FFG ofrece mas informacion de la expansion para Cosmic Encounter.

Los chicos de FFG nos informan en una de sus habituales píldoras informativas, de que nos esperará, en esta nueva expansión del juego Cosmic Encounter.
Cabe recordar, que no existe una edición en castellano del mismo, por lo que los interesados solo podrán jugarlo en la lengua de Shakespeare.
Cosmic encounter es a pesar de todo, un juego que cuenta con numerosos aficionados fieles y interesados en sus cualidades.

The release of Cosmic Storm, the newest expansion for Cosmic Encounter, is coming soon. Expansion designer Jay Little took the time to share his thoughts about his work on the upcoming Cosmic Storm, and becoming part of theCosmic Encounter legacy.

A Word from the Designer

Getting to work on Cosmic Encounter was an incredibly important milestone in my design career. I've been playingCosmic Encounter for more than twenty years, and it is far and away my favorite board game of all time. It's hard to explain just how special it was to be able to work on a game that's been so influential to my life as both a player and a designer. It fits my free-wheeling, social style of gameplay better than anything else I've ever come across. I still have dozens of hand-written index cards featuring alien powers my friends and I designed ever since I was first introduced to the game.

During Cosmic Storm's development, one of the real treats for me was being able to work with Peter Olotka and Bill Eberle, two of the original designers for Cosmic Encounter. Throughout the development process, Peter and Bill were incredibly helpful and made themselves available to brainstorm ideas, offer feedback, and share anecdotes from the long, storied history of Cosmic Encounter. I was already enthusiastic going into the project, but the support Peter, Bill, and the dedicated play testers provided kept me energized and focused throughout. 

Even with my experience with the game, there were several surprises along the way. For example, designing alien powers is a much more complex, time-intensive process than I think most people (myself included) might expect. With one hundred existing alien powers, new aliens had to provide a distinct and novel feel. And with twenty-five alien powers in Cosmic Storm, when previous expansions included twenty alien powers, adding twenty-five percent more awesome alien goodness required even more careful design and thought. 

As a long-time player and as a game designer, I was surprised by how some of the simplest concepts could be difficult to articulate in a way that made them fit into the game's mechanics while delivering the sort of gameplay experience Cosmic Encounter players have come to expect. One of the fun design challenges was choosing a number of those home-brewed alien powers my friends and I had designed so many years ago, then updating and refining them to fit into the game. My old gaming buddies got a real kick out of it when I told them some of our fan made powers were going to be featured in Cosmic Storm.  

Then there are the inside jokes and humor. Cosmic Encounter is a blend of strategy and social gaming, but it is also a bit of a parody of more traditional games. There are a number of games that take themselves far more seriously thanCosmic Encounter – after all, one of the defining elements of Cosmic is that it is a game all about breaking its own rules. It can be bizarre, extreme, wacky, and even unbalanced. It can feature a session where everyone at the table shares a win. It can produce unpredictable and unforeseen events based on two crazy effects running into each other. Victory can be snatched from the jaws of defeat, or quashed with a well-timed betrayal.

More than any other game I've played, Cosmic Encounter creates game sessions people talk about for years to come. I'm hoping my contributions to Cosmic Encounter can have that same effect, and offer years of entertainment and enjoyment to the game's passionate players.

Thanks, Jay! Below, we share two of Jay’s aliens who will burst onto the scene in Cosmic Storm!

Dervish

The constant whirling and high-speed revolution of the Dervishes make them unpredictable and chaotic. In fact, their undulations have been known to make some aliens queasy. Dervishes delight in bold sweeping tactics and surprises in combat, sometimes turning their opponents’ resources against them.

Always in motion, the Dervish swirls its way through the galaxy, turning the tables on its opponents. With the power to Whirl, the Dervish can determine whether he would like to whirl clockwise or counterclockwise. Then, each player involved in the encounter must pass his hand of cards in that direction to the next player in the encounter.

Converter

The versatility of the Converters makes them highly prized as manufacturers and business partners. They can take virtually any piece of technology and change it into something completely different. Some theorize that they eat the original materials, creating some suspicion about how the new materials appear.

The Converter is skilled at adapting to a given scenario. With its power toExchange, the Converter can discard cards in order to keep ships from the warp, and draw cards instead of retrieving ships from the warp!

Keep checking back for more previews as you prepare for a Cosmic Storm! Also, be sure to check out our Facebook page, where we will be previewing aliens included in Cosmic Storm that won’t be discussed on our website!

Get ready for some turbulence in the galaxy with Cosmic Storm, an upcoming expansion for Cosmic Encounter! This new addition sets the galaxy trembling as twenty-five alien races come zipping through the cosmos to join the fray. Space stations are an added variant that allow players to enhance their home worlds. Each space station has a unique ability that can be harnessed as you battle for intergalactic supremacy.

Today, we’ll take a closer look at the Space Station variant in Cosmic Storm, as well as two other ways to play with the new space stations. Then, we’ll take a look at two of the alien races vying for galactic control!

Set Up a Space Station

Prepare to conquer the cosmos by setting up a space station. This variant allows each you to draw one of the space station cards and then attach the corresponding Space station to one of your home worlds. Each of the ten stations has a unique ability that can be utilized as long as you have at least one ship on the planet the station is attached to. Space stations can be traded as part of negotiations,

Space station abilities like the Big Space Laser or Alien Outpost add even more exciting options for decision making. The Alien Outpost allows you to gain an additional alien power.

If you control the Big Space Laser station, you can add 10 to any encounter in which you are a main player, and don’t have allies, making you force to be reckoned with.

Space stations are compatible with all other published variants, so they can be integrated with your favorite Cosmic Encounter expansions! What’s more, space stations can be incorporated into your game in several different ways. If playing with five or fewer players, each player can take two space station cards, and attach two space stations to their home worlds. This gives you access to an additional space station powers to use as you attempt to take over the galaxy!

The Space Station Conquest variant introduces a new win condition – the first player to acquire five space stations is the winner. In this variant, players can conquer space stations by winning offensive encounters outside of their home system. If a planet has a space station attached, the offensive player may remove it, and attach it to one of his own home planets that doesn’t yet have a space station attached. 

Chow Down on the Competition

Although considered more of an annoyance than a genuine threat, the Mouth can devastate the unwary with its constant eating. Anything within reach of a Mouth will likely be swallowed whole in the blink of an eye. Objects too large for a single bite will be systematically devoured to satisfy its voracious hunger.

Meet the Mouth, the gluttonous, always-hungry alien species with the power toGobble. The voracious Mouths eat everything in their path, and their ability allows them to snack on cards that would be discarded. As a Main Player, any card that would be discarded by their opposition gets gobbled up and placed on their Alien sheet. Once five or more cards pile on the sheet, the Mouth can belch up one of the cards and place it in his hand during the Resolution phase. 

This Planet Isn’t Big Enough for the Both of Us

The Outlaws are rightly feared throughout the great expanses of space. They arrive in a fury of laser blasts, explosions, and angry threats. Their victims barely have time to react before the Outlaws have swept through a sector, pillaging and stealing loot as they go.

The laser-gun-toting, big-talking Outlaws and their power to Waylay are certainly rustling up a disturbance in the cosmos. As the Main Player, an Outlaw can take a random card from his opponent, and anyone allied against him. These cards are added to the Outlaw’s hand, giving him greater selection as he storms through the galaxy on his quest for galactic domination.

Play as the perpetually hungry Mouth, the gunslinging Outlaw, or one of the other new aliens included in Cosmic Storm, the upcoming expansion forCosmic Encounter! But before that, keep checking back for more news and previews for Cosmic Storm.