While we wait for the next CC update, I thought I'd share the Lucre system that my group uses that we like. I've read all the posts on the subject awhile back over at BGG and came up with this idea.

Everyone starts with one lucre. You may add or subtract the total lucre you have to your total as a main player. You gain one lucre if you win an encounter as a main player and you have one or more allies on your side. Deals don't count. You have to win.

You may only spend your lucre as a main player during the regroup phase to purchase extra ships at a cost of one lucre each or you may purchase cards from the deck (not the rewards deck) during the planning phase before cards are played face down at a cost of one lucre each. This keeps the lucre rules basic with no chart to refer to (although I do love the idea of special items you can buy from cards in the rewards deck).

One other extra rule is "mining the rubble". Anytime you destroy a planet or remove it from the game you may mine the leftover rubble and take two lucre from the bank. This makes the Locust more powerful as our group thought the Locust was way too weak. So now it actually pays to try to use the locust by landing on a planet alone.

So, as with the old EON version, do you save your lucre to add to your sides total or take a chance and buy a card or two?

Keep in mind, you do not get any lucre at the start of your turns. You only get a lucre if you win with an ally. Just wondering what your expert opinions are on this system and (for those who are still using lucre sometimes) what system are you using that your group enjoys.

Sounds neat, but there is only one alien who benefits from the last rule. Never in Cosmic is there a rule made just for one alien they'd just put the text on that alien's card.

Adam said:

Yes, I know this is kind of a patch, but we wanted someone to actually select the Locust sometimes. But there is also the Locust wild flare, the Guerrilla wild, and the Omega Missile tech.

We've been using our own Lucre variant as well, also trying to keep it fairly simple ....

We printed out a few "Asteroids", one for each player that they keep in front of them or next to their alien card. At the beginning of the game each player receives X Lucre (X = number of players in game), and can also choose to invest in their own mining operation. They do this by choosing any number of ships that they want and put them on their asteroid ... for each ship they invest, they will gain 1 Lucre, +1 bonus every 3 ships. During each Regoup Phase, starting with the offense, each player has the option to make any number of purchases they can afford, purchases are optional. Once each player has had an opportunity to purchase something, the offense continues on with their encounter.

After play goes around the table 1 time, then, before the start of the 1st player's turn, everyone receives their Lucre from the mining operation and then each player has the option to re-arrange their asteroid ships. You can add or remove ships, however, once the 1st player's turn starts, the ships have to remain on the asteroid until it comes back around the table to the 1st player's turn again if you want to receive Lucre from them. You can remove them during any Regroup Phase when it's your turn to purchase and send them to a colony, but you don't receive any income for them if you do.

I don't know if we've hit the sweet spot numbers-wise, that might use a little tweaking after some more playtesting, and I'd also be interested in another thing or 2 to purchase as long as it doesn't complicate things ... as it stands right now, we don't need a chart and this gives each player a bit of strategy that they can use, particularly in their hand and ship management. Below are the 4 things (at the moment) that we allow a player to purchase. The reason we do it like we do is ... we found that earlier players have a slight advantage over later players if they receive their Lucre at the start of their own turns and/or can only spend it on their own turn. This way, since there is not a ton of Lucre going around we've found that, although the option to purchase is there on each player's regroup, mostly people wait until certain times to do so. As always ... interested in feedback.

1 Lucre for each additional ship raised from the warp

2 Lucre for each card from the deck (not rewards deck)

3 Lucre for each card they would like to discard

(Can also be used to invest in Technology in the same way a ship is ... max. 1 Lucre OR 1 ship during each Regroup; Technology can be completed with any combination of Lucre and/or ships)