Flashback Friday - Cosmic Encounter - Love it or Hate It? Do you Still Play It?

I love Cosmic so much. The only expansion you really need is whichever one adds the defender deck, but honestly you'll still have a stupidly replayable game without it. I played literal dozens of games with just the core and nothing else. It was a nearly nightly ritual for a while.

The Eon team were freaking wizards. Entertainment-mancers.

I love this game, and I still believe it's the greatest board game ever made. Sadly, I only get to play it maybe twice a year. This is mainly due to the fact that the 2 people in my group who show up the most, hate the game. They are dumb and wrong.

If I could only keep one game there's a huge chance it would be Cosmic Encounter. It represents everything I love in gaming and, above all, it just makes me happy. I don't need to analyze it, or play like hardcore strategist to have fun. I just have it, and I enjoy playing it with other people. Sharing a game with others is important to me and it makes me happy I can share this one and have fun, real fun with them and make others happy.

Hands down one of the best games ever made.

One of the foundation stones of modern boardgame design. It's classic and one of the best reboots that FFG has ever done. I will never part with mine and I still play as often as I can. The one downside is that it actually does require a specific audience, in that people have to be OK rolling with some of the crazier plays and interactions. Some people don't like that much uncertainty and Cosmic can have a lot of it, like game length, for example. I've seen games end in less than 10 minutes and I've seen them go for over an hour. But I love it and will always play it, typically with as much chrome as possible.

Never liked it, have played it several times with several people and it's always been a thud, even with enthusiasts in the game who were screaming at me about how much fun we were having.

None of my current groups have this in regular rotation at all.

I just can’t imagine the hobby without this game. It’s always been there and likely always will be. Nothing better to break up the brain burn of Age of Steam, Brass, or whatever Euro of the year is popular than this.

Yup, one of my favorite games of all time and I've been playing it since the early 90s when I bought the Mayfair edition. It took a backseat to Magic for a while when I succumbed to that craze. Then I got back into CE via the online edition that was at first a very alpha-looking Java applet on cosmicencounter.com, which eventually was revamped into a nice Flash game. (Not sure of its current state.) Finally I got the FFG edition right when it came out (2008) and it still remains a favorite. I don't play it as much as I'd like, but I don't play anything as much as I'd like. One of only a few games I've rated a "10" on BGG.

I was just talking to somebody about Cosmic Encounter yesterday, during a job interview. I tried the original a couple of times and didn't like it. The concept was okay, but the rules were so loosely written that the game seemed to be intended as a random argument generator. The FFG redesign was excellent, cleanly nailing down everything by specific phases when each power could or could not be used. I don't often get it on the table, but it's always a good time. I have played 8-player games a couple of times, and it's fascinating how a game can still be fun even when not everybody gets a turn before it ends.

Ultimate shelf toad for me. I've tried it twice with too few players and it bombed bad. I keep it because it's a classic and I still think there's a world I get into it with more players and more social players.

Some quick thoughts:

1) I didn't love the game at first. I liked it and I had fun but I didn't feel it was special, like I do know. It took some time and some practice for it to click.

2) The game is very fragile. I didn't notice this one for a long time but it's very easy for players to "ruin the game" by overinviting allies or "playing it wrong" in some ways. This is actually something all EON games have in common but Cosmic is so much friendlier and mainstream that it doesn't seem like it would be the case.

For example, the FFG "green/yellow/red" alien guide is a god-send. I ignored it a couple times and always regretted it. New players are attracted to powers like Seeker which they won't be able to play, for example. Wait until people know how to play before introducing the more complex aliens.

3) The core of the game is not intuitive to modern gamers. I think many people who dislike the game do so because they don't understand the cardplay. As in, they understand the powers, and the negotiation and the artifacts but they don't understand how they can beat people by playing cards with numbers facedown when the opponent may have a higher number. I tend to stress the importance of hand-management but I'm not fully happy with my explanation.

4) Don't play with six. Specially not with newbies. Five is probably the best. In general, the fewer players, the slower and more strategic the game becomes while the more players, the more "raw fun" and less strategic the game is.

I just played in a table where everyone was an expert and it really blew my mind. I knew I wasn't going to win, because I was not in control. They chose to invite me sometimes, but not others. They played their cards right. They risked some, but not too much. I knew I could get them once or twice and I did, but I knew I wasn't going to make it and I didn't. Loved that feeling.

Yeah nothing sinks the game faster than:
Offense: "I invite everyone!"
Defense: "Yeah I invite everyone, too."

Repeat for every encounter...

As it has been eluded to by others, the game is very reliant on what group you have. I've been pretty good at assessing what groups it will work with and which ones will fall flat. I can't play this with close family because they aren't cut-throat enough and are happy just coasting to a tie. I can't blame my wife for not wanting to attack the kids but...kinda need to attack the kids.

tl:dr - When it rocks, it really rocks. When it flops, it flops hard.

ubarose wrote:

NeonPeon wrote: Yup, one of my favorite games of all time and I've been playing it since the early 90s when I bought the Mayfair edition. It took a backseat to Magic for a while when I succumbed to that craze. Then I got back into CE via the online edition that was at first a very alpha-looking Java applet on cosmicencounter.com, which eventually was revamped into a nice Flash game. (Not sure of its current state.) Finally I got the FFG edition right when it came out (2008) and it still remains a favorite. I don't play it as much as I'd like, but I don't play anything as much as I'd like. One of only a few games I've rated a "10" on BGG.

People who like MtG tend to like Cosmic and vise versa. MtG was strongly influenced by Cosmic. Richard Garfield has said something along the lines of MtG started with an attempt to distill the essence of Cosmic into a card game.

I'm a Cosmic Fan and dislike Magic. The interaction which causes chaos in Cosmic are the players and the powers, which I much prefer to Magic's card draw. I suppose Cosmic always keep the pivotal points of interest with what matters more: the players rather than the cards. The flares strike the right balance of chaos to a known deck rather than a whole stack of variables. And no flawed mana economy lol