After near a hundred or so games of the Fantasy Flight version, no one ever wants to play with Tick-Tock. Any time that Tick-Tock is in a game the other players resent him for "trying to shorten the game" so they all lay off one another until they can all whipe the Tick-Tock's power out. This happens every time making the power completely useless since, unlike other disliked powers like Virus, it has no special abilities to defend itself or to attack others. I was curious how Tick-Tock is used in other peoples games and how well he fares, and also what powers other groups don't like to play with.

We haven't really singled out any powers that no one likes to play with... there are definite favorites to have. We tend to try and win the game more quickly when Tick Tock is in. But we also usually play with 2 powers, so even if you have Tick Tock, you also have another power. I look forward to having enough alt win powers in the game that each player can have one of those as well as a "normal" power.

My sisters really loathe Hate and Shadow, probably because they think that picking on people is the most unfair thing in the world. (The Plague, similarily, is never ever played unless it's by me or against me.)

I tend to dislike Vulch. Ever since the old Eon version i have always found this particular alien a bit useless and boring.

BUT more often than not i tend to win when playing the old wierdo.

So i guess i have an Love-Hate relationship here hehe.

I don't know, I've always found Vulch to be one of the most powerful, since a well placed forcefield when going for ones final planet, or an emotion control when someone else is going for their final can completely turn the tide of the game. But then, I suppose everyone plays differently.

Roachmill said:

Wow, I found Vulch quite a good alien. You colect all the zaps and other scarce artifacts. You can even card zap the card zap

Well,, can agree that vulch is much better in FFG, becouse there is a few more artifachts (and a few more useful ones)

When I play my old set, artifachts doesnt get into play that often plus there are som quite useless ones. I geuss thats why i dont like the Vulch.

BTW, I wrote when i play my old Eon set earlier, but thats not quite true. I dont have an Eon set becouse I'm swedish. I only have a swedish translated version from 1986 called Universums Härksare (Master of the Universe). I guess the swedish translators picked out what they thought were the goodies,but it aint really true to its Cosmic original. Although its still one of my favorite games (of course).

Most people I play with like Tick-Tock, specifically because it shortens the game. We play a lot, and sometimes it drags quite a bit.

In my group the aliens that nobody seems to want are Observer, Hate and Gambler. Observer in fact is yet to make his debut in our cosmic gatherings.

Gambler is made from Pure Evil, and is to be avoided like a hooker who missed her last three check-ups.

It is easily my 50th-favorite alien in the set; I like to hide the flare before any games just to ensure that it is not chosen.

What's wrong with Gambler?

Gambler's one of my favorites. I love any alien that encourages bluffing, and that is the heart of his power. Personally, my least favorite is Hate because "Start of Your Turn" usually means, "Despite having a pretty cool power, you are going to get to use it 0 to 2 times." I am glad for the "Receive 2 flares, choose 1" model in this game because I would never pick Hate unless in a 4-player game, and even then only if the other alien were one I just didn't feel like playing.

I have a feeling that if you're only expecting to have 2 turns, people are inviting on offense much too often. Newbie thing

Big Head Zach said:

Agree. I see a lot of disdain for Hate and wonder why anyone would think they would only be getting 2 turns per game. We have a mix of players, from long-timers to beginners, and all of our games last several rounds because people stay aware of who is getting close to victory and what the cost-benefit ratio is to allying on either offense or defense. Hate is certainly dependent on a decent draw and careful use to ensure that you don't dump a new set of 8 cards into someone's hand, but I think it's an interesting new power.

Our group is fine with Tick-Tock. He's never won, but everyone is interested to play him. I've seen some reluctance to play Observer and Hacker and I'm the only one who has been willing to play Citadel so far, but most people are at least interested in all of them.

I *LOVE* Hacker, because I'm of the opinion that if I steal the right cards from the right opponents, 15 of my ships are used for Compensation-raiding. I only need 5 ships out of the Warp to win

Yea, my group does invite a lot, but when you play with six players like we often do, you sort of have to or risk being ganged up on. Also, I don't know if it's fair to say people are inviting "too much"; it's just another way to play, a way that we enjoy. And it's only a couple of them who tend to invite everyone all the time, not all of us (fortunately).

But even if a game goes on for four or five rounds, that's still not much. And if you do happen to have a group that tends to play for ten or more rounds every game, you still have to consider that his power is used far less in this long game than any other power.

So maybe my example is underestimating the average game length (not really sure about that, as obviously I only know my group's average length), but I still think its power is used too infrequently to be particularly exciting. But hey, it's an okay alien, just far from my favorite.

I really like all of the aliens, even if it's a power i don't like, i'm still gonna have fun playing which is the point, and we can just gang up on him.

The power that always got dumped in our old EON games was The Philanthropist. But I'm starting to gain an appreciation for that power.

Last game we played, we had 2 hidden powers (it's pretty much how we always play). The player revealed the Philanthropist and was giving cards away like crazy. He was losing too, and we were wondering if he knew how to play (was his first game). Turned out his second power was the Masochist, the one where you win if all your tokens are in the warp! Guess he knew how to play more than we thought! We kept him at bay, but he almost won single handedly...

-shnar

Among my group, everyone HATES Hacker. We all started off thinking it would be a great power, and for the first few times it came up, people chose to use it without a second thought, but in its few games that it's been selected, never once has anyone ever actually used it. Now, no one ever bothers picking it. Yesterday I got served the Wild Reincarnator and drew Hacker. I died a little on the inside. My plan was to negotiate with someone and let them onto on of my planets if I could in turn give them the Reincarnator flare and they had to Reincarnate me the instant they got the opportunity. This opportunity never came up either.

The Healer, and the Citadel, usually. Oh, and the Pacifist, but quite less.

I am astounded by these last few posts.

Philanthropist, Hacker, Healer, Citadel, and Pacifist are all good, solid, strong powers, and I am very happy to draw any of them. Do your guys' groups hate them because they are perceived as weak, or because they are perceived as so strong that they wreck the game? Four of those five powers are quite good at saving you from the ubiquitous scourge of being forced to play losing encounter cards ... what's not to like?

Philanthropist is the favorite alien of original Eon designer Peter Olotka, and for good reason: it is quite powerful and typically underestimated.

Yeah, Pacifist is actually stronger than ever in this edition, with 15 negotiates in a relatively small deck he has an awful lot of room to mess with his opponent's expectations. I don't understand the hate for Citadel either, as it can cycle through cards pretty well and has an interesting and flexible power which can come into play quite a bit. I've never been a fan of Healer, and Philanthropist is routinely undervalued... but the others I really can't understand.

In my personal case, it's just because I correctly answered the question of this thread : these are the aliens no one ever wants in our games. Never mentionned any "hate" for them, did I ?

Me likes citadel and pacifist a lot, for instance. It's just that my players don't To answer your question, Bill, they prefer to play aliens that make them laugh because these are aliens more able to create a funny situations game. Nothing to do with strong or weak. My players want to have fun

For me, the Parasite can be a great pain in the cosmos. If the parasite got 1 point from winning, there's no way you can attack without him interfering unless you negotiate or use a force field. In 1 game I played, everyone else had to lose their encounters 5 in a row and defend as a whole against the parasite attack because we didn't want the parasite to win (everyone had 2 points off winning, so allying with the parasites isn't an option at that game).

Generally any power that only works on a successful attack no one in my group will pick. It is more of just the fact there are so many great powers out there that will work on so many different occasions but there are those few that will only work on successful attacks, it feels like they are impossible.

Void is also another one atleast for me, the few times I have gotten it, the Healer always seems to be around so I just sit there with my power that only works on one person out of the other three, and wonder why I choose it. I mean really if I didn't and the Void flare made it in the game still I would have an awesome wild flare to use if I got it.

On the issue of newbies inviting to much, it is easy to fall for especially when your whole game is pretty much new people. I played with some vets awhile ago, and it was alot of fun and I can see how the game "should" be played. However if you play with a bunch of new people, if your opponent invites everyone and you invite no one or only about half or less of the others. Well then you stand a good chance of being out numbered in ships and if you don't know you have the advantage its almost like why bother. I am known for crushing several encounters while not inviting many people and then allowing everyone to come as I lead their ships to their death, so either way good times I guess.