The game is set in the future, when travelers of different nations and races met each other. The result was a time of chaos; wars, conquests, alliances between now unknown beings.

The space-time surrounding our planet became fragile because it had to protect itself from the constant attacks by aggressive forces that wanted to use it as their gate into our world.

The only hope for humanity is to try and establish a defense system using powerful radio transmitters. This way, we can know when an attack is coming; send our own ships into the space in time and protect the Earth in the present or past. That’s where you come in: You play as one of 19 commanding aliens trying to establish the defense system.

Overall Gameplay

Your goal is to create a complete command file that, when transmitted back into time will be used by Earth’s forces in the past to defend our planet against alien aggression. To do this you have to fight for planetary systems and establish colonies on them before your opponents do. Also, you should attack other traveler’s ships to make them join your alliance or steal their power cards.

You win the game by being the first player to establish colonies on five planets outside of your own color system.

Each of you starts with five ships, each of which has a unique special power that can be used once per turn. At the beginning of each turn, you assign one of these ships to a planet that does not have one of your colonies on it.

Each player, including you, gets a chance as the offense during every turn. Each time the offense encounters another player, both players reveal a card from their encounter hand and carry out what they can according to the hidden information-that is, alliance cards and power cards.

Cards for Days

Power Card – There are over 100 different power cards available in the game, each of which is illustrated with full-color images that depict various alien species, their starships and other objects. Each card has a text description of its special ability on it.

When you use your power you must announce who’s power you are using, and then the other players have the chance to use that power too. If more than one player decides to use that power then they must place their ships on their power card first. Then you follow in order starting with the player who has had fewer turns since initiating their special ability.

Alliance Card: Every Alliance Card contains between three and five different races that are allied with each other during the game. Each race has a unique special ability listed on it, in addition to an alliance score which determines how many ships of each separate species need to be present at the encounter in order for the card to have effect

Encounter: When two ships belonging to two different players meet one another on the same planet or moon, they carry out an encounter. The player who initiated the offense is known as the offensive player, and he or she places his ships on his power card first. The other players can place their ships either on their own power cards or by placing them directly under one of the races present on one of the two encounter cards.

When the encounter is over, all ships involved must return to their owners’ colonies.

Planet Card: Each planet has five areas on it where two or more ships can meet and carry out an encounter. All planets have one of each of these four kinds of areas: home base, home colony, warp point and foreign colony. They are colored differently to make it easier to identify their purpose

Warp points are the warp gates that allow ships to move from one planet to another. Each player has three of these on his or her power card at the start of the game, but more can be added throughout play by spending power cards. There are three types of warp points; one colored like the home bases, another like the foreign colonies and a third that is half blue, half orange.

These two colors are always found together on planets near each other in space. When ships move through these gateways they can enter any other gateway on that planet that matches its colors.

If your opponent has a colony on the destination planet, you must carry out an encounter to move from one warp point to another.

Home Base: Each player begins with three home bases in his or her color system. You can have more than one each of these in play at a time if your power card shows more than one symbol

Foreign Colony: The foreign colonies are the only places in space where ships can land to start a colony. You cannot have more than one foreign colony area on any planet, but you can have four home bases and two warp points.

You do not move your ships through your opponent’s home base or foreign colony areas-they are off limits to everyone except for the offensive player on his or her turn. Once you have met the requirements to form a colony, your ships must return to one of these areas

Colony Card: When you start a new colony, place the cards from your hand face down and put them under the race with which you want to ally. You may not look at them again until the colony is finished, and you cannot add or remove cards from the colony until it is done.

When your race forms a colony, all ships that are in that race’s home base or foreign colonies return to the new colony instead. This counts as one of their moves for the turn and does not affect their position on planets and other places where they land.

Multi-Colony System: You can extend your own empire by forming more than one colony in a single system. To do this, you must have at least four home bases under different powers.

If you have four home bases, for example, you can join them all up to form a single colony. You decide where the new system’s warp points are placed-one may be in your home base or foreign colony area, one may be in your opponent’s home base or foreign colony area and the other two must be somewhere else in the new system.

The only way to land your ships on this planet is by entering through one of these warp points, so you must do so before you can start a colony there. If you play your cards right, you may even triumph. 

Go on a science fiction adventure and buy Cosmic Encounter today.