Zombie power and flare

By Ali9, in Cosmic Encounter

Posted at

Hi there, I've just finished my first game of Cosmic Encounter yesterday night and I must say it was as I had expected : fantastic, great, eye opening and crazy !!

Since I had the Zombie, my partners were not happy with me not losing any ships tot the warp. This didn't help me winning, in fact they more or less boycotted me and I lagged behind. Also we started argueing a little about my power not to go to the warp and just keep my ships where I wanted them. Searching the internet I finally found that :

"If as the defense Zombie looses the ships are removed from that planet and are then reestablished on another existing colony (home or other)."

My other problem concerns the Zombie's flare : it states that my allies can take one ship from the warp in addition to any ships he or she is allying with. My conclusion was that he/she can also ally with only that one ship from the warp. Now I am wondering if this isn't wrong since an ally by definition adds 1 to 4 ships in the encounter, adding 0 ships is in fact not allying at all. Therefore, to be able to use the ship from the warp, he/she must first add at least one other ship from a colony next to the Zombie's ships.

Can anyone confirm these statements ?

Thanks a lot !

Posted at

ali said:

Since I had the Zombie, my partners were not happy with me not losing any ships tot the warp. This didn't help me winning, in fact they more or less boycotted me and I lagged behind. Also we started argueing a little about my power not to go to the warp and just keep my ships where I wanted them. Searching the internet I finally found that :

"If as the defense Zombie looses the ships are removed from that planet and are then reestablished on another existing colony (home or other)."

Correct. If you lose, you have to vacate the planet. Also remember that you cannot claim Compensation (from playing Negotiate) because your ships do not go to the Warp.

ali said:

My other problem concerns the Zombie's flare : it states that my allies can take one ship from the warp in addition to any ships he or she is allying with. My conclusion was that he/she can also ally with only that one ship from the warp. Now I am wondering if this isn't wrong since an ally by definition adds 1 to 4 ships in the encounter, adding 0 ships is in fact not allying at all. Therefore, to be able to use the ship from the warp, he/she must first add at least one other ship from a colony next to the Zombie's ships.

A player *must* contribute at least one ship to a side to be considered to have "accepted" their invitation - where it comes from doesn't matter.

According to the Flare, any player who wishes to ally with you may also bring in one ship from the warp, even if this exceeds their 4-ship limit. If they only want to use this one ship to accept with, that's perfectly fine. You would play this Flare after allies are invited, but before anyone accepts.

Posted at

Thanks for the clarifications !

I hope I will be playing again very soon, it's aching all over :)

Posted at

Big Head Zach said:

A player *must* contribute at least one ship to a side to be considered to have "accepted" their invitation - where it comes from doesn't matter.

I should add that this only matters when you first accept your invitation - if a later effect causes your ships to leave the encounter (Force Field, or one of several Wild Flares), you are still considered to be allied with that player even though you are not contributing to nor benefitting from that alliance anymore.

Posted at

Thanks Big Head Zach for the extra information !