Different colours of aliens

By Zozimusque Romanus, in Cosmic Encounter

Hi,

Just bought this and am looking forward to playing soon….I'm a little unclear about the method for choosing aliens, though. I understand that they're all organised according to how much their powers affect the game, but is it possible to play with a mix of red, green, and yellow aliens? Or should all aliens be chosen from the same colour of card?

Thanks!

My group usually mixes all the aliens together to pick the races. I never separated the races by easy medium and hard levels.

Thanks! And it never seemed like one player was overpowered or anything?

I never found any races that caused the game to be very lopsided. The alien races require different strategies to use them. Certain alien powers will work better for some players depending on how they play the game. Some races are harder to use than others, and in certain peoples hands some races can make the game a bit lopsided. But overall I think the color scheme was put in place to separate the easy to use aliens to the aliens that require a little more strategy to use and defend against.

The colors of the aliens are not how strong they are but the experience level needed to play the alien. From the FAQ:

Q: When should alert levels on aliens be mixed?
A: It is recommended that players start with green aliens only with no flares when first playing, then add flares. Play a couple of games, then introduce yellows to the green alert. Play a few more games with those, then add the red level aliens. The alert level is not how powerful they are, but how experienced your group should be to include them in the game.

Yes, colors indicate complexity, not power. However, I will say that some aliens, or rather, the combinations of aliens can result in a lopsided game, but that's okay! Realizing that a player, or players have an advantage, is part of the skill required to play the game.

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