I have TI3 and Starcraft. Do you think I should by Cosmic Encounters?

Follow your heart.

Cosmic Encounters is not a strategic game like Star Craft, its more tactical. CE is also more of a social/bluffing/BS-ing game-- think poker ("No really, I have the 40 attack card in my hand so you can alley with her but you are going to lose"). I think it is great fun, high replay value, quick game time (30-45 min) and perfect for all type of people young and old.

As others have said, TI3 and Starcraft are totally different games than Cosmic. Other than the "outer space" theme there really isn't much overlap between the two.

TI3 and Starcraft are about invading and conqering territory, maintaining an economy, and outmaneuvering your opponents. They take 3-4+ hours to play with an experienced group.

Cosmic is about negotiation, allies, hand management, and leveraging your particular advangate in the face of opponents who each break the rules of the game in a different way. It takes 45-90 Min to play with an experienced group.

If you want another massive conquest game, Cosmic is not for you. If you want something that plays much differently and in a relatively short time, then by all means you should buy Cosmic.

*cough* Encounter *cough* ...

singular, no "S" at the end.

I now played all 3 of them, and yes they are totally different games. I think CE is more like a small "Party Game" it's real fun and non-geeks and non-strategists can enjoy this game more easily than TI3 or SC. Also time for playing and setup is much shorter. But if you are a gamer you can play all three of them and have different experiences.

Just to clarifiy, it's not really a party game like Charades, Cranium, or whatever... more like a party-esque game, maybe? Newcomers can enjoy it with some effort, but regular gamers will find a strong game system with limitless variations due to the many alien powers and different combination of aliens each game. You might even have one player at the table playing it like a strategy game while others at the same table are looking at it completely differently, and the social nature of the game allows both approaches to mesh perfectly.

I unfortunately haven't played Twilight Imperium or Star Craft. I would love to but don't I would ever gather enough interested players with that much time to complete a game. But I'm sure both are much, much more complicated as far as rules go. Cosmic will feel like a lighter experience but maybe not totally different. Most of the rules are regular concepts in the board game world.

Hello Adam,

you really should give ti3 and sc a try. Yes there are a lot of options, but after playing one round, a gamer easily manages the game.

Knowing what everey CE Alien can do is a lot more work to memorize. If You can find a somebody who can teach you the game and is organized you can finish the games relative quickly. Whe managed to play ti3 with 6 Players (2 were non-gamers, and noobs to ti3) in less then 3 hours, including setup and organized packing after finishing the game.

Vincent_V said:

Wow ... really?

I'm going to have to disagree, big-time. Having played both, I don't see how the learning curves can even be compared. TI3's is nearly vertical ; CE's is certainly there, but is like a gentle hill by comparison.

I certainly had fun the two times I played TI3, but both games literally took an entire day to finish. And that was with veteran players; I was the only rookie.

In general, comparisons between CE and TI3 are pretty useless. Other than a "space" setting, they are completely different beasts.

I compared them in matters of time needed to setup and play. TI 3 and SC need more time, that's right. But most are afraid of time and complexity of these games. But we never needed more than 5 hrs to finish TI3 (never had more than 6 players), and that was with everybody hurting the leading player.

I just wanted to say, that a gamer should try these games, and shouldn't be afraid of anything, even if it comes in an epic box!

I would agree with that; TI3 is a great game, and is the clear leader in its field. If its epic space battles you're looking for, it's not going to get much better.