Expansion 2 (thinking ahead)

By The Warp, in Cosmic Encounter

With the Reward deck coming in Expansion 1 (Cosmic Incursion), let's hope that the Hazards materialize in the next expansion.

20 more aliens sounds likely. There will no doubt still be a lot of previously published aliens to choose from (Eon and Mayfair), and certainly no shortage of new alien possibilities.

7th color? The Destiny deck does have several colors not in the game, though they are probably a little too close to the purple color. I'm thinking Brown, Gray, or even Black as a possible new color. Maybe some marble-multicolored ships?

If we go by the same colors used in Twilight Imperium (red, blue, green, yellow, purple, orange), and its expansion (grey, black), then grey and black are the way to go.

While I harbor no ill will over anyone who is red-green colorblind, there may be an additional cost using other colors that FFG may not find it viable to pay for, and so we may not get more CB-distinctive colors.

Gee. I was hoping we'd get rules for hazards in this expansion set. I was afraid we might not get an expansion, and still afraid we won't get a second. Hazards seem like a great idea, and a way to add variety to the destiny deck without adding more cards. I'd rather get hazard rules than new aliens, personally. More aliens adds variety between games, but hazards will add variety within games.

The other thing I really want are more special destiny cards - especially considering adding players will dilute the deck (though hazards will help keep it fresh). I want a special order to attack the player with the most home colonies, and a wild card to attack any player in a foreign colony anywhere (if none exist, redraw). A man can dream!

Great job FFG - loving your Cosmic Encounter!

I think 20 aliens and 1, maybe 2, other mechanics in an expansion is about right. I used to think I would like a big box expansion, but with several smaller ones there is a better chance to use and learn to enjoy the new components without getting overwhelmed.

And for the record, my custom expansion added Orange, Black, White, Silver ... and for good measure: Hot Pink (or Magenta if one of my boys chooses it ... but they usually choose it for their mother)

20 million aliens. And maybe hazards.

The Warp said:

With the Reward deck coming in Expansion 1 (Cosmic Incursion), let's hope that the Hazards materialize in the next expansion.

It's only just occurring to me, being a diceless game Hazards will almost surely need their own deck. Sadly this makes them less likely for Cosmic Incursion, which as you note has reward deck already.

It's pretty hard to say what'll be in the second expansion till we see what's in the first! A seventh player colour is a good bet, as we know the sixth is in CI. More aliens is a good bet too - there'll probably be some in every expansion. Other than that, most things I could guess may just as well show up in CI itself. We could get Moons, Lucre, another Morph card, cool new artifacts, a bigger number, new special destiny (as I noted above) or a whole new card type (for the main deck).

I'm still pretty excited about Cosmic Incursion myself, and there are a lot of unkowns regarding it's contents. Personally i won't stop whinning till we get hazards and a destiny card to attack a foreign colony in a foreign system!

I think the Hazard deck will be a tremendous addition to CE. The old version we use is a lot of fun, and adds a great deal of flavor to the game. I imagine the FFG version will take it to the next level. It's already apparent that the frequency of the Hazards is already a change, and with those cards coming up less often than every second encounter per turn, they can afford to have very interesting effects. As it is, the special encounter destiny cards are only about 1 in 4 (for a 5 player game), so the Hazards will add a nice extra bit of cosmicness to the game.