Warp score bit I mentioned, I wish the UFOs looked different for flavor between players, but that'd add to the cost. This game is fantastic and I still recommend it to anyone!

The worst part about this game is that I can't get it to the table enough to play it. It really plays best with 5 people, so that is the first hardship and it isn't everyone's cup-of-tea theme. I love the diversity of characters with unique abilities and enjoy playing the game each and every time. I had the older version for a couple of years and decided to upgrade to this newer version and I was not disappointed. The quality is still great and the components are fantastic.

mon jeux de société préféré j'aurai aimé l'avoir en français mais voila après cela ne apprends l'anglais , c'est la version anniversaire TOP plein de pouvoir jouer a 4 minimum

Cosmic Encounter is another of Fantasy Flight Games excellent updated versions of a classic (originally released in 1977). As usual FFG give it a polish, straighten out some of the contentious rules and throw in some top quality components and excellent design work, bringing it to a new generation of gamers. In terms of rules it's initially pretty simple. Each player has 5 planets - their home system. Each player also has a fleet of 20 ships. With each players ships beginning on their home systems (4 on each planet - a single ship on a planet representing a colony), the aim of the game is to get 5 colonies on planets outside your home system. In other words - attack the other players home planets to establish your own colonies there. Yes, that is quite straightforward, however the real fun of the game is the Aliens..... This game comes with a whole lot of Aliens. At the start of the game each player gets randomly dealt 2 Aliens from the large deck, and chooses 1 to play for the game. Each Alien has its own unique rule bending powers. And this is what makes the game endlessly re-playable. No two games are likely to ever be the same with such a wide and varied set of powers and skills available. Your choice of Alien will totally change how you think about playing. Further unique skills are dealt into a deck of cards which all players will use to perform all the interactions of the game. This is a game without dice! So, with your home worlds, your fleet of ships, your unique Alien power and your hand of cards you set about attaining cosmic supremacy. To do this you may form alliances, trick and deceive and totally renege on any agreement to ensure you rule supreme. You will use your Alien power to maximize your attacks, to confuse your opponents, to win you allies and defend your precious colonies - very important as to lose too many of your home colonies will see you lose your Alien skill. At least until you re-establish the colonies again!! The game can also have several winners, as the winning condition can be achieved by a number of players simultaneously. A fantastic package and a brilliantly unique game that has been around 3 decades and counting! This FFG set caters for new players right up to experts, and each game can be customized perfectly to suit the playing group. It expands further with 3 (so far) excellent expansions, each of which allows for another player to join in the madness (the core set is 5 player) as well as more unique situations and even more fantastic Aliens to make the game even more fun. A very unique experience and excellent fun. There is nothing quite like Cosmic Encounter.

Rules-wise, the game is very easy to play, with a rulebook of only 12 or so pages. I taught my group in less than 10 minutes and we were engrossed since the "get-go". There are no dice in this game. It is a card game with funky ships, excellent production values, and a HUGE community support. This product shines with the Player to Player action. To get where you need to be, you must be confrontational but at the same time be willing to ally with them, situation permitting. Each player will be given a unique alien and that aspect alone will make this game replayable almost indefinately. Often the alien powers and the players decisions will bring about tons of hilarity and humourous frustration. Keep in mind though that this is a 3 player + game. I can't see one getting away with playing with 2 at all.

Muy buen juego para pasar el tiempo con los amigos, la dinámica es sencilla y no son partidas muy largas. Tiene la particularidad de que existen muchas razas de alien por lo tanto ningún juego va a ser igual.

Great game fast delivery brand new perfect condition.