noah_chen17•1mo agoProlific Poster

That buddy who told me to ignore the rulebook in Cosmic Encounter cost me the game

My friend Dave convinced me to skip reading the alien power cards before we started playing Cosmic Encounter last Friday. He said just learn as you go, it's more fun that way. Well I picked a random alien, ended up with the Vacuum power, and spent the first 20 minutes figuring out I could just suck up ships without attacking. By then two other players had already formed an alliance and ran away with the game. I was sitting there with 3 colonies and no clue how to use my own ability. Has anyone else had a friend give terrible house rules advice that backfired?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_olivia1mo ago

And oh man, Dave sounds like he was setting you up for a disaster (maybe not on purpose, but still). I've had that exact thing happen where someone says "just wing it" and suddenly you're the one person at the table who can't even use your own damn power. The trick I've learned the hard way is to always scan the alien cards for like 30 seconds before you pick, especially in Cosmic Encounter where half the powers are super weird and specific. Honestly, a quick skim beats spending half the game confused and bitter while everyone else is already winning. Next time just tell Dave you appreciate the "fun" advice but you'll take the two minutes to read first, because losing because you didn't know your vacuum power exists is just frustrating.

jessec391mo ago

Yeah I read somewhere that experienced players always peek at their powers first, makes TOTAL sense.