Cosmic Encounter Board Game First Impressions
Cosmic Encounter is negotiation in space…
…get your Frisbee on foreign planets.
Build a galactic empire… In the depths of space, the alien races of the Cosmos vie with each other for control of the universe. Alliances form and shift from moment to moment, while cataclysmic battles send star ships screaming into the warp. Players choose from dozens of alien races, each with its own unique power to further its efforts to build an empire that spans the galaxy.
So for those that don’t know how to play Cosmic Encounter, I’ll do a VERY quick and far from a comprehensive overview.
You start with 5 planets of a certain colour. (your home colonies) You have 4 ships of that colour stacked on top of each other on each. Each player has this and a hand of 8 cards.
On your turn, you flip over a card from a deck. It’ll tell you which colour you are attacking this turn.
You point a ‘Warp Gate’ token at a planet of that colour. Put up to 4 of your ships on it. These are attacking the ships on the defending planet.
The attacker and defender can ask other players for help in the battle, they can add ships to either side.
Players play combat cards simultaneously and you add the value of your card to the number of ships with the higher number winning.
If the defender wins, the attackers are all destroyed, if the Attacker wins, they can put the ships on the defending planet.
The goal is to get ships onto 5 foreign colonies before anyone else does.
As I said, far from comprehensive but that’s the basics.
Cosmic Encounter Summary
Now, there are two things that make this game GREAT.
1 – Negotiation & Allies
The interaction in this phase of the game means you are very rarely out of the game. You’re always looking to be on the attacking team to get those colonies on other planets but you also need to be careful you’re helping and hindering the right people. You’ll also look to help out the defending side if someone is ahead in the game.
Also, you can ‘agree’ to each play a negotiate card instead of attacking each other to put some ships on each other’s planets. Of course, you can backstab if you wish and attack anyway 😉
2 – Alien Powers
This game would be pretty dull without these. Each power is VERY different, makes you play the game VERY differently and there is A LOT to pick from (50 in the base set).
The first time I played this I had an Alien race that was helping me in defence so I was able to attack a lot and ally on the attack. The last time I played a very attacking race so I was leaving my home planets weak to attack. Two extreme examples but that’s just how it worked out.
This makes Cosmic Encounter not just different every game but insane all the time!
I enjoy Cosmic Encounter a lot. I’ve only played it with 4 players and would like to do it with 5+ so hopefully one day I will.
You might even benefit from learning about how to win social deduction games for this game too!
Jesta ThaRogue
