Please play the DUNE boardgame today

On our national day of mourning, I think it would be great if we all tried to get in a game of the still-fantastic DUNE boardgame today.

(And when you're done with that, be sure to drop an email to Fantasy Flight Games inquiring about the status of DUNE: Imperium).

Bill is the alpha player at Alpha league

The Alphabetical Aliens league is in the books at Cosmic Encounter Online, with Bill needing only three games to dispatch with pretenders Sleepy Weasel, Zxzxi, and BH Zach. I'll spare everyone the usual "he h/\xXz0rzd teh game!" comment. Full details can be found here.

That wraps up another CE Online league, and I'm hoping the next one is equally as entertaining. I didn't know what to think when the alphabet concept was announced, but it turns out that almost every one of the combos was a real blast to play.

Finals details announced for Alpha Aliens league

After starting at A (Anti-Matter) and ending at Z (Zombie), eight sessions of the Alphabetical Aliens league are in the history books, leaving only the final round to play. That little detail will be taken care of Monday at Cosmic Encounter Online when Zxzxi, Bill, Sleepy Weasel, and Zach of the Stupendous Hat-Rack meet to determine just who exactly is the greatest Cosmic Encounter player in the world.**

Full details can be found here. And here's a quick glance at the four finalists' records:

zxzxi: 6-13 (.315)

Bill: 5-6 (.454)

Sleepy Weasel: 4-9 (.307)

BigHeadZach: 2-6 (.250)

That's Monday at 8:30 E / 5:30 P. You won't want to miss it.

**"Greatest" until the next league, that is ...

Time for some heavy metal boardgames

Here's another laugh-out-loud entry from McSweeney's. I think my favorite is Hungry Hungry Skid Rows.

"Yes, but WHY do you like Cosmic Encounter?"

Cosmic Encounter is often a tough game to put into words. There's a lot going on that's not always apparent until you've played quite a bit — negotiation, politics, diplomacy, back-stabbing, and alliances (often of convenience) are just a few parts of the Cosmic experience. And that doesn't even mention the variable alien powers, how they work together, and the other parts of the game that literally break the rules.

But putting it down into words is exactly what our friend David Montgomery did in this interesting post at a leading boardgames site. After playing more than 100 times with the new Fantasy Flight Games edition, DavidMont's got some interesting insights into the experience.

(Here's why I like it: it's teh r0xXz0RRz!!llone!11!)

Cosmic Encounter gets Wiki-fied

No, not at Wikipedia — that farcical entry is still around, just as embarrassing and semi-useless as any other article at that place. No, I'm talking about an independent site with wiki-based software, written and maintained (presumably) by Cosmic Encounter fans for Cosmic Encounter fans.

It's just getting off the ground now; check it out and maybe think about contributing a thing or two.

Last-chance time in CE Online league

With no more letters remaining, tonight's eighth session of the Alphabetical Aliens league is the final one on the schedule. Anyone looking for wins will have to prove their mastery over Warpish, Warrior, Will, and Zombie.

The standings are still ridiculously tight, too: two players have four wins, two have three, and four have two. It's still anybody's ballgame.

That's tonight, 8E/5P; be there or be mocked.

Do you like V's? Then tonight is your night

It's all V all the time tonight (Monday, July 6) at the Alphabetical Aliens league, which will feature Virus, Vulch, Void, and Vacuum as a pre-set combo.

The standings are still absurdly close, with no single player able to break away after six weeks of competition. Here's a glance at the leaders; the full version of the standings can be found here:

• Three wins: Bill, Peter, Sleepy Weasel, Zxzxi;
• Two wins: IcarusInx, Subby, TheDukester.

It's still anybody's ballgame. Be there tonight (8E/5P) or you'll live to regret it.

Cosmic Online reaches 90K players

Since the site debuted in May of 2003, players at Cosmic Encounter Online have been identified through unique ID numbers (I am 38309; nice to meet you). Now, a little more than six years later, the 90,000th account has been created.

Be sure to note the clever user ID for player #90,000 ...