Welcome to the Cosmic Encounter Game!

Are you ready to start the adventure in the cosmic universe? In this game, you will become an alien species, each with its own unique powers and abilities. Your goal is to establish colonies on other planets and seize control of the galaxy.

To win the game, you need to be the first player to have five colonies outside of your home system. But be careful! Other players will try to stop you, form alliances, and negotiate deals. The cosmic battleground is full of unexpected twists and turns.

In each turn, you will have the opportunity to attack other players’ colonies or establish your own. The outcome of your battles will depend on a dice roll and the special powers of the alien species. Will you use your power to teleport across the galaxy? Or maybe you can force other players to ally with you?

The game evolves as you encounter new alien species with their own unique rules and strategies. Each game is a new cosmic adventure, filled with excitement and surprises.

If you’re a fan of strategic games and intergalactic battles, then you’ll love Cosmic Encounter. It combines strategy, negotiation, and a touch of cosmic chaos.

Get ready to navigate through the vastness of the cosmos, forming alliances, making enemies, and conquering new territories. The fate of the galaxy is in your hands!

Are you ready to embark on this cosmic journey?

When you play Cosmic Encounter, you become an alien life form in outer space. Each player has their own solar system and wants to take over planets in other systems.

Every alien has a special power that helps them. You can use diplomacy, make alliances, or use force to get new colonies. The winner is the first player with five colonies on foreign planets. If two or more players get their fifth colony at the same time, they win together!

Cosmic Encounter is a competitive game, but it’s really a fun party game. It’s all about crazy aliens and their special abilities. If you’re new to the game, don’t worry too much about winning based on numbers. Be ready for surprises and try to work things out with others instead!

When you take on the persona of an alien character, immersing yourself in their story and mindset, Cosmic Encounter transforms into a game where the thrill of losing is just as exciting as the joy of winning!

What’s Included

• 1 Warp
• 25 Player Planets
• 1 Quick-Start Guide
• 1 Genesis Planet
• 1 Hyperspace Gate
• 5 Player Colony Markers
• 100 Plastic Ships
• 7 Grudge Tokens
• 1 Prometheus Token
• 1 Lunar Cannon Token
• 42 Cosmic Tokens
• 51 Alien Sheets
• 51 Flare Cards
• 55 Encounter Cards
• 6 Reinforcement Cards
• 11 Artifact Cards
• 1 Alternate Filch Flare Card
• 34 Cosmic Combo Cards
• 20 Tech Cards
• 20 Destiny Cards
• Rulebook

Setup

I’m going to be honest with you – setting up a game of Cosmic Encounter is no easy task. It may seem a bit overwhelming at first, especially if you’re new to this whole interstellar thing. But don’t worry, I’ve got your back! Let me break it down for you, step by step.

Choose Your Color: First, you need to pick a color for yourself. Everybody gets a different color, and with that color, you’ll have your own set of pieces. Let’s say you choose red – you’ll get a colony marker, five planets, and 20 ships, all in red. These will be your starting materials.

Check Out the Starting Planets!

The Warp’s Colony Track with Colony Markers

If you’re playing with four players and nobody wants to be green, then the destiny deck will consist of cards of all colors except green. This will be used for determining your destiny throughout the game.

Choose Aliens: Let’s start by shuffling the cosmic combo cards and revealing the top card of the deck. Then, we need to gather the alien sheets that are needed for the number of players we have and deal one randomly to each of us.

The cosmic deck contains all encounter cards, reinforcement cards, and artifact cards.

The player who has the purple color is the first player.

Basic Concepts

Now, let’s go over some of the basic concepts in Cosmic Encounter. It’s important to understand these before we learn how to play the actual game.

Aliens

Hey there! Let’s dive into the game. As you play, you’ll control an alien that can change the rules of the game. But let’s start with the basics first, so you can understand how it all works. Once you’ve got that down, we’ll move on to learning about aliens in the “Additional Rules” section.

Planets And Systems

Alright, so each player starts with five planets in their player color. These planets are your home planets and make up your home system. So, they’re like your special planets.

Now, any planets that don’t match your home planet’s color are considered foreign planets. They belong to other players. And when you group all the foreign planets of one color together, it becomes a foreign system. So, those foreign planets aren’t in your system, but they’re part of someone else’s.

Look at the picture above. The red player’s home system is made up of their five home planets. Pretty cool, huh?

In the game of Cosmic Encounter, I will be introducing you to the concept of Ships and Colonies. This is a crucial aspect of the game that you need to understand in order to play successfully. Let’s dive in!

First, let’s talk about Ships. Each player has 20 ships, and these ships are color-coded to match their player color. You will see stacks of ships on different planets throughout the game. These stacks represent colonies.

A colony is formed when there is one or more ships stacked on a planet. If you have a colony on one of your home planets, it is called a home colony. On the other hand, if you have a colony on a planet that belongs to another player, it is called a foreign colony.

Now, here’s something interesting – multiple players can have colonies on the same planet! However, keep in mind that each player can only have one colony per planet. So be strategic and choose your planets wisely.

To give you a clearer picture, imagine a red planet with one home colony and one foreign colony. That’s how it looks in the game.

Now that you understand the concept of Ships and Colonies, let’s move on to the next important aspect of the game. Stay with me!

Hey there! Let’s talk about the exciting game dynamics of Cosmic Encounter. When we play, we get to move our ships around the board, going to and from different colonies. Now, here’s the cool part: you have the power to decide which colonies you want to move your ships from or return them to. And guess what? These colonies can be either your own, from another player, or a mix of both!

However, there’s a rule you need to keep in mind. You can only return a ship to a planet where you already have at least one ship’s colony. So, make sure you have a presence on that planet before you send your ship back.

Now, let’s talk about the Warp.

The Warp is like a cosmic holding place for lost ships. It keeps track of each player’s progress towards victory. If one of your ships gets sent to the Warp, it stays there until you’re able to retrieve it.

Take a look at this picture. You can see that the red, blue, and yellow players have all lost ships and put them in the Warp.

In Cosmic Encounter, the outer edge of the warp serves as a handy tool to keep track of each player’s foreign colonies. It’s these foreign colonies that ultimately determine the winner of the game.

Playing the Game

So, imagine we’re all playing Cosmic Encounter together. We’ll take turns in a clockwise order, starting with the first player. And how do we determine who goes first? Well, that’s where the setup comes in.

Now, let’s talk about encounters. Every time it’s your turn, you get to have an encounter. An encounter is essentially an interaction between you and one or more fellow players. And what’s the purpose of this encounter, you may wonder? Well, the answer is simple. You’re either trying to establish your very own colony on a foreign planet or protect one of your home planets by removing a foreign colony.

When we play a game, there is always someone in charge of defending. This person is called the defense. The defense is chosen through a special deck called the destiny deck, which I will explain later. Both the attacker and the defender are called main players.

An encounter in the game has eight different phases that we need to go through. Let me explain each phase to you:

1. The Start Turn Phase
2. The Regroup Phase
3. The Destiny Phase
4. The Launch Phase
5. The Alliance Phase
6. The Planning Phase
7. The Reveal Phase
8. The Resolution Phase

The Start Turn Phase

During the Start Turn Phase, if you don’t have any encounter cards, you have to get rid of the ones you have and draw eight new ones. Keep doing this until you have at least one encounter card in your hand. Encounter cards can be attack cards, negotiate cards, or morph cards.

For the second phase, called the Regroup Phase, I get to bring one of my ships back from the warp. I can choose any of my home or foreign colonies and stack my ship on top of one of my existing ships there. It’s like adding another layer to my colony! Take a look at the image below to see an example of how it works:

The red player in the image takes a ship from the warp and places it on one of their established colonies.

Now, let’s move on to the third phase, the Destiny Phase. In this phase, it’s all about the destiny deck. As the offense, I draw the top card of the destiny deck and follow the instructions on it. This card will determine who I will have an encounter with. There are three types of cards in the destiny deck: color cards, wild cards, and special cards.

It’s exciting to see where destiny will take me and who I will encounter next!

4. Launch Phase

During the Launch Phase, I get to choose where the encounter happens. It’s a big decision that can shape the outcome of the game.

Choosing a planet is exciting. I take the hyperspace gate and point it toward any planet in my home system that the destiny card showed me. That planet becomes the target planet. Of course, it’s easier to conquer planets that have fewer of my ships on them.

Since I drew a yellow destiny card, I can point the hyperspace gate at any planet in the yellow player’s home system.

If I draw a destiny card that matches my own color, I have a choice. I can either point the hyperspace gate at a foreign colony on one of my own home planets, or I can get rid of the card and draw a new one. It’s all about strategy and making the right move.

Once I’ve chosen a planet, I need to decide how many of my ships to send into the encounter. I can choose to commit between one and four ships to the hyperspace gate, and those ships will be the ones participating in the encounter.

I can take ships from my home and foreign colonies, and I’m allowed to take multiple ships from the same colony.

I’m the red player, and I decide to commit three ships to the encounter. I take one ship from a home colony and two ships from a foreign colony.

5. Alliance Phase

Now comes the Alliance Phase. This is the time when both the offense and the defense can try to form alliances with other players to gain an advantage in the encounter.

To resolve the Alliance Phase, we follow these steps in order:

Invite: As an offense, I have the power to invite other players to be my allies. Guess what? The defense can do the same! It’s like a strategic game of allies and enemies. So, when I want to invite a player to be on my side, I simply say it out loud. The same goes for the defense – they can choose players to invite as well. The amazing thing is that there’s no maximum or minimum limit to the number of allies we can have, and we can even invite the same player. But here’s the catch – our main players can’t be allies themselves. It’s all about building a strong team to win the game!

Accept: Now, let’s dive into the next step – accepting the invitation. Starting from the player on my left and moving in a clockwise direction, each player who was invited gets to decide whether they want to accept or decline the invitation. It’s like being chosen for a special mission! If a player accepts my invitation, they become one of my offensive allies. On the other hand, if they accept the defense’s invitation, they become a defensive ally. The power of choice is in their hands, and it’s up to them to decide which side they want to be on.

When you become an ally, you have to choose between one and four of your ships to join the encounter. Just like the offense does during the Launch Phase, you can take ships from any of your colonies, whether they’re at home or in foreign territories.

If you’re an offensive ally, you’ll place the ships you commit on the hyperspace gate, stacking them together. But if you’re a defensive ally, you’ll stack your ships next to the planet that the hyperspace gate is pointing towards.

Remember, there can be multiple offensive allies and multiple defensive allies. However, it’s important to note that you must accept invitations to become allies in turn order. Each player must commit their ships to the encounter before the next player can accept or reject any invitations they’ve received.

Hey there! Let’s talk about a fun and exciting game called Cosmic Encounter. In this game, there’s something important you need to know — you can’t accept invitations from both the offense and the defense at the same time. And don’t worry, if you do get invited, you can always say no!

6. Planning Phase

Now, let’s get into the Planning Phase. This is when all the main players make their moves. Everyone chooses one encounter card from their hand and places it facedown on the table.

These cards are important because they determine what happens next in the game. Look for the word “Encounter” at the top of the card. That’s how you know it’s an encounter card.

This card is an attack. Make sure to place it facedown.

If the defense doesn’t have any encounter cards in hand, they have to show all their remaining cards, discard them, and then draw a new hand of eight cards before picking a card for this phase.

If I don’t have any encounter cards in hand, my turn ends right away. I have to put back any of my ships that are on the hyperspace gate and send them back to my home or foreign colonies. My allies also have to return all of their committed ships to their colonies too. It’s a bummer when that happens!

7. Time to Reveal!

Okay, now it’s time for the Reveal Phase. This is when both the offense (that’s me) and the defense show the encounter card we picked during the Planning Phase. This is when things get interesting!

Attack vs. Attack

Uh oh, if both me and the defense reveal an attack card, we have to do some math. My total attack value is the number on my attack card plus the number of ships I committed and the ships my offensive allies committed. The defense’s total attack value is the number on their attack card plus the ships they committed and the ships their defensive allies committed. It’s all about firepower!



In a game, the person with the most points is declared the winner. If both players have the same amount of points, the defending player wins instead.

Choose Between Attacking or Negotiating

If one player decides to attack while the other chooses to negotiate, the attacking player will win the game.



In this game, when two players use the negotiate card, the one who played it gets something in return. This happens during the Resolution Phase.

When Negotiate Meets Negotiate

If both players reveal a negotiate card, any offensive and defensive allies they had sent to their colonies have to be returned. After that, both the attacker and defender will have to try and resolve the conflict through negotiation.



Okay folks, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. Here’s how the big shots can make a deal to swap their cards or set up a colony. Check it out:

Trading: I can give any number of cards from my hand to you. We can trade specific cards or just exchange certain types of cards. Heck, we can even trade blindly if you’re up for it.

If we agree on a trade, we have to stick to our word. I can’t say I’ll trade my best attack card and then switch it up on you. We can chat about the cards we have, and hey, I might even give you some cards without asking for anything in return.

Starting a Colony: You can pick any planet where you already have a colony, whether it’s your home or some remote spot, and let me set up shop there too. When you do this, you can take any of your ships from the hyperspace gate or your other colonies.

When playing the game, both offense and defense have just one minute to make a successful deal. To call it a success, they need to either trade one card or establish a colony within that time. If they fail to reach an agreement, both players must send three of their own ships to the warp.

Now, let’s talk about the morph card in comparison to other cards. If one player reveals a morph card, it becomes an exact copy of the other card revealed during the encounter.

If the other card happens to be an attack card, the encounter is resolved as if two attack cards were revealed. On the other hand, if the other card is a negotiate card, the encounter is resolved as if two negotiate cards were revealed.

Take a look at this image. The morph card shown here acts like an attack card with a value of 8.

This cool card acts as a negotiate card.

8. Let’s resolve the game

Now, it’s time to figure out what happens in the game. This is called the Resolution Phase. During this phase, we’ll see who wins the encounter and what happens next. There are a few possible outcomes: offense win, defense win, successful deal, or unsuccessful deal. Once we know the outcome, any encounter cards that were played are discarded.

Offense Wins

If the offense wins the encounter, they and their allies who joined the offense bring all their ships from the hyperspace gate and place them on the target planet. If the offense player doesn’t already have a colony on that planet, they’ll stack their ships to form a new colony there.

But what if the offense does have a colony on the target planet already? Well, in that case, they’ll put their ships on the planet to make their colony even stronger. This means adding their ships to the stack that’s already there.

The green player won the encounter, so I move my ships to the purple planet, establishing a foreign colony.

If I’m defending and I lose the encounter, I have to send all of my participating ships, as well as the ships of my defensive allies, to the warp. The other ships on that planet that didn’t participate in the encounter are just bystanders, so they don’t go to the warp.

The purple player lost the encounter, so they move their ships to the warp.

If I gain a new foreign colony, I get to move my colony marker on the colony track, so it shows how many foreign colonies I have.

I’m the green player and I just established my first foreign colony. So, I’m moving my token one space forward on the foreign colony track.

Defense Wins

If you win as the defense in the encounter, your colony survives and all ships on the hyperspace gate go to the warp. In addition, each defensive ally gets defender rewards. If you committed ships to the encounter as a defensive ally, you have two options:

• Draw one card from the cosmic deck.
• Retrieve one of your ships from the warp and place it on any of your colonies.

When I gain rewards for defending, I return my ships to any of my colonies – I don’t get to establish a colony on the defended planet. Only defensive allies receive rewards; the defense gets nothing in return.

If I played a negotiate card against an attack card, I collect compensation as the offense (see “Compensation” below).

Successful Deal

If the deal goes as planned, we carry out the agreed-upon terms, and I return any of my ships on the hyperspace gate to my colonies.

Unsuccessful Deal

If the deal falls through, both main players have to put three of their ships in the warp. I can take the ships from any of my colonies or from the hyperspace gate when placing them in the warp.

Compensation

If you play a negotiate card against an attack card and lose the encounter, you get compensation. To get compensation, take a few cards randomly from the winner’s hand.

You take as many cards as the number of ships you sent to the warp when you lost the encounter. If the winner doesn’t have enough cards to fully compensate you, take as many as you can.

The Second Encounter Rule

If the offense wins or makes a successful deal and this is their first encounter of the turn, they can have a second encounter starting with the Regroup Phase. Otherwise, the next player in clockwise order takes their turn and becomes the offense.

If you play a negotiate card against an attack card as the defense, you collect compensation.

Game Over!

The ultimate goal in this game is to establish foreign colonies. We keep track of the number of foreign colonies each player has using the foreign colony track along the edge of the warp. It’s like a scoreboard that shows who’s winning.

In the picture above, both the yellow and red players have two foreign colonies, while the blue player has four.

Now here’s where things get really exciting! When a player successfully establishes their fifth foreign colony, they are declared the winner! Can you imagine the rush?

But wait, there’s more! If two or more players manage to establish their fifth foreign colony at the same time, they all win together! Talk about a spectacular ending!