Hello, I'm new to Cosmic Encounter... I've only played three games and those only with two other people who are just as new to the game as me...

Anyways, to the point... I was wondering what the genisis planet counted as... Reading the rules carefully, I came to the half-hearted conclusion that it counts as a 6th planet in that player's home system and didn't count as a colony for them... The only benefit for the player who researched it would be a lesser chance of loosing their alien power... The reason I came to this conclusion is because the card text says to put it in that players home system...

An alternitive way of looking at it is as a planet that that player defends as their own but which is still counted as a colony... It would not count towards their alien power in this case...

Thanks for the help in advance...

Given its extremely low cost (4 ships as opposed to the 9 needed for say, Cold Sleep Ship) I've so far treated it in the games ive played as an additional home colony to prevent the loss of an alien power. Indeed, as this it can be a very useful tech to pick and sit on for a while if you're playing with a powerful alien ability that might cause the other players to target you from the outset (thus when they make you lose your power you can choose to reactivate it at the start of anyone's turn as an unwelcome surprise to them).

The Genesis planet is precisely that... another home planet. Keep your alien power safer. Bring Spock back to life.

The Warp said:

Lousy... Macron... B*****d! You! Killed! My! Son!

The Warp said:

The first line of the Losing Alien Powers header muddies the waters though:

"When three or more of a player's home colonies are eliminated, the player loses his or her alien power..."

ie. The deciding factor is colonies lost, not colonies remaining.

CitizenK2 said:

I think we will find that this was probably an oversight... there's always some different set of circumstances in CE that making almost any kind of statement will you contradicting yourself eventually. I was a playtester for the Tech, and it's been our understanding that the Genesis planet's intent is to give you another home planet for the purpose of retaining your alien power. I imagine the offical FAQ will set things straight one way or the other.

Jack

Official FAQ?... Certainly not in the guide book, maybe something new planned for the website... It sure would be nice to have something other then these forums, not that they're not nice...