In my games, (usually 4-5 player) we always discarded the techs that were 5 or higher. the games never (in our case) lasted that long for every one to get anything great. So we were setting up and everybody said not to bother with tech, despite that it's cool, it's just to hard to get. So i thought during our game (which i lost ) i thought of this variant:

Setting up- this step is the same as usual, nithing new, get 2 techs, keep 1.

Reaserching- this is the new part. Now,what you do is research with up to 3 ships, BUT any techs that can be completed in one turn must wait till their next turn to use it. Otherwise, it is normal.

Results/testing- Iv'e done about 6 games with this, and it was balanced and fun!!! aliens were the same, to keep a constant, they were zombie, shadow, masochist, and mirror. The rule for instant techs was so you can's spam tech cards every turn, i did 2 games with it, and it was surprisingly powereful. getting the prometheus (my personal fav ) is now only 3 turns to get, and it was not overly powerful with any number of players, as i did 3 and 5 player games as well. this makes it easier to get the really good techs, not waiting 9 turns for the coldsleep ship and only waiting 3 turns. This is also risky, and your using up ships MUCH faster than you normally would, which was also surprisingly efficient, as 3 or 6 ships meant victory or defeat. This really makes the tech fun, usuable, and now people actually want to use them! Please reply for your thoughts!

This is at boardgamegeek by angra_mainyu, i am not copying him, it's my boardgamegeek account

You are supposed to be able to research tech at the start of each players regroup phase... This means you can add one or two research ships per player's turn... This way, you should have Prometheus completed before your second turn... Possibly before your first!...

Truth. Someone in our game had Coldsleep Ship (9) and was |..| this close to using it to score a victory (or facilitate one on his turn). High-requirement tech cards aren't so much of a hindrance in the time they take to research as they are a severe drain to your ability to effectively gain colonies and defend against enemies (or at least, pull a decent amount of Compensation/Rewards when defending).

I've had no problem researching the highest tech with the standard rules. Your variant might be fun for some additional chaos, though. Personally, the only rule I've considered altering with Tech is when you draw a new one. In my experience (about 12 games so far, so really not much), sacrificing a second encounter is just too rarely worthwhile. I'll grant that it occasionally is, but not often. Also, if you have to wait until your turn and then hope you get the second encounter, that is often too long a wait, at least for my group which tends to play 5 - 6 players (using makeshift tokens and planets for 6th player) because the game will be over before you can research the second one. I like to play you get new Tech automatically after using one but can still get additional Tech via the "No second encounter" method. It's a small change, but it goes a long way if you like the added chaos of Tech being used more in the same game.

Adam said:

Testify!

Ah, but sacrificing a second encounter is no different from using an encounter to attack a moon, something I find happens quite a lot in games with moons (and a lot of the time you have no idea what the moon effect is going to be, if any, and if it will be positive). Tech gives you some more flexibility- and I bet as more players are added to the game, Tech will prove to be more useful and utilized. It will be easier to stop single players from gaining solo wins with more players able to defend against him. More players usually means longer games, and in a longer game, more Tech's could prove to be a stronger strategic move. Time will tell.

I only have one Moons game under my belt, so I can't compare the two, but I'm not sure I see how having more players would make it more valuable; in fact, the more players there are, the fewer turns you will get. As turns become more and more precious, I think I would become less and less willing to give up half of that turn.

But as I've said, I'm still only 12-15 games in, and not all of those included Tech, so time will certainly tell. But I like Tech, and getting more Tech faster in the game only sounds like more fun for me!

I didn't think I'd like Tech all that much at first, but having played with it I really do like it. It's a nice addition that doesn't take over the game, or overshadow the alien powers. Occaisionally sacrificing a 2nd encounter could be a strategic decision, although it's an easy one if you have no more encounter cards left in your hand. And with more players, researching a Tech is easier since it can be done on each Regroup.

My only complaint is that there are too few of them and so it's easier to determine, within proximity, what Tech an opponent is researching, especially if he continues adding ships to it. The simple fix is to add more cards in an upcoming expansion.

Amidst the haze of having consumed both a Brawndo AND a Rockstar Juiced within the same 12-hour period in order to fulfill my promise to play Cosmic Encounter at any time during the late evening hours @ Atlanta Game Fest, I still haven't come up with a lucid idea of a "Use Only In a Game with Tech" alien power. It's out there somewhere in the collective unconscious, but I prefer to dwell in my own private unconscious where I can have the hottie swimsuit models all to myself, thank you.

When i started to play with tech, some friends read the rules for it while i set up. this makes alot more sense. goodbye, as i gotta beat some friends of mine

oatesatm said:

You have to be eligible for a 2nd encounter to do this. If you have no more encounter cards, you aren't eligible for a 2nd encounter. Nice try though.

Adam said:

I was being technical according to the rules. On page 13, under 'Drawing New Cards', the 2nd paragraph states that "If the offense runs out of encounter cards later during his or her turn and needs to play one , the offense's turn ends immediately." (Bold and Italics mine)

Which, in the context I was talking about, means during the Planning Phase of the 2nd encounter (assuming you won your 1st encounter). I could be wrong, I'm just reading it that you can start a second encounter -- but it would end immediately when you couldn't play a card in the Planning Phase, and everybody goes home off the gate. What I meant in my comment is that playing with Technology allows you to still take advantage of a 2nd encounter without being able to actually have one.

Although, getting back to the original post, I like the idea in terms of adding a little more chaos into the game, I'd play it occaisionally, but probably not very often because I like that Technology is a heavy investment of time and ships. 1, or maybe 2, per player (depending on cost) is enough for me to add flavor to the game.

So far I am up to 8 homebrewed Tech aliens (though one of them is also a Lucre alien). I also doubled the number of Tech's in my homebrew set so there is even more variety... I'm really digging this variant, and it's even easier to implement than the old Mayfair prototype. Long live Tech!

Ah, that's reading it very technically though because theoretically you'd be going through a bunch of phases for no reason if you did take that second encounter. I see the possible advantage of doing so (the least being another freed ship from warp, the most being the possibility of drawing new hands by your power if applicable), just not how I read it or play it.

Also, Mayfair created Tech??

Adam said:

Yes, but there are several flares and powers which might let you get a card before then, so there is no reason to shortchange players who are holding those particular cards.

mattherobot said:

Yea, I mentioned that, as indicated by the bold text you quoted... My point was that in more cases than not, you will have to go through launch and alliance phases for nothing, reducing the entire encounter to a charade and wasting time. It's for that reason that if you have no way of finishing the encounter, our group just plays that you don't have one. Technically, it's wrong, but it makes more sense to me. It's just how I play -- not saying that it's the right way to play.

Adam said:

We don't always play with Tech, so we generally do the same thing, we don't bother with the steps of going through an encounter if we don't have the cards to do so. We'll take a ship, play a card if possible (or desired) and move on. With Technology, though, it makes those 2nd encounters more valuable, so if you can't finish an encounter because you don't have the cards, might as well make use of the option to grab a Tech (assuming you don't want/need a ship).

The main use of moons in games I have played was to let players make an attack somewhere less defended in hopes of drawing an easier target for their second attack.

Main use of moons in the games I play in is that they are awesome.

But then, our house rules were that every player draws 5 moons and then places them in whoever's system they want. Or in the warp. We had a whole section of house rules for warp moons. We might have gone a bit overboard with the moons thing.

But seriously, the main use for them was yeah, when the Destiny of the first encounter was someone you didn't want to mess with, you hit a moon instead, called it a successful encounter, got another ship/token back, and tried again. As for drawing techs, I would mostly have done so if my Encounter cards were crappy but I didn't want to spend them yet. A strict reading of the rulebook does support the suggestion that you can take a second encounter but that it terminates at the Planning phase, but that honestly hadn't occurred to me in my playing of FFG Cosmic- I had automatically gone with the old rules that you needed to have had a successful encounter and still had at least one encounter card. Interesting.

I personaly like tech the way it is, one each regroup phase gives the higher techs a timing that introduces them at a real good time in the game. thats cosmic for ya though each group plays in it's own way