Welcome to the Cosmos Game Overview In Cosmic Encounter®, each player is the leader of an alien race. The object of the game is to establish colonies in other players’ planetary systems. Players take turns trying to establish colonies. The winner(s) are the first player(s) to have five colonies on any planets outside his or her home system. A player does not need to have colonies in all of the systems, just colonies on five planets outside his or her home system.
Component Overview encounter cards are revealed, and the combination of ships, encounter cards, and other effects determines the outcome of the encounter. The offense and its allies may establish a colony on the planet, they may lose their ships to the warp, or some other outcome may result. Although both players can see how many ships each side has in the encounter, neither side knows which card the other side will play or what other effects may be brought to bear on the outcome.
Destiny Cards These cards are used to determine a player’s opponent during his or her encounters. See “Destiny” on page 7 for further details. Alien Sheets Each of these sheets illustrates a different alien being and describes its unique power. 5 DESTIN Y YELLOW 5 4 Have an enc the yellow ounter with pla or her hom yer in his e system. However, if yellow pla you are the yer, either: A) Have an encoun ter with any oth your hom er player in e system or, B) Discar d this card and draw again.
Cosmic Tokens Artifact Cards These have a variety of effects. See “Artifact Cards” on page 13 for a complete description. These tokens are used by certain aliens (such as the Warrior or the Tick-Tock) to keep track of certain alien-specific statistics over the course of the game. ARTIFA CT COSMIC ZAP Stops Pow er. Play this at any tim e to cancel card use of any one alien’s pow including er, your own. Tha power ma y not be use t during the d again current enc ounter.
Setup experienced players, the yellow alert aliens can add desired variety. As for the red alert aliens, they cause significant changes to the game, and unusual strategies are called for against them. Red alert aliens are best used when playing with expert players. To prepare a game of Cosmic Encounter®, carefully follow these steps. 5. Prepare Flares: The flares dealt to each player are then taken and added to the cosmic deck.
The Turn If a Color is Drawn If the drawn card shows a player color, it indicates the planet system where the offense must have an encounter. For example, if the red player draws a green destiny card, the red player must have an encounter in the green system. The green player is the defense for this encounter. Starting with the first player and continuing to the left, each player takes his or her turn in order. A player’s turn consists of one or two encounters.
Can Macron Attack Clone’s Colony in Zombie’s System? Defending with Nothing? Even though a player may no longer have a colony on one of his or her home planets, that player must still defend it. This can result in some unusual encounters. No, not normally. Drawing a special, a wild, or another player’s color only allows the offense to attack another player in that player’s home system. Drawing the offense’s own color only allows the offense to attack another player’s colony in the offense’s home system.
4. Alliance When do I Draw New Cards? Next, the offense and defense ask for allies to help them. This happens as described below. Note that players do not get to draw a new card at the end of an encounter, the end of the turn, or even when they run out of cards. A player only draws a new hand of eight cards when he or she next needs to use an encounter card and has none. This is either at the start of the player’s turn or when the player is the defense during the Planning Phase.
Example: The Zombie (green) is the offense and has drawn a destiny card instructing him to attack the Clone (red). He places four ships in the hyperspace gate and points it at one of the Clone’s planets that contains two defending Clone ships. The Zombie asks both the Oracle (yellow) and the Sorcerer (blue) to be offensive allies. The Clone asks only the Oracle to be a defensive ally. The Oracle (to the left of the Zombie) has two offers.
If a Deal was Made card becomes an attack 20. Resolve the encounter normally as though both sides played the duplicated card. Once the encounter is resolved, the morph card returns to normal. The terms of the deal are carried out as agreed upon. If this was the offense’s first encounter, he or she may have a second encounter. Note: There is only one morph card in the game, so it is impossible for two players to use one simultaneously.
Shared Wins Timing Conflicts It is possible, through alliances and successful negotiations, to have more than one player gain five colonies at the same time. In this case, the players share a win. The timing strip along the bottom of each alien sheet and all non-encounter cards generally states when the component’s game effect may be used.
Stripping a Planet of Ships Artifact Cards As soon as a player removes the last of his or her ships from any planet, that player no longer has a colony on that planet. Any ships involved in the encounter cannot return to that planet. Ships retrieved from the warp cannot return to that planet. That player has no colony there. If a player has no ships left on one of his or her home planets, he or she must still defend it (with zero ships).
Variants This section contains several rule variants that players may enjoy using. Four Planets In order to play a shorter game (recommended when playing with fewer players), players may wish to use this variant. During setup, each player only receives four player planets instead of five. In addition, only 16 ships are used for each player, with four ships being placed on each planet as normal.
The player returns the researching ships to any of his or her colonies, as before, but the tech card is discarded, faceup, next to the technology deck instead of being used. Note: If using this variant with the “Four Planets” variant, remove all cards with a research number of 8 or more from the tech deck before play. These cards are not used with the “Four Planets” variant. Note that technology cards may have many different effects.
Reference Credits A Player’s Turn Game Design: Bill Eberle, Jack Kittredge, Peter Olotka, and Bill Norton Game Development: Kevin Wilson New Alien Design: Cedric Chin, Benjamin Corliss, Alan Emerich, Brandon Freels, Ken Hubbard, Gerald Katz, Eric M.
