How to Play Cosmic Encounter: Cosmic Eons

Game Objective

Refer to the manual for details on this section.

Preparation (Setup)

The Cosmic Eons expansion is incorporated into the base game Cosmic Encounter®. Before starting game setup, follow the steps below:

1. 30 Alien Tokens: Add the new alien tokens to the pile of available alien tokens.
2. 30 Flare Cards: Shuffle the new flare cards into the existing flare card deck.
3. 55 Essence Cards: Place the essence cards aside in the play area.
4. 37 Special Alien Tokens: Place the special alien tokens aside in the play area.
5. 6 Alliance Dials: Assemble the dials as described in the manual.

Game Flow

The game flow follows a repeating phase structure. The phases mentioned are:

• Start Turn
• Regroup
• Destiny
• Launch Alliance
• Planning
• Reveal
• Resolution

These phases repeat for each turn. Refer to the manual for details on what happens in each of these phases.

Actions and How to Play

Essence Cards

Some aliens start the game with a new component called essence cards. Each of these aliens has an essence symbol on their token and their own set of essence cards that enhance their power.

Aliens with essence cards include:

• Alien (9 traumas)
• Anarchist (8 disruptions)
• Assistant (6 helps)
• Nanny (8 consequences)
• Nightmare (10 bad dreams)
• Oligarch (5 privileges)
• Sheriff (9 tickets)

Before playing as an alien with essence cards, shuffle that alien's essence cards and place them face down as a set. Then, draw three cards from that set to form your essence card cache. A set of essence cards is not considered a deck, and an essence card cache is not considered a hand. Cards in a player's cache are kept separate from the set and secret from all other players until played.

Players will always maintain a cache of three cards. Each time a player plays or is forced to lose an essence card from their cache, they replace it by taking the top card from their set and placing it in their cache. Any essence cards played or lost are kept in a face-up unavailable card pile. When there are no more essence cards in a set, the player shuffles their unavailable essence cards to form a new set.

When an alien token with the essence symbol is lost or flipped face down, all essence cards still in play belonging to that alien are returned to that player's unavailable card pile.

Players can always look at their cache, as well as the essence cards they have played on another player. Players who have received essence cards cannot look at them if they are face down.

Alliance Dials (Hidden Alliances Variant)

This variant is recommended for games with four or more players and allows all players' decisions during the Alliance Phase to be revealed simultaneously, creating a more tense situation with opportunities for persuasion, misdirection, and betrayal.

During each encounter, after both main players have invited allies, each player eligible to become an ally takes an alliance dial and turns it to indicate the side they are joining and the number of ships they are committing, as follows:

• The number of pips in the window at the hyperspace gate end of the dial indicates the number of ships a player is committing to the attack.
• The number of pips in the window at the planet end of the dial indicates the number of ships a player is committing to the defense.
• A dash (–) in both windows indicates that a player is not committing ships to either side.
• A star is used to show special cases, as presented on individual alien tokens or cards (e.g., using the Plasma Thrusters technology card).
• The rectangular card icon on the dial is used in the External Help Option.

Each player eligible to ally must turn their dial to one of the positions listed above, even if they do not intend to participate in the encounter. This keeps decisions secret among all players. Players can make verbal claims about their dial positions, whether true or not.

After selecting the positions on their dials, players place their dials face down in front of their alien tokens. When all eligible players' dials are in front of their alien tokens, they are all revealed simultaneously. Those who chose to ally send their ships to the encounter according to their dial position.

In special circumstances where the alliance dial cannot show enough information to indicate a player's intentions (e.g., when using the Yin-Yang alien in Cosmic Dominion), the player turns the star to an appropriate window. After all dials are face down in front of the alien tokens, but before they are revealed, the player with such a special circumstance announces their choice aloud.

Optional External Help Rule

This optional rule allows non-main players to send cards to main players as external help using their alliance dials. Non-main players must position their dial even when not invited to ally. Any non-main player, invited or not, can position their dial to show the miniature card for attack or for defense. When the dials are revealed, each player who chose to send external help secretly offers a card from their hand to the chosen main player. The main players review their external help offers and must accept or reject each one. If a card is rejected, it is returned to the player who offered it. If a card is accepted, the player who offered it immediately gains a reward, and the main player may also invite the player who offered it to send a specified number of ships (subject to all applicable limits) to become their ally.

Nanny's Ability: Motivates (Optional, As Any Player)

When you are not a main player, after alliances are formed but before encounter cards are selected, you may use this power to "motivate" one or both main players. To motivate a player, give them a negotiate card from your hand to add to their hand, and give them a consequence from your essence card cache to place face up next to their alien token. If a motivated player reveals a negotiate card, execute the incentive; the consequence card is returned to you, and you receive a reward. If a motivated player does not reveal a negotiate card, execute the punishment and leave the consequence card in place to mark the timeout.

A player in timeout cannot participate in the game in any way or communicate with other players, nor can other players communicate with the player in timeout. If that player is the attack, their turn ends. If that player becomes the defense, the attack draws destiny again. At the end of the timeout, the player returns the consequence card to you. In any case where the game cannot progress due to timeouts, all other players' consequence cards are returned to you.

Whenever one or more other players discard negotiate cards, you may use this power to retrieve one of those negotiate cards and add it to your hand. You play and discard negotiates normally.

End of Game and Scoring

Refer to the manual for details on this section.

Tips for Winning

Refer to the manual for details on this section.