Cosmic Encounter
Cosmic Encounter sees every player as the leader of an alien race with the aim to establish five colonies on other alien home planets. To do this requires careful bluffing and negotiation, forming and breaking alliances every turn! However each alien race has their own unique power which can change the rules or the objective for that player. With near endless combinations of different alien powers (especially if you add any or all of Cosmic Encounter’s five expansions) no two games of Cosmic Encounter are ever going to be the same. You can further mix games up by using more than one power and perhaps keeping your alien race secret until you decide to use their ability.
With great artwork and well made components Cosmic Encounter is a fantastic game if you and your friends enjoy the aspects that come with bluffing, deal making and potential backstabbing. Games can be won by a single player or in a deal by many and I’ve been the victim of a joint victory of every other player except myself!
You can also expand Cosmic Encounter with up to 8 players from the 5 in the base game with the addition of expansions, one of which also introduces team play. Each expansion will also add more alien races to choose from and a new aspect to the game, from a rewards deck to space stations.
Cosmic Encounter was initially published in 1977 and has many fans following it along the many incarnations. The current 2008 edition published by Fantasy Flight Games is widely considered to be the best edition yet. For a number of gamers Cosmic Encounter is considered the favourite of their entire collection and takes the number 1 slot of their top x game countdown lists.
