Table of Contents
Cosmic Encounter
- 3-5 players
Setup
- Warp goes in middle
- Each player takes:
- 5 planets
- Colony marker at 0 by the warp
- 20 ships, 4 on each planet
- 2 flares face down (keep flares secret)
- keep one and discard the other
- take alien sheet corresponding to flare
- Player flares are shuffled in to the cosmic deck
- Discarded flares are shuffled in to the cosmic deck
- If less than 5 players, add flares until there are 10 flares total in the cosmic deck
- 8 cards from cosmic deck (keep secret)
- Remove unused player colors from destiny deck
- Draw randomly from destiny deck to determine start player
Game Turn
- Start Turn
- If you have no Encounter cards, reveal current hand, discard & draw 8 new cards
- Regroup
- Take 1 ship from the warp, place on any colony
- Destiny
- Draw 1 card
- If 1 card left, shuffle final card together with discards for a new deck
- Barring special abilities, there is no way to attack a player's colony when it's located in a third player's home system.
- You can attack a planet with no ships; they defend at 0
- Launch
- Offense places 1 to 4 ships in the hyperspace gate
- You can take ships from any of your colonies
- Alliance
- Offense invites
- Defense invites
- Starting with player to the left of the offense, accept or decline ally and place ships
- Planning
- If defense has no encounter cards, reveal remaining cards, discard & draw 8 new cards
- If offense has no encounter cards, their turn ends immediately
- Both offense and defense selects 1 encounter card
- Reveal
- Reveal encounter cards
- Offense, defense & allies can play reinforcement cards
- Resolution
- Encounter outcomes:
- Attack vs Attack
- Total all ships + encounter card + reinforcement cards
- Higher total wins, ties go to defense
- Attack vs Negotiate
- Attack player wins, negotiate player loses
- Main negotiate player collects compensation, 1 card per ship lost
- Negotiate vs Negotiate
- Main players must make a deal within 60 seconds
- The deal can consist of:
- Trade cards (from hand)
- Establish 1 colony (with ships NOT in the warp)
- Allies are never part of the deal
- Failure to come to an agreement means both main players lose 3 ships to the warp
- NOTE: See rules about offense ships returning to colonies from the hyperspace gate. Not sure what it means yet.
- Morph
- The Morph card becomes the exact duplicate of the opponent's encounter card when revealed
- Encounter effects:
- Offense wins
- All offense & offense allies place their ships on the planet, establishing colonies
- All defense & defense allies place their ships on the warp
- Offense can have a 2nd encounter
- Defense wins
- Main defense ships stay on planet
- Defense allies return to any of their colonies
- Defense allies get rewards for the number of ships they committed; either:
- take ship(s) from the warp OR
- take a card
- All offense ships & offense allies go to the warp
- Offense can not have a 2nd encounter
Goal
- Establish 5 colonies on planets outside your home system
- A colony is a planet with at least 1 ship on it
Game End
- When a player establishes 5 colonies outside of their home system