Cosmic Encounter: Cosmic Incursion
Cosmic Encounter: Cosmic Incursion Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Components
Cosmic Incursion should contain these components:
- 55 Cards, including:
- 32 Reward Cards
- 20 Flare Cards
- 3 Destiny Cards
- 20 Alien Sheets
- 1 Player Colony Marker
- 5 Player Planets
- 20 Plastic Ships
- 31 Cosmic Tokens
All cards from the Cosmic Incursion expansion are marked with a symbol on their fronts. This will allow you to later separate them from your Cosmic Encounter cards if you choose to do so.
Component Overview
The following are summary descriptions of the various components included in Cosmic Incursion. They should help you identify the components and introduce you to how they are used.
New Aliens
These 20 new aliens are similar to those found in Cosmic Encounter and can simply be added to the stack of alien sheets.
New Cards
The new flare and destiny cards are similar to those found in Cosmic Encounter and can simply be shuffled into their respective decks. The destiny cards allow the inclusion of a sixth player in the game, while the flare cards are used for the 20 new alien races included with Cosmic Incursion.
There is also a new deck of cards called the reward deck, which is used to reward defensive allies and is explained on page 2.
New Ships, Planets, and Colony Marker
These pieces are similar to those found in Cosmic Encounter and allow for a sixth player to be added to the game.
New Cosmic Tokens
Since there's no such thing as too many cosmic tokens, these extra tokens were included and can simply be added to those from Cosmic Encounter.
Setup
Before you play your first game of Cosmic Incursion, carefully punch out the cardboard pieces so that they do not tear.
Integrating the Expansion and the Base Game
Before your first game of Cosmic Encounter using the Cosmic Incursion expansion, simply shuffle the new flare cards into the existing deck of flare cards.
Adding a Sixth Player
To play with a sixth player, simply shuffle the new destiny cards into the destiny deck and give the extra player the corresponding ships and player planets. Then, place the new colony marker next to the warp by the space marked "0". Finally when adding flares to the flare deck, simply add all twelve flares that were dealt out.
New Rule: Cosmic Quakes
If a player needs to draw a card from the cosmic deck and both the cosmic deck and discard pile are empty, then a cosmic quake occurs! All players discard their hands, and the discard pile is shuffled to make a new deck, then 8 cards are dealt to each player.
Reward Deck Variant
In this variant, defensive allies may draw from a special, slightly more powerful deck of cards when receiving defender rewards. This variant makes use of the reward deck.
Setup
Set up the Cosmic Encounter game as normal, performing the following additional step during Steps 5.
5a. Shuffle the reward deck and place it near the warp.
Gameplay
This variant uses all of the standard rules and victory conditions, with the exception of the following rules.
- When a player receives cards as defender rewards, he or she may draw some or all of the cards from the reward deck.
- Reward cards that are played are discarded to a special reward deck discard pile. This discard pile cannot be affected by any effect that affects the discard pile – only the normal discard pile can be affected by such effects.
- When the reward deck runs out, shuffle its discard pile to make a new reward deck. If the reward deck discard pile is also empty, then no further reward cards can be drawn until at least one reward card is discarded. The reward deck never causes a cosmic quake.
Reward Deck Contents
Several new types of cards are introduced in the reward deck, and are described below.
Negative Attack Cards
Some of the new attack cards introduced in the reward deck have a negative value (–01, –04, and –07). These cards should be treated as normal except that their value is less than zero.
Crooked Deals
The negotiate cards introduced in the reward deck still count as negotiate cards, but are slightly better than normal negotiate cards. When a player collects compensation after playing a crooked deal, he or she receives one extra card. Additionally, if a player fails to make a deal after playing a crooked deal, that player loses one less ship to the warp than normal, while his or her opponent loses one extra ship to the warp.
If both players played crooked deals before failing to make a deal, the two crooked deals cancel each other out and both players lose the usual number of ships to the warp.
A Second Morph
A second morph card is included in the reward deck. It works exactly the same as the morph card from the cosmic deck. If both players in an encounter play a morph card, both sides lose and all ships in the encounter go to the warp.
Kicker Cards
A new card type called kicker cards is introduced in the reward deck. These cards are played facedown during the planning phase before encounter cards are selected, with the player announcing that he or she is playing a kicker. Kickers cannot be affected by game effects that target a player's encounter card.
A kicker's effect depends on what encounter cards are played during the encounter.
- Attack vs. Attack: If both players play an attack, the kicker multiplies its player's attack card by its value. For instance, a player with 12 ships on his or her side that has played an attack 10 and a x2 kicker has a total of 32 ((2x10)+12).
- Attack vs. Negotiate: If the player with the kicker played an attack, the kicker has no effect. However, if the player with the kicker played a negotiate, his or her compensation is multiplied by the kicker's value. For instance, a player who would normally receive 3 cards as compensation would receive 6 cards as compensation if he or she had played a x2 kicker.
- Negotiate vs. Negotiate: In the event of a successful deal, a kicker has no effect. However, after a failed deal, the number of ships lost to the warp by the opposing player is multiplied by the kicker's value. For instance, if a player played a x2 kicker before a failed deal, that player would lose the usual 3 ships to the warp, but his or her opponent would lose 6 ships to the warp!
Rift Cards
Rift cards are a new card type introduced in the reward deck. Rifts have two effects. First, a player may play a rift at the start of any encounter to retrieve a number of ships equal to the rift's value from the warp. These ships may belong to any player or players, and are returned to any of their owner(s)' colonies.
Additionally, if a rift card is taken from a player's hand (but not discarded), either as compensation or as the result of another game effect, the rift detonates, causing the thieving player to lose a number of ships to the warp equal to the rift's value. After detonating, a rift is discarded.
Other Reward Cards
In addition to the cards listed above, the reward deck also includes a number of attack cards ranging from 10 to 23, new reinforcement cards ranging up to +6, and several new artifact cards (including another cosmic zap and card zap).
Note, however, that only the cosmic deck contains attack cards higher than 23 and flare cards, so sometimes it's better to draw from the cosmic deck, depending on what's needed at the time.
Common Rewards Variant
For a wilder, more chaotic game with fewer additional rules, it's also possible to simply shuffle the reward deck into the cosmic deck and play as normal.