Cosmic Encounters - GenCon -- Come And Play

[enelson]

Hey -

I'm taking my Cosmic Encounters set to GenCon and I invite one and all to partake in the greatest boardgame of all time. This not an official/sanctioned game but an ad-hoc one.

I have the Mayfair version of Cosmic Encounters and More Cosmic Encounters. We'll use all powers except for Assassin and Terrorist, one shot flares but no lucre or crazy moons.

This is the game that I discovered in college (1987) and I skipped many classes because of this engaging game of cooperation, bluffing, intimidation, and stealthiness.

Easy to learn with a ton of strategy.

If any are interested, let's setup a time and place in this forum. Each game will  accommodate 6 people, take about 2 hours  (+/-) and I'm willing to play anytime, all the time.

Thanks!

Eric

[Ben Lehman]

Wait, you're playing with the Witch?  And the Schizoid?

Holy crap.

yrs--
--Ben

[enelson]

The Witch curses? and the Schizoid does what?

I can't remember these two breaking the game but help me out here...remind this old feeble brain of mine what these do.

So, do you want to join in on the fun at GenCon?

Thanks!

Eric

[Ben Lehman]

I may.  GenCon is super-busy for me (it's a work convention, not a fun convention.)  But I loves me some Cosmic.

The Witch curses ... and those curses can be nearly anything at all!  You can curse someone to, say, be attacked by everyone for the next 20 turns. It's fun in a game with good friends, but man ... it's pretty game-breaking in the wrong hands.

The Schizoid changes the winning conditions of the game. I remember the longest, most frustrating game of Cosmic I ever played. The winning condition was "have all your tokens in the warp."

yrs--
--Ben

[enelson]

Ok, now I remember why I hate Schizoid....

Well, if you can make it and if we get enough people, I will post to this forum when and where.

For those that don't know about Cosmic, it is a simple game at heart. You need to conquer five systems outside of your own system. You play a card, add your tokens you have in that conflict, your opponent plays a card, adds his tokens in the conflict and the higher total  wins.

But then you have powers. I like playing with each player having two powers.  These powers break some aspect of the rules. For example, Virus allows you to multiply your tokens in the conflict to the card you play.  This can generate some very high numbers. But if you use that power against the Anti-matter power, you are going to lose because low score wins when Anti-matter is involved.

Then there is the Spiff power.  Yes, this is Spaceman Spiff from Calvin and Hobbes fame.  If you lose (can't remember if it is as an ally or main player), you get to "crash" onto your opponent's planet.

Then there was this time when we did not have enough tokens for all the players and used Smarties instead. Normally, when you lose a conflict, your tokens go to the Warp and may be set free in some future turn. Not if you lose to the Void power. The Void power takes your token permanently out of play. So the player who was the Void, would eat the Smarties that were lost in conflict to him. It made for a very humorous game.

Then there was this time when someone had the Gambler power (I think) and a fight almost broke out but that is a story for another time.

Good times!

Thanks!

Eric

[enelson]

"Arise!"

Since GenCon is around the corner...come and join for a great time of Universal Conquest!

On another note, would the place where the you check out and play boardgames be a good place to meet up? Is it GameBay 7?

I am thinking Thursday night at 8:00 pmish at the boardgame checkout and play place (forgot the name).

Thanks!

Eric