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Cosmic Encounter Online Launches
InfinityWpi writes "It took me by surprise, but Cosmic Encounter Online is up and running, and may just be the best use of Flash I've ever seen. Okay, so it's the 'new' 4-play, 4-planets version... but there's something cool about the promise of alien powers that you could only pull off with a computer. The greatest board game ever continues to live on..." Here's a brief review of the non-online Cosmic Encounter for those who haven't played it and want to know a little more.
The expansions set are what MADE it the greatest board game ever. Well, not all of them, but you don't like flares? Come on now - the Eon flares were great, not those neutered versions in the Mayfair set you could only use once. The extent of variety is why so many of the ideas were stolen and later put into Magic the card game. (If you want a real history lesson, go find a copy of Kings and Things by Tom Wham and see where the rest of Magic was stolen from).
I also heavily disagree with the assumption that flares nuked strategy. In a good table, an overpowering flare card would be out of the game pretty fast. The nice thing about CE is that there were TONS of counters to various actions/powers/cards. In our games, to get that last base you often had to have 2, 3, or even 4 counters ready (which you had been collecting for a few turns). You got zapped? Well here's an unzap. Etc. Didn't have your last turn strategy mapped out? You lost.
It is really seldom you see a game that so much strategy is needed in a good table to win, and how you need to set it up from the first turn (and sometimes before, by picking your powers if that's how you play). It's a cliche to compare games to chess or go, but CE is one of those games that the comparison is apt.
Granted, some of the expansion sets are weak (to me), like the moons and the whole lucre thing. However, putting more variety in means something for everyone. Lots of my friends loved the moon set (well, at least until they got "moon tune" a few times, and they had a sing a little song about their powers).
The sad part about Mayfair is that they had a SECOND expansion after More Cosmic Encounter ready to go -- everything was ready to print. Too bad it never made it before the big meltdown.
I still have my Eon set with all nine (count em!) expansion sets, and it still has a prominent place in my top game shelf. Too bad they never have a Eon tourney at any of the cons.