Which cosmic encounter expansion

I understood why you receive a Cosmic Edict and don't choose who to fight- it's to force you to attack the guy who helped you last time Now, Cosmic Encounter is the best game ever published. That isn't the design's fault. Matt Thrower replied the topic: 16 Mar Actually I'd say that is very much the designs' fault.

But it's an almost unavoidable cost for packing so much variety into one game. No amount of play testing could or should catch all the bad combinations: even if it did, changing one would just impact somewhere else. DukeofChutney replied the topic: 16 Mar I've only had cosmic flop on two occasions, one with a bunch of non gamers who didn't really get what the object was, and a few times when i've played with the same group a few too many times in a row, and that was more fatigue really.

Cosmic doesn't easily fit into most peoples conceptual box of what you are supposed to do in games and that can be a bit jarring. Lets plays can be valuable. I've played cosmic like SUSD play it for a while but i did fine the tabletop episode on Fiasco useful as it demonstrated the tone of the game really well. Legomancer replied the topic: 16 Mar I've tried several times to understand the CE thing and every time I've walked away unimpressed.

Enough people love it that I'm okay assuming it's a failure on my own part, but I've just never gotten anything out of the game. I chalk this up to not really enjoying negotiation and the game requiring a lot of it. It's kind of an odd thing for a game to produce such a weak first play for a table full of completely newcomers to actually catch on and push through that difficulty to become so loved. Like Barnes, my first play with all newbies and we didn't get it at all. People would invite the entire table to ally and we played very poorly.

We ended the game and were really confused on why it was so well loved. I only played a couple of games of the Eon edition and found it to be less of a game and more of a debate forum, due to loose rules. We were also playing with expansion material, including both Moons and Lucre, which seemed like unnecessary complexity. Once in a great while an issue will come up with the FFG edition.

In one recent game, we had Masochist and Zombie in the same game, and Zombie had a special ability that could prevent Masochist from winning, so we persuaded the Zombie player to draw another race to play instead. Jackwraith replied the topic: 16 Mar Like Shellhead, my first games were with the Eon edition in college and it was decent, but mostly because it was wacky and played while drinking.

I liked it, but not because it was a great game and more because it was a great social game. Then I tried the AH version in the 90s and it just fell flat. It was rote and kinda boring. Also like Shellhead, the bulk of my experience has been with the FFG version and it's been spectacular.

Looking back on the Eon edition, I can see where it basically became the foundation of modern boardgame design because it introduced the concept of different players acting within the same system and it was great. FFG has only improved on something that a lot of people thought couldn't be.

We've had some odd games that aren't epic in any sense, but the endless variety and those weird situations are part of its charm. It'll always be a part of my collection. If I was forced to burn my collection today, it would be the one game I would use my tears and blood to extinguish the flames. Cosmic is a wonderful game and I think there have been several recent articles and video reviews that have done it great justice. Its still a highly inventive game with little on the market that matches it.

And the more that comes out especially from Kickstarter the more highly underrated Cosmic becomes. Need a game that Euro or Ameriatrash game? Cosmic- it can be either Quick with depth? Cosmic - just want what happens when people start negotiating for a hot 4th colony Your college friends will play or that you can play with family? Cosmic- great with beer but nothing offensive about the design for the little ones.

Plays 4 to 8, but is not Arkham Horror? Cosmic Will impress your jaded board game elitists in your group? Cosmic Has a lot replayability AND expansion? Cosmic- 4 expansions and counting, plus one made by fans I helped teach 3 new folks at PAX South and they haven't looked back. Its become a favorite game of theirs and saw it quickly picked up again at PAX East. Obviously I'm in the camp who would get rid of every other game before Cosmic Encounter.

I do agree that it can sometimes produce a dud, but this failure level has been very low for me, maybe 1 in I'm not sure if I've ever played a game with so much variety and interaction that could claim to do much better than that. It nails something about interaction that a lot of games miss, even very combat-y ones. It's the kind of interaction that feels entirely organic. It's not this sort of separate "phase" to the game, but rather something that is woven into every fabric of the design.

I think that if alliances weren't specifically put into the game they would emerge anyway, kind of like alliances in Risk. The only other game that nails its interaction so well is Settlers of Catan, with its trading.

I don't know if that makes sense, I haven't played in ages. But a lot of times I think games design interaction into the game like, "Okay, now it's time to play with the other people! But the other side is that it managed really well and doesn't become this behemoth that new players can't grok. I think of games like Bootleggers, where everything is open season pretty much all the time, and it's just a trainwreck.

But in Cosmic it never feels stressful to interact. It just feels natural. It's not the most "narrative" of games, which causes some theme-hounds to underrate it I think. But to me it has always shown just how much board games can actually do. Still the best game ever designed I think.

We loved it! But our first attempts were so far off the charts that play testers cringed. Fantasy Flight wisely directed us to tighten things up so we tried and failed again. Thanks to their efforts, virtually all of our original 30 Cosmic Eons aliens survived the makeover with original intent intact. CE Duel. Cosmic Encounter. Cosmic Incursion - Expansion Set 1. Cosmic Conflict - Expansion Set 2. Cosmic Alliance - Expansion Set 3. Quinns thought that some of them were more boring than others, but as a Cosmic geek I was ruddy excited about all of them for different reasons.

Except space stations can also be traded during negotiations, which is awesome. Space stations are in action immediately, and provide the same buzz as a good tech card. The Sycophant can win by repeatedly flattering the player who goes on to win the encounter. The Tyrant can turn a player into a slave, but only by winning enough encounters with them first. Matt : You also get 25 new aliens in Cosmic Storm, which is five more than the standard 20 from the first three packs.

Being a consumer was never so torturously varied. People will come to you! New video review! Detective: City of Angels has submerged Quinns in crimes right up to his nips, and it's the most fun he's had in ages.

New podcast! Dinosaur World! Floating Floors! Echoes: The Cocktail!