Hey, it got 22 comments the first time ...

Back in November of 2006 — the days of the original Blogmic Encounter site — I posted the photo above in one of those "I really feel like I should post something moments." I figured it would generate maybe a few chuckles and one or two comments. "Hey, look! Beer and Cosmic Encounter!" I never gave it a second thought.

Instead, it turned out to be one of the most popular things I ever posted in roughly 30 months of Cosmic Encounter-related writing. I still have no idea why, although it is sort of a cool image.

Who the hell knows, as the kids say.

New Cosmic falls into The Warp, gets reviewed

The first detailed review of the new Fantasy Flight Games edition of Cosmic Encounter has been posted, and, not too surprisingly, it comes forth from The Warp.

Bang it here to read all about the new edition and how it compares to previous CE releases.

Cosmic Encounter on shelves next week!

Let's just get right down to brass tacks here: we might be unwrapping the new edition of the Cosmic Encounter boardgame as early as Tuesday.

For proof, I offer an established retailer saying he expects to have it on his shelves by then, and an FFG employee later chiming in and pretty much agreeing with that assessment.

Sounds good to me; let's do this thing.

CEO team tinkering under the hood

If I knew anything at all about coding — I can make pretty italics, but that's about it — I'd be able to explain what the Cosmic Encounter Online team was doing with the bug fixes announced here.

But I don't. So I can't.

Mean green fighting machine ready for action

The roll-out of interesting aliens continues at Fantasy Flight Games, where the recent debut of Cudgel (see note below) was followed by the first appearance of the new, improved Macron.

Now, normally, "Macron" and "interesting" aren't often found in the same sentence, but this is not your old-school Big Green Dude. No, this is Macron Mark II, brother, and he's here to turn your puny skeleton into pulp. And to take more cards, too: check out the one very key change to Big Mac's power.

(Fun note for CE Online players who have been around for a while: remember GodOfAtheism ... ?)

Cudgel strikes a blow for homebrews everywhere

Fantasy Flight Games recently unveiled the new Cudgel alien for the upcoming Cosmic Encounter boardgame, making it the first true homebrewed alien creation to be featured as part of the new game. You can check out what Cudgel is all about right here.

A number of aliens have been featured at FFG.com as the build-up to the new edition of CE continues, but none have been what I would consider true homebrews. Tripler will be new to many players, but he's been played about 25,000 times at Cosmic Encounter Online. Human is new, too, but I never published the idea anywhere for anyone else to see (not to mention that the original idea was later modified), so no one ever got a chance to play it for themselves. Remora is new, but I don't think CE designer Kevin Wilson would argue too hard that his alien creation would qualify as a homebrew.

So congratulations to Cudgel and creator Ken Hubbard. It's no longer a homebrew; it's an official alien!

Blogmic, meet Blogger. Blogger, Blogmic

After 30 months, 399 posts**, roughly 10,000 tries at getting standings to look good in league updates, and more than a few headaches, Blogmic Encounter has left TypePad for the greener (and free-er) pastures of Blogger.

All interested parties should update their bookmarks with the URL you see above. Also, anyone picking up any sort of RSS feed from the TypePad address will need to burn a new feed (sorry about that). The TypePad site — which is located here — will remain open for a few days, although it will not be updated.

And, best of all, once all the code is in place, Blogmic will be integrated into the front page of the new Cosmic Encounter Online portal! Can I get a "w00t!"?

**That's right, 399. I even had a "400th post!" idea for the next one, too ...

New alien previews aplenty at FFG.com

You can't swing a dead cat over at Fantasy Flight Games without hitting a new alien preview for the upcoming release of the new Cosmic Encounter boardgame.

A great mix of aliens has been featured so far: classic Eon era, online-only, new creations, and even well-known homebrews have all been put under the spotlight. A complete listing, with links, is over there on your right. No, your other right.

GeorgeOTC schools pretenders, claims league title

I could have sworn I followed up on this ... but I guess not.

Anyway, GeorgeOTC, congratulations on winning the recent Double Trouble League at Cosmic Encounter Online. And by "recent," I mean, "It ended in October."

For the record, the finalists who were handed a big serving of beat-down were AP, Conchad, and Sarry. Full details here.