First look at our 20 new alien friends

As usual, a good starting point for all things Cosmic Encounter is The Warp — not the place where your lost ships go because you're playing like a bonehead, but the actual person. Much like he did when the Fantasy Flight Games base set arrived, Jack Reda has provided his initial thoughts on the 20 new aliens found in Cosmic Incursion.

It's well-written, it's got pretty formatting, and it's worth a read.

First look! All 20 Incursion aliens!

With the Cosmic Incursion expansion now in the hands of at least one eager player/consumer, it's fair to lift the veil of secrecy surrounding the 20 aliens who made the cut for the first expansion to the Fantasy Flight Games edition. They are, in alphabetical order:

Bully, Chronos, Cryo, Deuce, Disease;
Ethic, Fungus, Fury, Genius, Ghoul;
Guerrilla, Leviathan, Locust, Magician, Mercenary;
Merchant, Plant, Seeker, Sniveler, Symbiote.

My first take: I'm seeing at least nine — maybe 10, depending on possible name-changes — that look like first-time appearances. It will be very interesting to see if that trend continues.

My second take: Disease and Fungus? ... Plant beats Insect onto the list of official FFG aliens ... Deuce is a personal favorite, so I'm happy with that ... and Bully? I would have lost that bet.

(Another shout-out goes to Kobold Curry Chef — that's two in a row. The rest of you better get with the program here)

Incursion: off the boat and on the truck

It appears that the news is all good for those of us eagerly anticipating the arrival of Cosmic Incursion: the official FFG Upcoming Products and Reprints page has changed CI's status from a boat icon to a truck icon.

In English words:

The product is being shipped from the FFG warehouse in Minnesota to stores and distributors. This process takes between 7-10 days for the US, or a few days longer in Canada.

(Tip of the hat to Kobold Curry Chef for the sharp eyes)

Oh, right, there's a rulebook, too

Duh.

I totally forgot to mention this part in my excitement over yesterday's super-cool new alien: the rules for Cosmic Incursion are available at Fantasy Flight's CE support page.

I'm not sure why they sort of buried the news at the bottom of an alien preview, but, still, the important thing is that they are out there and available for immediate download.

Cosmic Incursion: It's like magic!

That headline will seem a lot better once you head on over to Fantasy Flight Games and read the description for the newest Cosmic Incursion alien.

(And it's by Bruno Faidutti, too! That's just made of win.)

Quick take: it's my favorite of the CI aliens revealed so far.

Uh, oh ... Incursion due date slipping?

Don't take this as the gospel truth, but at least one major gaming retailer has shifted Cosmic Incursion's due date back a month. Funagain Games, which I've always found to be a pretty reliable indicator of these sorts of things, now lists "March 2010" on its CI page.

FWIW. YMMV. SPQR. UCLA.

There's a Fungus among us!

And, yes, I've been just waiting to do that headline ...

To the point: the fourth alien preview for the upcoming Cosmic Incursion expansion has been announced over at Fantasy Flight Games, and it's a classic from the Eon expansions. It is my great pleasure to introduce Fungus.

Locust ready to devour unwary players

The third alien preview for the upcoming Cosmic Incursion expansion has been posted, and it appears to be Cosmic Encounter's answer to Marvel Comics' Galactus.

Everyone say hello to Locust.

Incursion: It's a work of pure genius

A brand new alien known as Genius just became the second official Cosmic Incursion preview posted at Fantasy Flight Games. It joins Sniveler on the short-but-hopefully-getting-bigger-soon list.

First reaction: another clever alternate-win alien. And I'm a card-hoarder, so this one automatically gets my seal of approval.

Yeah, but WHICH twenty aliens ... ?

With the official announcement of Cosmic Incursion having now rebounded back and forth across the interwebs, it's time for the speculation to begin. Just which aliens will be included in the announced 20?

So far, some of the better discussions can be found here and here.

Anyone want to go on the record here? Just hit the "comments" button, yo.

CE: Incursion due in February?

Boardgame News is reporting that the Cosmic Incursion expansion set is due in February of 2010, citing Fantasy Flight Games as a source. The FFG site itself, it should be noted, makes no mention of a release date that I can see.

So, for what it's worth: one site (albeit a usually reliable and professional one) is reporting an early 2010 release date. Make of it what you will.