Hello Gaming Community,

I am the new marketing intern here at Fantasy Flight Games and I am working on a Comprehensive FAQ project and I need help from you, the fans. If you have any questions about the game that you feel were not addressed in the most current of the FAQ for Cosmic Encounter, please post them here.

Thank you,

Fantasy Flight Games

These are questions that I have seen elsewhere or heard other players ask:

- Does the Zombie get compensation?

- If you fail to deal with Void, are your ships eradicated?

- Do you actually get compensation for negotiating to Void, since it says "when your ships go to the warp"?

- Does the classic Filch flare have to be played to be used at all?

- What exactly can the Genesis planet be used for? There's confusion about how many planets to maintain your power.

- When should alert levels on aliens be mixed?

- How does Mobius Tubes work if you have no planets?

- Does the Machine Wild Flare mean you draw 8 new cards and keep the rest of your hand, or must you discard the Machine flare after you play it?

- What is a cone?

- Can you trade Techs in a deal?

- Do you have to vacate a colony to exhange them in a deal?

- Can Hate discard a Morph card when using his power? If so, does that mean no one else can discard one, or that whatever they discard will be the same as the Morph?

- Is there a difference between winning an encounter and having a successful encounter? This came up in regard to Barbarian's power.

- Can you Cosmic Zap a flare when the player is using it to use his own power (say as an ally when otherwise he can't use his power as an ally)?

- Some powers have different phases highlighted for use that the Super flare doesn't correspond to. Can you still zap them?

- If you Comis Zap a player that is using his Super Flare, does he discard the flare, or does he have to play the wild?

- What cards can be played when you have a lien on your hand (that is, somone is trying to collect compensation)?

- Can you play reinforcements on your side if you played an attack, but your opponent played a negotiate?

- If someone plays the Reincarnator flare on me, do I still get to use my power if it happens in the same phase as the flare?

- When can you zap Macron? His power is used to bring only 2 ships in the gate, so is it then, or during resulotion?

- What is the different between the Start Turn phase and the Regroup phase?

- Can CE be played with only 2 players? (The short answer is no, but there have been variants created that make it possible. Check http://redamedia.com/warp for more info on that and hundreds of other variants and analysis for CE).

My favorite: "What is a cone?"

Here's a link where Kevin answered "What exactly can the Genesis planet be used for?":

http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=50&efcid=1&efidt=22671&efpag=0#23275

And the Macron question as I understand it is: "When Macron is the Defensive Player, when can you zap him?

I think the Macron question was answered, though not in the way most would expect - that if the Macron is on defense, if they are Zapped at Launch (when the defense's ship count is determined), then they only count as one (and compensation is one per ship).

We've been wondering: Can I play the Reincarnator Wild Flare on myself?

Regaining home base where there are no ships on one of your planets.

When you draw you own color from the destiny pile, and you want to automatically establish a colony on your planet, do you go through all of the challenge phases? Do you go through any of them past "destiny"?

Besides powers/cards that trigger on the Start Turn, Regroup, and Destiny phases, can any cards or powers be played that require a later challenge phase to come about?

A comprehensive FAQ, including errata, would be greatly appreciated. Having one point of reference has to be a good thing.

I asked:

http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=50&efcid=1&efidt=33505

an official confirmation would be appreciated.

Communicating the contents of hands:<BR>

Is it allowable to say what is in your hand? The rules explicitly say you can't show your hand to anyone, but it's vague on the telling. During a deal, for instance, can you say, "I'll give you a Negotiate and an Attack 10" as part of the negotiations?

Can you lie?

Found in this thread on BGG: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/378574

In short: if the Gambler becomes the main player, but has no cards in his/her hand, does the Gambler get to use his/her power to trade hands? The case seems to be that according to the FFG rules, you don't draw a new hand until the Planning phase , and presumably, you only do that because it's time to play your card face down. The Gambler power states that you can trade hands BEFORE playing an encounter card face down.<BR><BR>

In past editions, the rule was that as soon as you became the defense, you discarded non-encounter cards and drew a new hand.

Note: You definitely mean Trader, not Gambler.

I'm interested to know that answer, too. The rules for drawing a new hand were so much clearer in previous editions. This is the one area where the new game seems to be causing a lot of needless confusion.

I would say that he has to draw a hand first like in previous editions.

Adam said:

Oops, thanks for the catch!

Here's another one:

Can Amoeba ooze all 20 tokens into the hyperspace gate, or would he loose his power immediately upon reducing his home colonies to 2? What happens to the tokens that were removed from home colony #3?

This question is with regards to a BGG discussion where you played 2 powers, with the combo of Masochist/Amoeba; it's argued that you could win in one encounter.

RobertDG said:

And I will say, again, that "increase or decrease" does not mean "count out the ships one at a time." The card also says: "... you may add as many ships as you want from any of your colonies."

But I do agree that, as long as a FAQ is coming out, it couldn't hurt to add one Amoeba example.

I agree with Mr. Duke. There are similar actions in the game where people have asked if ships should be counted out one at a time, and I would assume the rules would clearly spell this out if it were the case. As a rule of thumb, I consider all actions "instantaneous" unless there is reason to think otherwise.

Can Zombie use the Wild Kamikaze or similar cards that require sending ships to Warp to use, and if so, are the ships actually sent to Warp?

In a deal, do both players have to give something to the other, or can a successful deal be "one-sided"?

Are the terms of a deal EXPLICITLY RESTRICTED to one or more of the following categories:

• granting a single colony on a planet you already occupy
• giving cards from your hand
• specialized use of your power where indicated (such as Zombie's regeneration)

If a stated aspect of a proposed deal does not fall into one of the above categories, is it an invalid term and cannot be offered?

Perhaps this has already been answered elsewhere, but can the Vacuum, with his super, remove a colony of the Zombie? And if Zombie has 4 foreign colonies with 1 ship each, and vacuum loses 4 ships, can the super remove all 4 of those colonies?

Here's a big ol' list of questions that I though up in the space of an hour. Some of these questions I already know the answer to, but I think they're a good idea to have in a FAQ.

If Wild Sorcerer or Wild Reincarnator is played in a multi-power game, how many powers are affected and who chooses which ones (if not randomly)?

If Healer heals someone, are their ships removed from the Warp or stopped from going to the Warp? (Asked because, if ships are sent to the Warp and then healed, Remora could cling and get ships every time Healer heals.)

Can Healer act before Zombie evades going to the Warp?

Is there an official ruling on Zombie vs. Void other than the standard timing rules?

If ships are sent to the Warp during Reveal, does Warpish update his total accordingly? (My guess is yes.)

Why does Gambler say "Do not use with Sorcerer"?

Can Vacuum use its power on itself, and if so, can it cause an infinite loop?

If you attempt to play a Flare but it gets Card Zapped (or for some other reason it is stopped from being used), does that count against a player's limit of one Flare per encounter?

Can a player use Wild Amoeba to increase his ship count if he has no ships as the defense?

Can Will attack Blue on Red's planet even if Blue has no colony there? (I'd say no, but the text doesn't specifically say.)

Can you research and reveal a Tech at the same time? (So, if the Tech needs 2 ships, could you place the 2nd ship on the Tech and reveal it in the same Regroup phase?)

If Warrior gets zapped, does he still earn experience? (He doesn't need to use his power to earn experience, but once he's zapped, he loses his power for the rest of the turn.)

If you get Force Fielded, are you then affected by Grudge?

If you must lose ships that aren't in the current encounter (such as Grudge), what happens if you have no ships outside the encounter?

If you have no ships outside the encounter, can you still invoke effects that require sacrificing a ship from outside the encounter (such as Wild Void) by sacrificing one that's in it?

Can Fido pick from any encounter cards discarded in the encounter (such as those lost by the Plague), or must he pick from the ones that were actually played?

Does Human's zap-him-to-win beat Pacifist's play-an-N-to-win? (I would rule yes.)

If the Omega Missile destroys a planet, do you still need three home colonies to retain your power?

If Warrior draws his own colour and reclaims an empty home planet, does he collect experience?

Does Hate have to be zapped before he chooses which card to discard?

If Super Amoeba oozes all of his ships out of an encounter as an ally, is he considered to have allied in the first place (for effects such as Grudge and Wild Mutant)?

Why must Spiff's total be "10 or more less", instead of using his power when he "loses by 10 or more"?

If Pacifist must play an N when Loser calls upset, does he get compensation? (I would say yes.)

If a power such as Calculator, Mirror, or Tripler affects a card, does an M copy the card's value before or after the modification? If the power is used in Reveal and gets zapped, does the M take on the card's original value?

If an encounter card is altered by something other than a power (such as Wild Pacifist), does an M copy the alteration?

Does the defense choose which ships die to Gluon Mines? Can allies be removed from an encounter completely because of them, and are they considered to have allied in the first place? (As Super Amoeba above.)

If Sorcerer switches cards, which card does Clone or Filch take?

Can Filch take Gambler's unrevealed card, and if so, can he notify the table whether the truth was told?

If a Flare that can be played at any time changes hands, can it be used a second time in the encounter by the new owner?

If Vulch gets zapped, does he get the Zap that zapped him? (I would say no, since he loses his power for the rest of the encounter.)

Does an M count as an attack card if it duplicated an attack card? (For the purposes of Cudgel, for example.)

Someone already explained this for me awhile back, but it would be good to have in the FAQ:
How does Gambler interact with Oracle since one forces reveal and one refuses to reveal?

How is the situation between Mirror and the Morph card resolved. Does the Morph have the numerical value of the card, or does it have the mirrored value?

If Anti-Matter's flare is used to prevent another flare being played, is that flare kept in hand? Also, does it count against that player's limit of one flare per encounter?

Here's a question for you- which came up in last night's game:

What order to cards go into the discard pile? Normally this doesn't matter, but the Fido flare was in the game, and it calls on forcing a player to draw the top card of the discard pile... several times the two encounter cards hitting the pile were very different (the 40 and a Negotiate went in one time).

I'd be WAY more interested in taking this FAQ project a step further...

Put all the stuff regarding game rules into a .pdf file so that we can print it and have it handy during game sessions. This should be like an Official Advanced Rules. This manual could then be updated frequently when game rules issues are raised and solved. Games like Magic The Gathering did something like that and it's great.

Having this advanced manual and making it official would be great for two reasons:

First, it would help us, that love the game, have a deeper understanding of the rules.

Second, it would minimize the number of house rules for a more satisfying game play. It would help in three areas:

- It can be messy sometimes playing with people with different house rules...

- Some (new) players think the use of unwritten/unofficial house rules as a way of "making it work you" on the spot if they're not all mentioned prior to game start.

- People that criticize the game for having vague rules and needing too many house rules to solve situations.

(I re-posted because I couldn't edit my last post...)

I'd like to suggest the creation of an official advanced rules for Cosmic Encounter. The basic manual can be a little vague and simplistic sometimes. As you can see in the forum and also throughout the history of this game, there are a lot of situations that are open for personal interpretation because of the almost endless possible situations. You can start with all the current information in the forum with regards to the rules into a .pdf file so that we can download, print, and have it handy during game sessions. This rules manual could then be updated frequently when new issues are raised and solved. Magic The Gathering card game has something like this and it works great.

Having this advanced manual and making it official would be great for two reasons:

First, it would help us, that love and play the game, have a deeper understanding of the rules to avoid stops during game play where we have to discuss and decide how to handle a certain scenario.

Second, it would minimize the number of house rules we need to make when we don't know how to handle a situation. There's nothing wrong with house rules and they've been part of the game forever but when you have too many I see three problems:

- It can be messy sometimes when playing with people from a different group that use different house rules...

- Some (new) players think of the use of unwritten/unofficial house rules as a way of "making it work you" on the spot if the house rules are not mentioned prior to game start.

- People criticize Cosmic Encounter for having vague rules and needing too many house rules to solve situations. The majority of people I can't convince to play this game complain about this.

Please give some thought to this suggestion...