Sounds like playing against him's a tricky proposition unless you have an UnZap ready. Of course +4 is good all over, just not the world-changing effect most aliens have.

Edges light quickly. Only zap the Human in an open area, away from flammable materials. Once lit, do not approach.

I knew the Human was going to be weird when I noticed that upsets take place after Human is zapped (Loser card). I didn't expect that it'd turn out to be one of the weirdest powers ever. Since it's mandatory, it is literally unzappable - it always has an effect, zapped or not.

(Here being the rules debate, before we even have the things in our grubby little hands...)

I don't read the Human as un-zapable. His power only works in the Reveal stage, so I would think that if you zap him before then, his power doesn't work at all.

(pauses to re-read)

The beginning of the description "After encounter cards are revealed..." does seem to bear me out, if you read it as applying to the whole power: "After encounter cards are revealed... If this power is zapped...."

Not too sure about being zappable in other stages. That would then allow aliens to be zapped in any stage and then have that Zap be applicable at the specific phases that matter. Human's power only goes off during the Reveal phase, and has no Zappable application elsewhere.

The point of the Human (and Jack feel free to apply your meat & cheese-fueled wisdom here), is that a constant +4 is rather meh compared to the ability to steal cards, save cards, choose opponents, multiply instead of add, defend with 16 / attack for 4 with a single ship, save ships from the Warp, etc... A +4 can be easily countered just by having better cards, applying reinforcements, or making the +4 simply a moot point because the card now shows something different.

As with any Cosmic game (i.e. inherently un-balanced), the way to keep Human at bay is holding onto your UnZaps.

Cosmic zaps can only be played in response to the 'use' of a power, so yes, the intent is that the Human is unzappable, or rather, weird stuff happens if and when he gets 'zapped', instead of the normal cancellation of power. And yes, if you zap the Human when he's facing the Loser who has declared an upset, the Human automatically loses the encounter. "Awww, he's so CUUUTTTEE! ...Aie, it's got my leg!"

In any event, don't laugh off the +4. He gets that even if he only sent one ship. I've been in games where the Human's "+5 packet of awful" has been arrayed against me, and even without a zap, sometimes you're just like, "Gah, get the nasty humanses offa me!" Oh, and as a final tease, his flare is kinda oddball, just like him, but I'll leave that for someone else to spoil.

For bonus fun, when you play a zap on the Human, sing "Flash! AaaaaAaaah! He'll save every one of us!"

It's worth noting though, that Human probably isn't the weirdest new alien in the set. He's up there, don't get me wrong.

Is anyone else having trouble reading the text on the card? It appears so small on my screen that I can't make out the letters...

Hmm. I'll talk to the guys and get them to either make the image bigger or do the 'click to zoom' thing. Hazards of learning a new website structure.

the human looks great! i was thinking of flash gordon too when i saw the picture. everything i have seen of the new game looks very good and i can't wait to get my hands on it.

I think thematically, the Humans are straight-forward military one-trick pony (a kind of Starship Troopers-esque throw a ton of military forces at the problem and see how that does). But, when the chips are down, and the evil aliens are gonna overwhelm the Humans, you have a Will Smith-esque upload the virus ability with the Cosmic Zap backfire secret weapon thingamajig. At least that's how I characterize it. The rumor mill suggests that Human started off with just a +2, which, if that was the case, I agree that bumping it up to +4 makes Human a more enjoyable "alien" to be in control of. You hate to have an alien that is only good in one extreme situation (yeah, let me hold on to this Cosmic Zap for the whole game until I am in a positiion where I absolutely need to win and hope that no one has an Unzap). Certainly you can still do that, but being able to lay a +4 smackdown every challenge (and risking only 1 ship most the time as Kevin said) is pret-ty keen.

I really, really like this alien. It's pure genius.

KevinW said:

yah it's odd, i right clicked and used view image to read it.

KevinW said:

this new cosmic has me squealing like a school girl with anticipation

Am I the only one who reads the whole Cosmic Zap = unbeatable as a reference to Fantastic Four/Comic books (especially with the flavor text stating that, once exposed to cosmic power, they become unstoppable.) If that's legit, then let me just say, awesome injoke on that one.

Just figured I'd see someone react to that, or I'm seeing something not there.

crockejm said:

The only question that remains, though, is whether Mr. Fantastic and his family would lose to an interstellar Puss In Boots (as the Loser is capable of upsetting the Human's win).

For reference.

KevinW said:

D'oh! It's been a long while since I played with other CE players. Mostly, I've taught the game to people every time I've played it lately, and the Mayfair icons system confuses so many people (especially since there are some missing icons on cards/powers), that I just gave up on the exact timing of things like zaps. The new layout of the powers, with the turn progression printed right at the bottom is going to be a godsend. Thank you for coming up with it! Now explaining the turn progression is going to be a snap!

KevinW said:

You know, just when I think this new edition couldn't get any better, what happens to send it over the top?

Kevin Wilson sings Queen!

Incidentally, is the preview page from the old site (the page that included the Clone, Mirror and Dictator cards) going to be reproduced on the new site?

Huh. I admit, I'm kind of sad. The Human preview has been up for a week or two now and not one person noticed the short description of its power...

KevinW said:

I noticed it, of course. It made me nostalgic for my old avatar.

KevinW said:

I noticed it too!

All things about Human are cool.

KevinW said:

The Human's wild flare is even better than its short power description! Nice touch.

what does the flare say?

Add 42 to your total.
Then you have to give the card to the Human or discard it, I think.