Cosmic Encounter

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• Setup
  • • Place the Warp in the center of the play area.
    • Each player:
      • Chooses a color and takes their ships, planets, and score marker
      • Places their colony marker on zero
      • Places 4 ships on each of their 5 planets in front of them
    • Remove any player colors from the destiny deck that are not in the game and shuffle the deck.
    • Shuffle the flare cards and deal 2 to each player, then players take the corresponding alien for each flare.
      • Players choose 1 alien and return the other to the box.
    • Add all flares dealt out to the cosmic deck and shuffle the cosmic deck.
      • If playing with less than 5 players, add random flare cards to bring the flare total to 10.
    • Deal 8 cards from the cosmic deck to each player.
      • If a player has no encounter cards (Attack or Negotiate) in their hand, they may reveal their hand and draw a new hand of 8 cards. Repeat as necessary.
    • To determine a 1st player, draw from the destiny deck until a player color is drawn. They are the 1st player. Shuffle the drawn cards back into the deck.
      • Or just use another randomizer...
• Gameplay

  • Players take turns in clockwise order. Each turn, the offense (active player) has 1 or more encounters. The player must win the 1st encounter to have a 2nd encounter.

  • 1. Regroup
    • • Retrieve 1 ship from the warp and place it on any of your colonies (home or foreign).
        • If you don't have any colonies, place it directly on the gate.
      • If you have no ships in the warp, skip this step.
      • If you have no encounter cards (attack, negotiate, or morph) at the start of your turn, you must play or discard cards in hand, then draw 8 cards.
        • If run out of encounter cards later in your turn, your turn ends immediately. If this happens, return all ships from the warp back to your planets (allies do the same).
  • 2. Destiny
    • • Draw the top card of the Destiny deck. The color shown determines the defense -- the player whose system you must have an encounter in.
        • If you draw your own color, you may either draw again or have a home encounter against a foreign colony in your system. If there is no foreign colony, draw again.
        • If a wild is drawn, you may choose any player to have an encounter with, but it must be in their home system.
        • If a "special" is drawn, follow the instructions on the card to determine the defender.
      • Choose a planet in the defensive player's system as the target planet.
  • 3. Launch
    • • Place the hyperspace gate pointing at the target planet in the system determined by the destiny card.
      • Place 1 to 4 ships from any of your colonies onto the hyperspace gate.
        • These can be taken from any colonies.
      • The defender cannot modify their ships on the targeted planet.
        • Note that the defender still defends a planet with no ships on it.
      • Note that foreign colonies on the planet do not count towards the defence and are simply bystanders.
        • If a player is driving a foreign colony from the their system, only 1 foreign colony can be targeted (if multiple).
  • 4. Alliance
    • 1. The offense may invite any or all other players (except the defense) to ally with the offense.
      2. The defense may invite any or all other players (except the offense) to ally with the defense.
      3. Invited players may accept or decline in order starting with the left of the offense. They are never forced to ally.
         • Players not invited cannot ally.
      4. Allied players send 1-4 ships from their colonies to the encounter:
         • Offensive allies place ships on the hyperspace gate.
         • Defensive allies place ships next to the target planet.
         • The ships are committed before advancing to the next potential ally.
  • 5. Planning
    • • The offense and defense each select 1 encounter card from their hand and place it face down.
        • If the defense has no encounter cards, they can reveal their hand, discard it, and draw a new 8 card hand before selecting their encounter card.
        • The offensive player must have an encounter card. If not, their turn ends immediately.
  • 6. Reveal
    • • Both players simultaneously reveal their Encounter cards.
      • After the reveal, reinforcement cards may be played by the offense or defense, including allies.
        • People can keep playing reinforcements in response to other reinforcements until everyone passes
      • Resolve based on what was played:
    • Attack vs. Attack
      • • Each side totals their Attack card value + the number of ships on their side.
        • The higher total wins. In a tie, the defense wins.
        • Losing side: All ships (including allies' ships) go to the Warp.
        • Offense wins: The offense and offensive allies land their ships on the target planet, establishing or reinforcing a colony.
          • If this is the 1st win by the offense, they may attack again.
        • Defense wins: Ships remain where they are. Defensive allies return their ships to their colonies.
        • Defensive allies that win gain a Defender Reward: draw 1 card from the deck or retrieve 1 ship from the warp for each ship committed. These 2 options may be combined.
    • Negotiate vs. Negotiate
      • • All allies on both sides return their ships to their colonies. They receive nothing.
        • The offense and defense have 1 minute to make a deal. Deals may include:
          • Trading cards from hand.
          • Allowing the other player to establish a colony on one of your planets.
          • Any combination of the above.
          • A card or a base must change hands for a deal to be successful. You cannot just exchange nothing.
        • If no deal is reached, both players lose 3 ships of their choice to the warp.
    • Attack vs. Negotiate
      • • The player who played the attack card wins.
        • The player who played the negotiate card loses all their ships (and allies' ships) to the warp.
        • However, the losing player (who played negotiate) collects compensation: they draw cards at random from the winning player's hand equal to the number of ships they lost to the warp (their own ships only, not allied ships).
  • 7. Resolution
    • • Discard played encounter and reinforcement cards to the discard pile.
      • If the offense won or made a successful deal, they may have a second encounter. Return to the destiny step.
      • A player may have a maximum of 2 encounters per turn.
      • If the offense lost or failed to make a deal, their turn ends and play passes clockwise.
• Card Types

  • Cards in the Cosmic deck include the following types.

  • Attack Cards
    • • Numbered from 00 to 40.
      • Played during the planning phase as your encounter card.
      • Your total = attack card value + number of your ships in the encounter.
  • Negotiate Cards
    • • Played during the planning phase as your encounter card.
      • If both players play negotiate, they attempt to make a deal.
      • If only you play negotiate, you lose the encounter but gain compensation (random cards from the winner's hand equal to your ships lost).
  • Reinforcement Cards
    • • Played after encounter cards are revealed but before resolution.
      • Add the reinforcement card's value to either side's total.
      • Any player may play reinforcements, not just the main players.
      • Can only be played when an attack card is on at least 1 side of the encounter.
  • Artifact Cards
    • • Played at various times as specified on the card.
      • Each artifact has specific timing and effect text.
  • Flare Cards
    • • Each flare corresponds to a specific alien.
      • The wild flare effect is used unless the flare corresponds to your alien. If the card is for your alien, you must use the super flare effect instead.
      • Flares are not discarded, but instead returned to the owner's hand.
      • Flares cannot be used more than once per encounter.
      • A player cannot use more than 1 flare per encounter.
      • Flares may only be played at the timing specified on the card.
• Alien Powers
  • • Each player has a unique alien power that breaks the normal rules in some way.
    • An alien's power may be mandatory or optional (as indicated on the sheet).
    • Powers are used at the timing specified on the alien sheet.
    • If a player loses all of their home colonies (has no ships on any of their home planets), their alien power is inactive and cannot be used. It reactivates when they establish at least 1 home colony.
• Important Rules
  • • Colonies: You have a colony on any planet where you have at least 1 ship. You always have colonies on your home planets (as long as you have ships there). Colonies on other players' planets are foreign colonies.
    • Ships: You can never voluntarily move ships off a planet outside of an encounter. Ships go to the Warp when you lose an encounter.
    • The warp: Ships in the Warp are out of play until retrieved via Regroup, abilities, or card effects.
    • Hand limit: There is no hand limit.
    • Empty deck: If the Cosmic deck runs out, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck.
• Game End
  • • The first player (or players, in the case of allies) to establish 5 foreign colonies wins the game.
    • Home colonies do not count toward this goal.
    • Multiple players can win simultaneously if they establish their 5th foreign colony together as allies in the same encounter.
    • Some alien powers may alter the victory condition.
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