[Transferred over from the old forum.]

#3: The Dictator

Dictator has been around since the earliest days of Cosmic, giving orders and shoving people around like some sort of pointy-haired boss. This alien is fun because of the power trip of playing it and the sheer scope of change it makes to the game, if nothing else.

Dictator's power passes my simplicity test. When it's not your turn, you take the destiny deck and choose cards from it for the other players instead of having them draw who they encounter randomly. With this power, you pretty much control the comings and goings of just about every other alien in the game (with a couple of notable exceptions).

Clearly, this alien has that eye-popping goodness I look for in a power. Does Clone have a 40 in his hand? Well, you can just wait for the Mirror's turn and send the Mirror to go battle the Clone, setting up the nasty situation I mentioned last time. If nothing else, having this god-like control over the other players is great fun and a wonderful psychological advantage in the game. On the downside, Dictator doesn't have a cool power to use in combat like the Clone or the Mirror. Nonetheless, a skilled player can wrangle this ability into a number of colonies by wheeling and dealing with the other aliens and offering to send them into battles that favor their side.

Naturally, Dictator is a Red alert alien. A player has to be intimately familiar with many of the aliens and situations in the game to really be able to decide what battles are most advantageous to set up. Dictator is also the first preview alien that makes a notable departure from its previous incarnations. In past editions, Dictator simply changed the color of the destiny card/token drawn to any player color of its choice. This did two things I didn't like:

1) It uncoupled the destiny deck from the game too severely. With the new version, I don't need extra rules to explain what happens once Dictator chooses a card from the destiny deck - you just use the rules that are already in place. This also keeps the mechanic more seamless in the event of future mechanics that depend on the destiny deck.

2) It allowed much more serious problems with the Dictator picking on a particular player. If Clone was the green player, the old Dictator could just send everyone at green over and over again, which could lead to some nasty play situations I wanted to avoid. With the new version, the Dictator is limited by the cards that are in the destiny deck. Once a player has no more cards left, he is safe from the Dictator's tender mercies until the rest of the deck is used up. In some ways it's a weaker version of the Old Dictator, but in many ways it's more fun for everyone. Thanks to Patrick Riley for the suggested revision, which can be seen over at the Warp, one of, if not THE best fan website for Cosmic Encounter out there. If you have a couple days to kill, go check it out:
http://www.redamedia.com/warp/index.php3

We've been using this Pat Riley version of the Dictator for years, and we like it much better. It makes more sense, and it also makes for more strategic gameplay, not only for the player using Dictator, but for everyone else as well.

http://redamedia.com/warp/dictator.php

Agreed.

Dictator is an excellent alien and very fun to play, but this adjustment to his power makes for a better play experience (and it also is tied together with the physical components that are included in the game, which is a good thing).

I don't get the Pat Reilly version. Does this mean the Dictator looks at the Destiny Pile on other players turn, picking a color he wants to use? Does he rearrange it? How does it work when it's the Dictator's turn? (I can't remember if he can use his power on his own turn or not).

-shnar

Yep, he looks at it and chooses a card for other players. On his turn, he shuffles and deals at random.

We "encountered" a question when playing Cosmic last night in which Dictator was one of the aliens.

It was Dictator (Purple ships), Pacifist (Red Ships), and Calculator(Green ships), so obviously all three flares were in the deck.

Pacifist wound up with the Dictator Flare. so on Calculators turn, Dictator used his power to set up Calculator to battle Pacifist (Red Destiny Card.)

Pacifist used his flare to cause Calculator to re-draw.

Would Dictator select from the remaining Destiny cards where to send Calculator, thus the flare allowed Pacifist to "dodge" one of the three Red encounters, or would Calculator draw at random?

We played the random option, which now seems incorrect to me.

Also, something to watch for... Pacifist is absolutely LETHAL when he gets a Chosen Flare. (Draw one card as main alien.) He went through an insane amount of negotiates!

Technically, it just says to draw again, and technically, Dictator exercises his power whenever destiny is drawn, so I would say he does get to use his power again. Otherwise, it's pretty much an infinite Dictator Zap. Wild Flares generally are meant to weaken their respective aliens or simulate a weaker version of their power, but none completely override it, that I know of. Random draw would be too much.