Cosmic Encounter

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Avalon Hill's box top for Cosmic Encounter

Cosmic Encounter is a science fiction-themed strategy board game, designed by Peter Olotka, Jack Kittredge and Bill Eberle, in which each player takes the role of a particular alien species attempting to establish control over the universe. In 1992, Cosmic Encounter won the Origins Award for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Boardgame of 1991, and placed 6th in the Deutscher Spiele Preis.

Cosmic Encounter is a very dynamic and social game, with players being encouraged to interact, argue, form alliances, make deals, double-cross, and occasionally work together to protect the common good.

Gameplay

The board consists of a home system with five planets for each player and an area in the middle termed "The Warp". There is also a cardboard HyperWarp Cone used for pointing an attack at an opponent's planet. Each player begins with twenty tokens in their home system (five on each planet). Two decks of cards are used: one deck which determines who is attacked next (the "destiny" pile), and one which contains the cards players hold in their hands. This second deck is made up of numbered cards which are used in challenges and many other special cards which affect the game in various ways. (The specific terminology of these cards varies among editions.)

On each challenge a player turns over a card from the first deck that determines which system to attack (his/her "destiny"), chooses a particular planet in that system, and puts one or more tokens in the cone to attack with. The attacking and defending players then have the opportunity to ask other players to ally with them. Allies stand to gain benefits if they join the winning side, or suffer losses if on the losing side. Each main player then selects one of the numbered cards from his hand, to play face down, then flip over simultaneously. The cards and tokens involved in the challenge are added up, any special conditions or cards played are taken into account, and the side with the higher total wins. If the attacking player is successful, he gains a base on the disputed planet. All tokens from the losing side are sent into the warp, where they cannot be used until retrieved.

The object of the game is to establish five bases on planets outside of one's home system.

Each player has one or more alien powers which distort, extend, or break the basic rules of the game in some way, usually to that player's advantage. For example, one power's tokens are worth 4 of any other's tokens; another power never loses tokens to the warp; another power can see what card his opponent plays before choosing his card. There is even a power which can change the object of the game; other players are allowed to ask a yes-or-no question each turn in order to determine what they're trying to accomplish. Some powers encourage a role-playing aspect (e.g. the Sniveller, with the power to "whine" when doing worse than the other players.) See list of Cosmic Encounter powers.

At the beginning of the game, these powers are randomly selected from the many different alien powers, so each game requires a different strategy to win. Many of these powers interact with one another in complex ways that are not immediately apparent, sometimes even requiring group consensus (or experience) to resolve conflicts.

There are many other cards which may be played at various times with many different effects, and some more advanced optional game components which add further levels of chaos and unpredictability.

Some players have created their own "homemade" powers, and posted these along with other various game extensions to the internet.

This possibility of an organic and completely different experience every time one plays was clearly one of the influences in the design of the very successful card game Magic: The Gathering.

Variants include multiple power games and hidden power games (in which the powers are not revealed until their first use).

History

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Art from the inside of the Eon edition. Copyright.

The first edition was released in 1977 by Eon Games with nine expansions over the following five years. With all the expansions there are 75 alien powers. The artwork on these early editions (esp. the alien power cards) is regarded as truly surreal and spectacular.

From 1986, the game was published in the U.S. by West End Games. The game used the same deck of cards and number of players, and the same powers with five additional powers from Eon expansion sets #1 and #2. Meanwhile in the UK, the game was published by Games Workshop. The GW edition supported 6 players, with powers from Eon base set and some of the first three expansions.

In 1991, the game was licensed by Mayfair Games. Mayfair published Cosmic Encounter and two expansions called More Cosmic Encounter (1992) and Simply Cosmic Encounter (1995); the last of which was a 4-player stand alone version of the game as well.

From 2000, Avalon Hill (Now a division of Hasbro) published a simplified version in one box with plastic pieces. This version was limited to 20 powers and four players.

In 2003, original designer Peter Olotka and partners have a new version called Cosmic Encounter Online that may be played over the internet. Currently, this version has 33 powers, including five (Brat, Dork, Martian, Mite, and Tripler) not found in any earlier versions.