Cosmic Encounter in about 3 minutes

cosmic encounter in about 3 minutes

Designer,Bill Eberle, Jack Kittredge, Bill Norton, Peter Olotka, Kevin Wilson,
Artist,Andrew Navaro + 5 more
Publisher,Fantasy Flight Games

3 minute board games theme Music by Vic Granell

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

"Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act
1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."

3 minute board games are J Carmichael and S Rodgers

[MBG]

I am "Cosmic Encounter" years old. This game came out in 1977, as did Star Wars and I. And something that is quite special about it is that it holds up even today. In fact, one might say the design is so bold that most variable player power games, even today, do not go as hard and far with how game breaking their powers are. And that's just neat. PS, what's the best game that came out the year you were born :)

[jeremiahharmon]

From a design perspective, the fate deck, no matter how much you dislike it, is an absolutely essential part of the design. Without the fate deck players would have the opportunity to choose who they're going to attack each term. This will quickly turn into extreme meta-gaining or Min-Maxing where players are only attacking the Worst player, the weakest player power, or the weakest player force (planet with the least ships) this min max session will take place every turn as players are scouting the easiest target, or making alliances and simply negotiating for point swaps, either dragging out the game or unbalancing it.

The fate deck bypasses all of that, keeping all players equally involved and invested in the game, no matter if they are a strong or weak player, have the most powerful variable power or not, or have already been extremely weekend by previous attacks.

My opinion is that the fate deck, although it eliminates agency of choice, is absolutely necessary for flow and fairness.

[raymyers]

It's pure brilliance between this and Dune (by the same designers) that uses human interaction at the main force driving the game. Way ahead of it's time. And I hate cheating in games, but to play with the Filch power (where you can take cards from the discard pile and add them to your hand AS LONG AS YOU DON"T GET CAUGHT) is fun and brilliant.

[charlietwoteas]

When I first started getting into the hobby Cosmic more than any other game was what blew my mind at the possibilities a game could have. One of my favourites to this day but I find it can be a tad bipolar. When its good its transcendental and better than anything else I've ever played, when its bad its clunky and feels wrong. Partially this is because its very group dependent and I very pointedly tell folks its a slapstick farce when I teach it. People who go into it expecting to strategise and plan their way to victory seem to really dislike this game. Expecting nonsense and shananigans is definitely the way to go.

[steeveleonard]

The first “big box” game I bought when I got into this hobby more seriously. It’s still in my top 5 favourite games I own. Always a riot!

[UnEclipsable]

This is my favorite introduction game for new players and at the same time, experience players are so cut throat

[Homedepotorange]

My favorite moment in this (my favorite board game) is when I playing as the night mare in a 4 player game was up against an unbreakable alliance of 2 but at the last moment of the game managed to deny a colony for a colony victory by playing a card that read "If you and one or more players are about to win the game, they are actually winning without you, " i didnt win but got revenge by denying my friend a win

[phnk]

The game is basically a 40 minute argument.

[bol]

Such a great game that has loads of fun moments and with repeated plays you start to understand that there will be an infinite amount of crazy things that can happen each game

[twentysides]

Thank you for this video! This is a fun one to house rule as well. I personally like to play with 16 ships and 4 worlds each, and 4 colonies to win. I also love playing this where everyone gets two powers instead of one. A friend of mine prefers to play where everyone gets three, which usually turns into a big discussion about how the rules would even work with what gets dealt out.

[stox]

I have a cosmetic encounter every morning when I look in the mirror.

[DusExMachina]

Possibly my favorite board game of all time. Pity no one in my friend group likes it

[nerdfatha]

I played this game for the first time in march with a bunch of guys who had played it many times. Even as a newbie, the concept was easy to grasp, but the wild machinations of the other players is what made it so much fun. I am considering getting it for my main game group because its all about being a devious bastard and there are no dice rolls to screw things up.

Also, I looked up games that came out when I did and I don't have anything that is near as much of a classic. The only one i even recognized with the GW Judge Dredd board game.

[DamienMcKinnon]

Phenomenal game! The first time I played it (Fantasy Flight edition) the stars must've aligned because it turned into the most hilarious and extraordinary experience due to the combo of alien powers and cards people had in their hands at the time (flares, artifacts etc). The end was slightly anti-climactic because we noticed that someone had already colonized 5 planets and won the game a few turns earlier but it was still pretty funny. In the morning when I was packing the game away I figured out what had happened - they had placed their ships ON the colony instead of beside it when being a defensive ally, and forgot to remove them afterwards. So they really only had 4 foreign colonies & we should've continued playing! Needless to say we've never made that mistake again.

Anyways, I don't think I've ever had an experience in board gaming that has been as incredible as that first play of Cosmic Encounter (despite its abrupt end) so that is saying something!

[TheMartinChronicles]

Cosmic Encounter, Arkham Horror and a third game (the name escapes me but it was about slime aliens taking over a spaceship) were all featured in an old copy of Dragon Magazine back in the 90s. When I got back into gaming several years back I made it a priority to find these older games and put them into my collection. Sadly Cosmic Encounter has yet to hit the table and I'll be damned if I can remember the name of the third one.

[Alex-mfqm]

A game I’ve always heard of but never really looked into before. It looks like the right balance of chaos and dickery that my group enjoys.

[sevencoloredmage]

One of my most favorite board games. Love it.
Played Duel once, it is missing negotiations with the other players and thus feels really lacking.

[john-marccartagenas]

The board game that got me into board games. Nothing matches it for my group. Excited to see the new expansion.

[gregbroxterman]

i am CE+1 years old lol. great summary as always, but i'm surprised you didn't emphasize the negotiation more. playing CE duel i realized how much it loses without it. my sister's first game she started with a hand full of N's and thought she was screwed, but ended up winning pretty quickly (after ganged up on the amoeba).. did a great job of showing off how dynamic the game can be!

[CapriciousMissK]

I remember skipping lunches as a kid to save my lunch money so I could buy the Eon editions expansions at my FLGS. It was always in my backpack when I went to play D&D on Friday nights, because if the D&D game didn't happen I knew I could get people to play Cosmic Encounter. One rule that we got wrong that I didn't learn for many years was which player you had to attack - we thought you got to choose any base in the drawn system. Blue player has 4 bases but you drew Yellow? If Blue has a base there then you could attack it.

Okay, now I'm getting nostalgic. I need to find people to play this with.