Cosmic Encounter

by Fantasy Flight Games

• Featuring 50 alien races and 100 plastic ships
• Vie for control of the universe
• Age: 12+
• Number of Players: 3 - 5
• Playing Time: 1-2 hrs

Product Details

User Guide [PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 2.8 x 11.8 x 11.8 inches ; 3.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: 1589944968
• Item model number: CE01
• Manufacturer recommended age: 12 years and up
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,910 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

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 starships 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. Many classic aliens from earlier editions of this beloved game return, such as the Oracle, the Loser, and the Clone. Newly discovered aliens also join the fray, including Remora, Mite, and Tick-Tock.This classic game of alien politics returns from the warp once more. It features 50 alien races, flare cards to boost their powers, 100 plastic ships, a host of premium components, and all-new tech cards that let players research and build extraordinary technological marvels!No two games are the same!Components•Rulebook•1 Warp Token•5 Player Colony Markers•1 Hyperspace Gate•25 Player Planets (5 per player)•100 Plastic Ships (20 per player)•50 Alien Sheets•20 Destiny Cards •72 Cosmic Cards•50 Flare Cards•20 Tech Cards•42 Cosmic Tokens•7 Grudge Tokens•1 Genesis Planet•1 Lunar Cannon Token•1 Prometheus Token•1 Alternate Filch Flare

Product Description

Players represent alien races that are seeking to spread themselves onto five foreign worlds. To accomplish this, they make challenges against other players and enlist the aid of interested parties. But alien powers, which are unique to each race, give players ways to bend or outright break some rule in the game.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 56 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Re-imagined and better than ever April 27, 2009

By Jeff Hershberger

Durability: 4.0 out of 5 stars    Educational: 3.0 out of 5 stars    Fun: 4.0 out of 5 stars   

Cosmic Encounter was first created by an obscure, small-run publisher. In 1977.

Fantasy Flight is the game's fourth publisher.

That alone should tell you how much this game rocks. Any other game would have died off by now.

Thankfully, Fantasy Flight Games has been buying up licenses to out-of-print classics and re-releasing them using their high production values.

The result is an immensely satisfying game that should bring a smile to hard-core Cosmic fans and newcomers alike.

The basic premise of Cosmic is that each player assumes the role of an alien civilization and tries to land their ships on five different planets belonging to other players.

The core mechanic of the game ([total ships on each side + a numeric card], highest total wins the encounter) is easy to understand, yet has endless possibilities for tactics, diplomacy, or out-and-out strangeness.

By far the two strongest aspects of this game's offense vs. defense encounter are these:
1) Allies: No matter whose turn it is, any player has the opportunity to be involved in the current encounter. None of this "is it my turn?" monotony of other games. You always have something to do. "Do I risk getting involved?" "Can I afford to help defend?"

The opportunities for diplomacy/negotiation are endless - and the ally rules ensure that nobody is a wall-flower.

2) Random destiny: In the vast majority of encounters - who attacks who is determined randomly. This does not adversely affect tactics and (more importantly) cuts down on hurt feelings. While there are plenty of ways to mess with other players, when you do get attacked - the game's mechanic is to blame....

Any true fan of this game loves the endless variety it offers - each player has an alien power that allows them to break the rules in a limited way. Different powers will collide in unique ways and since there are 50 different alien powers you are unlikely to see the same combinations twice.

Example 1: the normal rules say players start with four ships on each of their planets, but the alien called Macron has all of their ships count as 4 ships. so attacking a Macron planet, you find yourself facing the equivalent of 16 ships instead of 4. Advantage: Macron.

Example 2: the normal rules say that in an encounter, the side with the highest total (ships + encounter card) wins. The alien called Anti-Matter reverses this - and so when Anti-Matter is attacking or defending, the lowest total wins.

Combine those two examples and you have Anti-Matter attacking the Macrons with one ship while the Macrons are wishing their ships were like everyone else's.

And the craziness just goes on from there - that's barely a taste of the variety you will see when you play.

Component wise - FF has done us all a solid. Plastic flying saucer pieces that stack, quality cardboard pieces with gorgeous art, special cards with instructional text (helping new players and veterans alike).

Cosmic was always a game that begged to be supplemented and FF has provided a good jumping off point (50 aliens, instead of the 100+ that existed in earlier versions).

Expansions are undoubtedly in the works - and the components have been built to support this. The destiny cards have special graphics for Hazards (which are not in this game) - and the planet tokens have a different graphic on each side, something that will doubtless support some diabolical new rule whenever FF gets around to publishing expansion #1.

The sticker price is daunting - and I hope new players aren't put off by it too much. This is a game that is well made and a lot of fun - it's worth the money. Players who are afraid of lots of rules should not be afraid of Cosmic, but they should be aware that the rules as written will almost always mutate in bizarre (and entertaining) ways.

E.g. Players are allowed to "Cosmic Zap" or negate a player's power. In the example I gave earlier (Anti matter vs. Macron) the enterprising Macron player who finds themselves losing by ten or so will Cosmic Zap themselves (changing their ship total from 16 to 4) and allowing them to score less than Anti-Matter - and therefore win. The Anti-Matter player (if they were especially fiendish and had the card) would also zap their own power (making the lower total a losing total) and would win because their total was now higher than Macron's total!

Bizarre - but fun! When was the last time a boardgame surprised you?

Cosmic will show you something new in pretty much every session. Read more ›

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The best game ever - really! August 30, 2009

By J. Schwartz VINE™ VOICE

Amazon Verified Purchase

Durability: 4.0 out of 5 stars    Educational: 3.0 out of 5 stars    Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

I've been playing Cosmic since my teenage years. I'm now in my 40s and have introduced my own teenage children to the game. There are many version of the game of varying quality and with slightly different rules. This version is one of the best, probably second only to the long out of print and incredibly expensive Eon version.

This is the game that inspired Magic the Gathering. The goal of the game is to establish colonies in other players' star systems. It is very easy to learn how to play, one practice game lasting 15 minutes is usually all it takes. What makes the game brilliant is the alien powers, each of which allows you to break one of the rules of the game. The result is a game that is different every time you play. This is a social game that requires lots of interaction between players. Social skills are just as important as strategy. Rarely can a player bully his way to a win. Teens can play with other teens. Parents can play with their children. Most amazingly, parents can play with their teenage children and their children's teenage friends. There are not many games where that can happen.

This version is scaleable. Players may chose to play one of the basic rule sets or add some or all of the various expansion sets that are included. These add to the complexity of the game.

I often buy this game as a gift for others in an attempt to spread the word about this most amazing game.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Re-imagined and better than ever January 4, 2009

By Jeff Hershberger

Cosmic Encounter was first created in by an obscure, small-run publisher. In 1977.

Fantasy Flight is the game's fourth publisher.

That alone should tell you how much this game rocks. Any other game would have died off by now.

Thankfully, Fantasy Flight Games has been buying up licenses to out-of-print classics and re-releasing them using their high production values.

The result is an immensely satisfying game that should bring a smile to hard-core Cosmic fans and newcomers alike.

The basic premise of Cosmic is that each player assumes the role of an alien civilization and tries to land their ships on five different planets belonging to other players.

The core mechanic of the game ([total ships on each side + a numeric card], highest total wins the encounter) is easy to understand, yet has endless possibilities for tactics, diplomacy, or out-and-out strangeness.

By far the two strongest aspects of this game's offense vs. defense encounter are these:
1) Allies: No matter whose turn it is, any player has the opportunity to be involved in the current encounter. None of this "is it my turn?" monotony of other games. You always have something to do. "Do I risk getting involved?" "Can I afford to help defend?"

The opportunities for diplomacy/negotiation are endless - and the ally rules ensure that nobody is a wall-flower.

2) Random destiny: In the vast majority of encounters - who attacks who is determined randomly. This does not adversely affect tactics and (more importantly) cuts down on hurt feelings. While there are plenty of ways to mess with other players, when you do get attacked - the game's mechanic is to blame....

Any true fan of this game loves the endless variety it offers - each player has an alien power that allows them to break the rules in a limited way. Different powers will collide in unique ways and since there are 50 different alien powers you are unlikely to see the same combinations twice.

Example 1: the normal rules say players start with four ships on each of their planets, but the alien called Macron has all of their ships count as 4 ships. so attacking a Macron planet, you find yourself facing the equivalent of 16 ships instead of 4. Advantage: Macron.

Example 2: the normal rules say that in an encounter, the side with the highest total (ships + encounter card) wins. The alien called Anti-Matter reverses this - and so when Anti-Matter is attacking or defending, the lowest total wins.

Combine those two examples and you have Anti-Matter attacking the Macrons with one ship while the Macrons are wishing their ships were like everyone else's.

And the craziness just goes on from there - that's barely a taste of the variety you will see when you play.

Component wise - FF has done us all a solid. Plastic flying saucer pieces that stack, quality cardboard pieces with gorgeous art, special cards with instructional text (helping new players and veterans alike).

Cosmic was always a game that begged to be supplemented and FF has provided a good jumping off point (50 aliens, instead of the 100+ that existed in earlier versions).

Expansions are undoubtedly in the works - and the components have been built to support this. The destiny cards have special graphics for Hazards (which are not in this game) - and the planet tokens have a different graphic on each side, something that will doubtless support some diabolical new rule whenever FF gets around to publishing expansion #1.

The sticker price is daunting - and I hope new players aren't put off by it too much. This is a game that is well made and a lot of fun - it's worth the money. Players who are afraid of lots of rules should not be afraid of Cosmic, but they should be aware that the rules as written will almost always mutate in bizarre (and entertaining) ways.

E.g. Players are allowed to "Cosmic Zap" or negate a player's power. In the example I gave earlier (Anti matter vs. Macron) the enterprising Macron player who finds themselves losing by ten or so will Cosmic Zap themselves (changing their ship total from 16 to 4) and allowing them to score less than Anti-Matter - and therefore win. The Anti-Matter player (if they were especially fiendish and had the card) would also zap their own power (making the lower total a losing total) and would win because their total was now higher than Macron's total!

Bizarre - but fun! When was the last time a boardgame surprised you?

Cosmic will show you something new in pretty much every session. Read more ›

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Put Down That Vidiot Game Controller & Enjoy A Classic Board Game February 16, 2009

By Gregory Metzger

First Off, kudos to Fantasy Flight for putting out a superior product; The playing cards are printed on the highest quality stock & the Alien plackards are very sturdy with terrific artwork that really sparks the imagination, but it's the game play of Cosmic Encounter that really shines. That's why the game has survived to be republished for the 5th time since it first debuted in 1977. The movie Star Wars first came out in that same year, and I like most people who saw the film was especially intrigued by all the weird aliens who populated the Cantina in that now famous scene. Who were they? What were their stories? The movie didn't satisfactorily answer those questions, but this game in it's own way attempts to. In C.E. each player takes on the role of one of 50 Alien personalities provided in the game; Each possessing their own unique powers & abilities. The first player to colonize 5 planets outside of his own system wins. C.E. is one of those games that's easy to learn, but difficult to master; For that reason, it has a wide appeal that will challenge a harder core gaming crowd, without scaring away the more casual gamers. It also does something that is rare among strategy games; The Ladies enjoy it as much as the guys. Men are attracted to the competition & the strategic decision making aspects of the game; The Gals like the social interactions and the emotions that they inspire. C.E. is a game that will bring families & friends together to play time & time again as no two games are ever exactly alike. There's plenty of room for Fantasy Flight to offer future expansions as the previous companies published over 100 aliens & numerous other aspects.... So for the price you'd pay for another Console Video Game disk that let's face it; When you boil them all down, they just offer you another linear, scripted story experience, or a mindless shooting gallery that leaves you with blood shot eyes and a little closer to a Carpal Tunnel diagnosis. You can instead own a Great Classic Game that actually brings people together in an escape to an ever changing universe of fun & challenge that they'll never tire of visiting! Read more ›