CE alien survey #19: OBSERVER

First appearance: Fantasy Flight Games.

Plain-English power: You can't die as an ally; as a main player, your allies can't die either.

Loved by: Those who fight for their friends.

Loathed by: Aliens such as Warpish and Healer.

Three ways to win as Observer:

1. Always ally. Even if you're sure your side will lose, ally with four ships anyway. Who knows, you may win despite what you think.
2. Be careful about inviting others. Sure, you'll get plus-4 from them, but they get free rewards with no risk.
3. If you're feeling daring, invite allies when you know you'll lose (but no one else does). They won't die, but they also won't be allied with the other side.

Three ways to win against Observer:

1. Win potential allies over. This may be difficult, since allying with Observer has no risks, but try to convince the other players that allying with you gives them the better reward.
2. Avoid inviting Observer if you think you'll win. Plus-4 is great, but don't give things away with no risk.
3. Force Field.

At CE Online? No.

Anything else? Observer was originally named Safety; the design is credited to longtime CE player Cedric Chin.

— Submitted by Toomai Glittershine

CE alien survey #18: TRIPLER

First appearance: Cosmic Encounter Online.

Plain-English power: Your Attack card triples if 10 or less; reduced to 1/3 if more than 10.

Loved by: Statisticians; players willing to settle for so-so cards; "win-inversion" powers (Anti-Matter, Loser, Spiff).

Loathed by: Filch.**

Three ways to win as Tripler:

1. More than two-thirds of the Attack cards benefit you. Normally, Attacks average around 10; in your hand, the average is more like 15.
2. Because the modes are 6, 8, 4, and 10, you have a plethora of Attack 18, 24, 12, and 30s. Negotiate to sue for cards others would normally be happy to be rid of.
3. Don't be afraid to play the high cards (20 through 40) when you have an overwhelming ship advantage. You'd rather see them in the discard pile than sitting alone in your hand, waiting for someone to steal them via compensation.

Three ways to win against Tripler:

1. Because high cards are bad for Tripler, he'll likely leave them until last in his hand. Negotiate for cards when Tripler's hand is small and you may get a nice surprise!
2. As a mandatory power, Tripler is "always on," so save a Cosmic Zap for when he really needs to pull out a win. Make that Attack 10 just an Attack 10.
3. If you have to strike a deal with Tripler, consider this: giving him your Attack 10 would be worth him giving you any Attack card greater than 10. In most cases, 8s and 10s for Tripler are guaranteed victories (except against Virus and the win-inverters). Use them as offers instead of the usual "colony for colony" lameness, and see if he warms to your proposal!

At CE Online? That's where it comes from.

Anything else? Math powers, while great at forcing opponents to think differently about their cards, can tend to burn brains in their complexity and make for less-enjoyable games. Tripler is a good example of a simple math power that doesn't cause too much analysis paralysis.

— Submitted by Zach Gaskins

** Also loathed by CE Online veteran AP. Be sure to ask him about Tripler sometime.

CE Online: When combos strike!

One of my favorite moments at Cosmic Encounter Online is playing a quality pre-set combination that ends up working exactly as advertised.

Case in point: the image above. That's all four of the players losing power during a game of "Survivor: CE," a combo designed by Sleepy Weasel. The combination of Dictator, Machine, Vacuum, and Sapient is supposed to send ships to the warp, and it doesn't get much more warp-a-licious than all four aliens losing their power at once. It also helped that the Mobius Tubes didn't come up once that I can remember (they might have been hoarded, too ... I forgot to ask).

Anyway, this game was a complete blast, even though I went from a winning position of 3 bases down to a miserable 0 bases in the space of about four encounters. Now that is Cosmic Encounter, baby!

Well done, Sleepy Weasel.

CE alien survey #17: DICTATOR

First appearance: Eon expansion #1.

Plain-English power: You determine who attacks whom.

Loved by: Control freaks; those who like being involved in every encounter; fans of horned lizards.

Loathed by: Those who do not take direction well; certain "advantage" aliens, who will likely find themselves sent to far-off planets where their advantages mean little.

Three ways to win as Dictator:

1. The current encounter is yesterday's news. Why? Because you were thinking about it during the last encounter. With Dictator, it's always possible to be one step ahead of your foes; take advantage of this rare gift. You control the action; think ahead.
2. Probably moreso than any other power, Dictator is the ultimate pay-attention alien. Barring some unforeseen Cosmic weirdness, you will literally be involved in every encounter of the game. Focus! If you're too busy trying to watch Lost or Battlestar Galactica, then play another alien.
3. Play your foes off against each other. Are there two players tied for first place? Make sure they see a lot of each other. Two players who are likely to ally? Make sure one of them ends up being the defensive player. One power with a decided advantage over another? Find him a tougher foe.

So those new aliens ... what did you think?

Now is your chance to directly tell Cosmic Encounter developer Kevin Wilson what you thought of the 14 first-time-published aliens that were included in the new Fantasy Flight version of the game. He's also seeking input on what CE players would like to see in upcoming expansions.

So drop what you're doing, head on over to this BGG thread, and sound off.

CE alien survey #16: CITADEL

First appearance: Fantasy Flight Games.

Plain-English power: Attack cards can be placed as fortifications on planets.

Loved by: Turtle/porcupine strategists; those who like solidifying their conquests. Spiff says "Bring it on!"

Loathed by: Space Invaders, win-inverters such as Loser and Anti-Matter (because Citadel's power is optional), and Virus & Chosen (Citadel can compete with their totals ).

Three ways to win as Citadel:

1. Citadel's slightly-less obvious gimmick is shedding low Attack cards quickly and getting some use out of them. Fortify with the lowest cards, use high Attacks in encounters. When you meet in the middle, it's time to draw a fresh hand!
2. Protect what you conquer! Once you get a foreign colony, slap down an Attack of reasonable power (8 to 10). Your power comes from the fact that you'll rarely lose a foreign colony you take (except against the Shadow). This has the added advantage of granting a bargaining chip for being invited to ally on defense (i.e. "I'll only activate my citadels if you invite me!") This is a doubly-potent advantage once you have your Flare (and can then turn the citadels inward to attack the planet).
3. Protect your home! With some notable exceptions (Warpish, Masochist), you want every battle against your home system to fail miserably. More opponents in the Warp means less flexibility for them, and reduced ability to ally against you when you're going for the win.

Three ways to win against Citadel:

1. While Citadel's fortifications are powerful, they don't move. Simply size up which planet has the lowest total defense (ships plus fortifications) and strike.
2. You don't want Citadel to get its Flare and start turning its defense satellites into orbital death rays. Man the Card Zap harpoons!
3. Citadels go away if they fail to defend. Plus, they only add to the total. Spiff charges headlong into them with excellent results!

At CE Online? No.

Anything else? Citadel is a great implementation of a "planet improvement" mechanic. It plays very much like an "arrow tower" or "bunker" structure from an RTS game.

— Submitted by Zach Gaskins

New Cosmic Encounter: top 100, baby!

I'll be the first to admit that I think BoardgameGeek's rating system leaves a metric ton of stuff to be desired. But, still, it's been pretty cool to see the Fantasy Flight Games edition of Cosmic Encounter work its way up over the past few weeks from about #1,300 to its current spot of #97.

Top 100, yo. That's what I'm talking 'bout!

No offense, but you're not invited, pal

Repeating an experiment first performed in January of 2007, I will not be inviting any allies in any games I play at Cosmic Encounter Online this month. Not on offense ... not on defense ... not on purpose ... not by accident ... no allies, bro.**

The results will be there for all to see, thanks to CE Online's statistics feature; I suspect I'll do about as well as I did last time (which is to say: about the same as always).

**One exception: defending against an offensive player going FTW might result in alliance invitations; to not do so is to risk playing kingmaker

CE alien survey #15: AMOEBA

First appearance: Eon base set.

Plain-English power: Your ships move in and out of encounters (even above the limit of 4 or down to 0).

Loved by: Players who want to be flexible or escape from a no-win scenario.

Loathed by: Anyone without reinforcements.

Three ways to win as Amoeba:

1. Be cautious about oozing more ships in. When you have a great encounter card, or something else up your sleeve as a backup ... that's when it's safest to do it. Holding a Mobius Tubes is a great time to ooze all over the place.
2. Start by attacking with four ships. It helps you to get allies when you want them, and you can always ooze down to one or none if you aren't confident. Oozing out of a situation that doesn't look promising is half of your power.
3. Always keep track of how many ships you can afford to lose. If you go in too big and lose, you could lose your power altogether. You're your own reinforcements.