Tweaked Aliens

The Fantasy Flight version of Cosmic (including the Cosmic Incursion expansion) has had a number of aliens from previous editions of CE, but modified for one reason or another. There have been a number of revisions to the original powers over the years. The Warp currently has 26 revisions (not counting changes made in the FFG edition).

And there was a newsgroup posting about it in 2004 by Rob Burns: rec.boardgames.ce which Peter Olotka responded to with these thoughts:

I think that tweaking is more of an exercise in design for the fun of seeing what might happen with differing variants, than in "making cosmic better' because the aliens are fundamentally flawed.

Here is a look at 10 changes aliens, and my thoughts on the pros and cons of the changes.

1) Chosen. I actually advocated pretty strongly for changes to Chosen, which to me always seemed like a great idea for a power, but never in any game I ever played did I see it do any good. I had a couple of different revisions to Chosen on The Warp, and the FFG version went to an even more souped up version. Originally, Chosen could only replace his revealed encounter card with the next encounter card from the deck. The odds of it being a better card were not generally high. I think the changes FFG made did improv Chosen, though I would have preferred to not have the new cards adding to the original one. I would have been fine with allowing Chosen to replace an encounter card with any one new encounter card, or any combination of attack cards. Including the original version from Mayfair in the new set would have been a waste of an alien card.

1) Dictator. A pretty strong case can be made that the new version of Dictator is weaker than the old one, and I don't argue that. Originally, Dictator would simply decree the color of each Destiny flip, even to the point of forcing everyone else to always attack the same person. In fact, I remember a game where the Dictator player forced everyone else to attack me, every single encounter. He felt that since I won most of the time, I was the biggest threat (no matter what alien I or anyone else had), and his goal was to force me to lose all of my home colonies- and even after I did lose them all, he kept having everyone else attack me. He didn't even come close to winning, so ultimately I didn't see the point. Needless to say, it wasn't my most enjoyable game, and in fact pretty much no one enjoyed that game.

That's a pretty extreme example, but it does illustrate the "abuse of power" that the original Dictator was capable of. I like to think the new version, which is identical to a revision that Patrick Riley proposed many years ago, is more strategic to play (and play against). This was a change that was less about strength of the alien, and more about overall potential gameplay enjoyment. I find that many of the changes FFG has made try to touch on this element as much as any notion of "game balance" (a notion that is difficult to maintain in a game like CE).

3) Grudge. This alien only got to use his power when he won his encounter without the help of players he invited. Mayfair added in that even when Grudge loses, the invited players must still lose a ship (two ships actually). FFG flipped this around. Grudge now punishes those non-allies more when he loses. If Grudge has asked three player to ally, and they've instead allied with Grudge's opponent, he is much more likely to lose that encounter, and I think those players definitely should pay more for snubbing Grudge. Whether or not you think the Grudge tokens are useful to have, this change to Grudge is a welcome one. There wasn't really anything particularly "wrong" with the first version, but I think you now have to weigh the alliance invitation even more.

4) Macron. This alien has the dubious honor of being the most frequently revised alien (though only revised once in a printed edition). The big concerns with Macron are his vulnerability to effects that can pick off a lone ship on a colony (powers like Shadow and Hate for instance), and the issue of compensation and rewards. With only 1 ship in the encounter, Macron was only ever able to pick up 1 card or ship when collecting compensation or rewards. The FFG change gives Macron double the compensation or rewards per ship (typically a total of 2). It's a decent compromise, though it doesn't do much to protect Macron's vulnerable colonies.

5) Symbiote. The new version is stronger and more flexible, since all 40 ships count for the win in every circumstance. The other tweak that was making Symbiote unzappable. This was part of also making it so you could never steal, copy, or do anything else to Symbiote, in an effort to head off any of the multitude of power interaction questions (like how does Plant affect it?). I had a lot more fun seeing the original version in play. It was interesting to watch the Symbiote player manage the two colors (since only the primary colored ships counted for foreign colonies). I think that element could have been retained, and the "you can not steal or copy" etc. aspects could have been included.

6) Virus. The Eon and Mayfair versions of Virus let him multiply all ships on his side (his and allies). The FFG version only multiplies the Virus ships, and allies are added normally. This is also the version of Virus that is used online. I'd be curious to know if it was a change made to the power to temper it, or a change made out of necessity coding-wise. I think this change, while weakening Virus, isn't a bad thing. Virus is frequently regarded as one of the biggest powerhouse aliens out there. It's a red-alert alien in FFG, because new players take a look at it and ask "how can you ever beat this alien?". It can be done, and this version is at his strongest early in the game. Later, when resources are usually spread thin, Virus loses some of his edge, especially on defense. But even multiplying your attack card by two, rather than merely adding 2, is still a significant advantage.

7) Void. Old Void could eradicate you right out of the game. I've only seen it happen once, but the fear of it happening was always present. New Void puts on the brakes when you get down to just enough ships to still be able to win. As above, this was a decision made from overall gameplay enjoyment... but I think I would have left it well enough alone.

Minor Tweaks

8) Clone. The only real change was clarifying that Clone's encounter card doesn't return to hand until after compensation, which means if he's got a great card, he'll get to keep using it until zapped (you can't steal it from him by negotiating). A very nice bit of clarification there.

9) Deuce. The big change here was making the second encounter card played by Deuce not count as an encounter card, and thus unaffected by any other alien that does something to your encounter card (e.g., Sorcerer). This is a great way to deal with all of those potential debates. Bravo.

10) Ethic. Previously a lucre power, Ethic didn't really need to be, and now it simply isn't. Patrick Riley proposed this change a few years back, and it's pretty sensible. Of course, there aren't that many good lucre powers, and now there's one fewer. However, I don't expect to see lucre powers any time soon from FFG, if ever. Mayfair's Ethic could discard some or all cards taken as compensation, but the other change FFG's version has is the ability to take the compensation from the deck instead of the other main player. The aliens that get something for losing aren't as fun for me as those that help you win, but it's nice to get something for your trouble, and the changes here are fine.

Other interesting revisions

11) Crystal. One of my least favorite aliens (although still preferred over Worm) has always been Crystal. In an effort to make it more interesting and perhaps more enjoyable for everyone in the game, I revised it thusly:

You have the power of Arrangement. Whenever you are a main player or ally in an encounter, use this power to give a Crystal token to each ally (including yourself, if you are an ally). Players must send the number of ships indicated by the token they are given, and may not refuse to ally if they have already accepted. A player who receives a 0 token is still considered an ally involved in the encounter, but has zero ships committed.

Like the Dictator revision, I like how it forces Crystal to work with what he's got. The original Crystal gave the allies an easy out by deciding not to ally after being told how many ships to commit. I like taking that option away. Crystal can only "screw" one player by forcing a commitment of 4 (or of 1) when the player clearly wanted a different number. The love, so to speak, is spread around a little more this way.

12) Demon. An alien that many people groaned about seeing in the game. I wanted to find a way to make Demon more of a strategic alien to have in the game and less of a crapshoot.

You have the power to Possess. Any time you are not involved in an encounter, use this power to attack the offensive player after both sides have played encounter cards but before they are revealed. You place 1-4 of your ships outside of the Hyperspace Gate and play an encounter card facedown. You and the offensive player reveal cards and resolve your mini-encounter (without allies). If the offensive player wins, your ships go to the Warp. If you win, his ships return to colonies, and your ships take over his encounter. You may now resolve the original encounter with either card played in the pre-encounter.

The downside is the additional time this adds to the game, though in reality I think it's pretty negligible. Instead of the offensive player deciding to either play a good encounter card and hope Demon doesn't possess, or playing a crappy card and hoping Demon does possess- now there's an element of having to be able to beat the Demon AND your regular opponent. And Demon now has the option of using the card played by the original offensive player. Imagine a player attacking Anti-Matter and playing a low attack card, but Demon swoops in with a high card and beats that player (only to turn around and use that player's original low attack card against Anti-Matter). It's still an invasive power (a reason that the "enhanced gameplay" mindset of the FFG version will likely avoid this alien), but I think a better way to approach it.

13) Diplomat. Some great suggestions and discussions have take place on BoardGameGeek about revising this alien. Check them out here. I do enjoy the new direction it has taken.

14) Doppelganger. This alien was radically changed from the Eon version to the Mayfair version, and no word yet if it will ever surface in the FFG version. Eon's was pretty formidable (take the highest attack card and "negotiate" card from your opponent every time you're a main player. This was another alien that confounded many people regarding how you can ever beat it, and certainly led to the changes. Mayfair tried to keep the spirit of the alien, and added some interesting psychological twists. You gave Doppelganger any two cards from your hand, and he could either keep them, or set them aside and look through your hand for two he wanted. So it became a game of psyching out Doppelganger by either giving him one good card and a crappy one to see if he'd keep it, or giving him your best card and something else while hoping he'd think there's even better stuff you're still holding onto. I tried to find some middle ground with this revision:

You have the power to haunt. At the start of the game, you do not receive an eight-card hand. Instead, each time you are a Main Player in an encounter, use this power demand two encounter cards from any player involved in the encounter (your opponent or any allies). That player decides which two to give you. After seeing the cards, you may either accept them, or you may set them aside and search through his remaining encounter cards and take two you like. You must take two cards from that player unless he started with only three, meaning he had only one left to take after you set two aside; in this case you get the one card remaining. After you have taken cards, the player gets the rest of his hand back, including cards that you set aside. The encounter then proceeds normally. At the end of the encounter, any cards you borrowed but did not use return to their previous owner. As long as you have use of your power, you never draw a new hand for lack of encounter cards. Any non-challenge cards you accumulate throughout the game may be held until played.

It works very much like the Mayfair version, but is restricted to encounter cards. It's been fun to play, and I think still captures the intent of both previous versions.

15) Empath. A lot of people unfairly characterize Empath as a weaker version of Pacifist. While they both use negotiates to their advantage, Empath has more flexibility on defense. However, I found making Empath mandatory to be too limiting. I made this revision:

You have the power of Harmony. As a main player in an encounter, if only one player reveals a negotiate card, you may use this power to change both revealed cards to negotiates.

I think this lets Empath decide when it's most convenient to be in a deal situation. Sometimes Empath wants to get compensation (if his opponent has the Empath flare, or whenever Genius is in the game). And sometimes Empath wants his opponent to take compensation. Finally, if Empath is the defense and his opponent plays a negotiate, it's nice for Empath to still have the opportunity to gain something from a deal situation, rather than just winning (and gaining nothing). It's a pretty subtle change, but with big result possibilities.

Final thoughts

There are quite a few other revisions on The Warp (some lucre changes, like Rob Burn's change to Force), including alternate versions of aliens in the FFG edition of CE. Some are definitely worth trying out. As Peter said, it's fun to see what new outcomes may take place. It's a fun way to think about creating aliens for CE- many homebrews are really just variations on an existing alien.

Cosmic Incursion Reviews

It's taken some time before some user reviews of CI finally surfaced.

Gerald Katz posted one on the rec.boardgames.ce newsgroup- mostly positive:

"Hooray for the return of Kickers, Negative Attack Cards, and some
Edicts (Artifacts) like Space Junk and Hand Zap.

I like the crooked Negotiates. +1 compensation or -1/+1 ship to the
warp on failed deal..."

Nate Owens posted an even glowier review on boardgamegeek:

"It’s a welcome expansion, and the extra variety is so good, I would recommend this expansion be bought when you pick up the base game."

Of course, I'm pretty biased when it comes to Cosmic Incursion, but I think it's a fantastic addition to CE, and I highly recommend it. The 6th player color let's you have a bigger and more intense game- or you can just use the ships to play with Symbiote in a 5 player game.

The 20 aliens are a great mix of old a new. Sniveler was one of the most requested classic alien, and it's joined by several others I've always been fond of (Chronos, Seeker, and Plant).

Finally, I've been a long advocate of the Reward Deck (naturally). I like the fact that it makes defensive alliances an even more serious consideration for all players. While not everything in the Reward Deck is great, the lure is often too hard to resist. The first game I played with CI, I drew four rewards (all of the negative cards and a negotiate). It was a serious bust. But since I was playing Ghoul, I was tapping into the Reward Deck a lot, so the next time I ended up drawing a pair of artifacts, a kicker, and a high attack card. It's worth the gamble.

If you love Cosmic Encounter, then this expansion is a must. Even if you only like CE, I think the expansion adds quite a bit and will enrich your experience. We're less than a year away from the next expansion, which I'm eagerly awaiting... if it's in the same league as CI, it will be another great addition.

Nova Cards

I recently issued a plea on the CE newsgroup for information about Mayfair's never-released expansion for Cosmic Encounter that tantalized players for a long time, was play tested, and on the verge of release when.... it wasn't. Nova cards.

Responding the most popular complaint about its edition of CE, the one-shot flares, Mayfair cooked up a new card that would behave like the classic Eon flare (play it, but don't discard it). There would be one Nova card for each alien in the game. That was about all the information that was ever released.

Now, it's more than a decade later, and I've always wanted to know what the content of the Nova deck was going to be. I felt there was no reason to keep the data secret anymore... people worked hard on creating it- it deserved to be shared and discussed. I didn't really get the information I wanted, but close. Gerald Katz explained that the Nova cards were essentially going to be a new version of his Pulsar cards (also known as Immunity cards). Gerald has been posting Pulsars for every CE alien (including many homebrews) for years- which to me says that it's even more all right for someone who had access to the "official" rules for Novas to just send that stuff to me, but I digress).

Nova cards, like Flares, have two headings: Con and Pro. The Con heading is an immunity to the effects of the power listed on the card. It partially or completely nullifies that power, ala Cosmic Zap to some degree, but often only to the benefit of the card holder. The Pro heading was only used if you held your own power's Nova, giving your power a boost like a Super Flare (but a different effect than the Flare).

For example, if you held the Anti-Matter Nova, all allies' ships add to the encounter total (his allies as well as yours). Conversely, if Anti-Matter held his own Nova, the effect is his opponent's allies add to the encounter total instead of subtracting.

In an article on the newsgroup, Gerald explained that he almost ditched the idea since they were too close to flares, but when Mayfair's one-shots came out, he decided they were a great way to reintroduce a retained card to the game.

That brings us to the FFG edition, which does have the classic Eon style of retained flares. Would it be too weird to have a second flare-like card in the game? One of the unfortunate things about flares is that you rarely ever get your hands on your own Super. I didn't want to see a game where you had two cards for your alien power and even less chance of seeing one of them. I was on the fence about it, but then I thought about the Reward deck. What if you added a Nova card for each power in the game and shuffled them into the Reward deck? No extra Novas were added- only powers in the game, meaning each one that did come up would be relevant. The Reward deck is smaller than the encounter deck, so you had a better chance of getting a Nova for a power being used into the game. It might still be hard to get your own Nova, but now you have the added tension of having a player acquire your Nova and becoming somewhat immune to your power.

It's no secret that I am a big fan of the Reward deck. I like that makes people think twice as the defense about inviting players to ally (and think carefully about whom to invite). It makes other players think hard about which main player to ally with. And it makes the offense have to worry about whether or not he invites certain players on offense, because if he doesn't invite them, the defense just might. Plus, before the Reward deck, if you did ally with the defense, and drew cards from the deck as your reward, you stood an excellent chance of drawing cards you didn't want. The odds of getting something good are a little better in the Reward deck (no guarantee, which is how it should be).

If you mixed in 3-6 more cards, it doesn't have a huge effect on the Reward deck distribution, but it does make you a little bit more keen on accessing it. And, the Rift cards take on an even bigger role in the game when you know someone has a Nova in his or her hand, and you want to target it for compensation. If the dozen or so games I've played with Cosmic Incursion, I haven't felt much of a need to hold onto my Rift cards as a deterrent. I just play them and get the ships out of the warp. If I had a Nova in my hand, I would be more inclined to keep a Rift if I could afford to.

Culling info from old newsgroup posts by Gerald, and noodling up my own info on the new aliens, I have created my own set of Nova cards and add them to my Reward deck when playing. The first game was about a week ago, and it was very well received. We got three of the six Novas into play. Only one of the flares for the powers in the game was played, and as a Wild, not a Super. There was also a desperate move by one player to take his Nova out of another player's hand through compensation, and it took him two tries to do it. The cost in ships was pretty high (7), but it ultimately led to his sharing a win with only one other player in a six player game.

Spotlight on Rewards

When you ally with the defensive main player, and your side win, each ally receives "rewards" (one for each ship involved in the encounter).

Rewards consist of any combination of cards from the deck or ships from the warp (returned to colonies)- and, with the release of Cosmic Incursion, allies can take rewards from a separate deck called the Reward Deck.

The Reward Deck includes many cards that are not available in the normal encounter deck:

-Kickers (available in some previous editions of CE, but not FFG's until now)
-Crooked Deals (a special kind of negotiate card)
-Negative Attack cards
-Rifts
-New artifacts

There are also some duplicates of cards that are available in the normal encounter deck, like Cosmic Zap.

Some of the new aliens in Cosmic Incursion take advantage of the Reward Deck, like Ghoul and Mercenary.

But one of the most interesting and subtle changes to Cosmic Encounter by the inclusion of the Reward Deck is the dynamics of defensive alliance.

Over many years, the trend I have seen in alliance is that players ally more frequently with the offense, especially early in the game. Everyone starts the game with a full hand of cards, at least some of which are pretty good, and no ships in the warp. There isn't as much need for rewards. Gaining a colony, without must risk or effort as an offensive ally is more attractive.

The Reward Deck has changed that, at least in a small way. Players have more incentive to collect rewards in general. However, defensive main players have also been forced to take rewards into consideration more carefully when they invite. The odds of drawing really useful cards as rewards from the encounter deck is even at best (and in reality, you are probably more likely to get something no better than what you're already holding). There's a better chance of getting good cards from the Reward Deck at any given time.

This also makes the end of the game speed up as well. In the past, when one player tries to go for the win, he or she can pretty much count on having to face all of the other players are full strength. If you don't beat them, they will be collecting some pretty good cards for rewards if they get them from the Reward Deck. This means they have a much better chance of getting that solo win on their turn.

I love this dynamic quite a bit.

The other great thing about the Reward Deck is the ability to add in new cards to the game without greatly affecting the card distribution in the encounter deck. The Rifts, Kickers, etc. that are part of the CI Reward Deck are a great addition, but it would be too much to have shuffled into the normal encounter deck (definitely too much to teach to a brand new player). The Reward Deck can grow at a faster rate than the encounter deck as well- since its distribution is a little bit easier to manage.

Of course, Flares are the great equalizer in the card category. You can't get them in the Reward Deck, so if that's what you're after, you should stick to taking your rewards from the main encounter deck. As for ships, you can always hope for a Rift card, and increase the number of ships you are able to free- or play it safe and just take rewards from the warp.

The biggest "controversy" with the new Reward Deck is the back art. Originally, the cards in the Reward Deck were designed to match the normal encounter deck so you could never tell which cards were which. FFG has chosen to make the art different, letting everyone know how many Reward cards you have and when you're playing one. It's an interesting move, and the presence of the Rift cards mitigates them as targets for compensation (but probably only a little). Rift cards can be used to free ships from the warp like a Warp Break artifact (which doesn't actually exist yet in the FFG edition), or, when they are taken from your hand by another player, they cause the loss of ships to the warp by the playing taking the Rift- a sort of boobytrapped card.

I like the Rifts a lot, but I can still go either way on whether having different back art is the way to go. In my custom CE sets, I still have the Reward Deck cards matching the encounter deck cards. If you've played with the Reward Deck, what's your impression? Have you noticed more or fewer defensive allies? Different card art yea or nay?