Hazard Icons

The FFG version of Cosmic has always included a subtle marking on 1 destiny card for each color. The rules made clear this was for the Hazard expansion to be released. Hazards are here, as part of Cosmic Conflict, the latest expansion.

However, there are other possible uses for that Hazard icon.

One I'm calling Hazard Aliens works like this:

Each player receives two aliens at start up. One is chosen as their Primary alien, which they reveal at the beginning of the game.

The second alien is the Hazard alien.

Whenever Destiny reveals a Hazard icon, players MAY switch to their Hazard alien. If they do so, it must be during the Destiny phase. At the end of the Resolution phase, players that switched to a Hazard alien must then switch back.

Players must consider that they may not always be a main player during a Hazard encounter. Aliens with Game Setup text should not be used as Hazard aliens. When you switch, your Primary alien is suspended. So, for example, if you are Macron, your ships are now worth only 1; if you are Fungus, the ships in your stack do not add; if you are Filth, everyone needs to watch out for what happens when you switch back.

Other variants for the Hazard symbol destiny cards we've been using so far:

-Offense may draw a card rather than retrieve a ship during regroup.
-Offense draws a Hazard and doesn't reveal it (even if it's his or her second encounter). That Hazard may be played immediately, or on ANY other encounter (even superseding another Hazard).
-Offense draws two Hazards (only if it's a second encounter) and gets to pick which one to play (the other is discarded).
-Only offense may research Tech.

More great ideas are part of this discussion: BoardGameGeek.

International Cosmic Encounter Day

This Feb 12th, 2011 is ICE Day. International Cosmic Encounter. Get yourself a game on somewhere, live or online.

Cosmic Conflict

The second expansion for FFG's CE is here:

Cosmic Conflict

20 aliens, black ships and planets, Hazards!

The Eclipse Variant

Over on BoardGameGeek, there's a cool new variant from Toomai Glittershine for use in the Reward deck.

Solar Eclipses have always acted as a distraction, causing temporary chaos. When played, they cause a phase to be skipped. They are played in the phase preceding the skipped one; for example a Solar Eclipse that skips Destiny is played at the end of the Regroup phase.

Lunar Eclipses usually cause weird stuff to happen. When played, they cause a phase to be repeated, after which the game resumes where it left off. They are played at the end of the phase to be repeated or any time after that; for example a Lunar Eclipse that repeats Launch can be played at the end of Launch or during Alliance, Planning, Reveal, or Resolution.

Here's a mockup of a card, created by Bill Martinson:

The cards would allow a player to affect a certain phase of the encounter in some way that hopefully gives him or her an advantage. There are a lot of interesting possibilities, and it's a good fit for the Reward deck.

Below are some examples of the cards:

Solar Eclipse (Regroup): Skips the Regroup Phase. The offense does not retrieve a ship from the warp. This effect may not be played if the offense has no available ships.

Solar Eclipse (Destiny): Skips the Destiny Phase. The hyperspace gate remains in the previously-attacked system; the defense is the same player as the previous encounter. This effect may not be played if the offense was defending in the previous encounter or there has been no previous encounter.

Solar Eclipse (Launch): Skips the Launch Phase. The defense points the hyperspace cone. The offense launches a single ship.

Lunar Eclipse (Launch): Repeats the Launch Phase. The offense may re-aim the hyperspace gate and launch an additional 1-4 ships.

Lunar Eclipse (Alliance): Repeats the Alliance Phase. All allied ships are returned to colonies before allies are re-invited.

Lunar Eclipse (Planning/Reveal): Repeats the Planning and Reveal Phases. Encounter cards are selected in addition to the ones already played; a new encounter card only interact with the opponent's new encounter card and vice versa. A negotiate card is ignored if a player's other encounter card is an attack.

Inverted Praw

A nice alternative to the Praw (or the kinder, gentler version) from Patrick Riley:

When ships are lost, they go to the Praw. All references to "Warp" in power descriptions should be read as "Praw" except Warpish, who counts the ships in both the Warp and the Praw.

From the Praw, ships must first move to the Warp before returning to colonies. Ships never move from the Warp to the Praw; i.e., there is no "flushing" effect.

At the beginning of your encounters, you may either move a ship from the Warp to a colony (or the gate), or move a ship from the Praw to the Warp.

When a Mobius Tubes is played, all the ships in the Warp return to colonies and all the ships in the Praw go to the Warp. Warp Break works the same way except only one color of ships is affected.

This delays getting ships back into the game (making them a much more valuable resource), but the potential delay is not necessarily as long as it is when using the normal Praw rules (see The Warp for more Warp variants).