Virus and Zombie: switched at birth?

Not wanting to end the year on a negative note, I'll end it instead with this interesting thought: when you get right down to it, FFG's Virus sort of looks like Zombie, and Zombie sort of looks like Virus.

I won't got so far as to say there was a mistake — I can say with first-hand experience that CE designer Kevin Wilson really nurtured the game during its development phase — but I will say that it's a pretty interesting side-by-side comparison. My guess would be either, A) a last-minute switch in artwork, for reasons unknown; or B) everything is as it was meant to be, and the folks at FFG must be thinking we're all a bunch of conspiracy theorists.

Still ... just look at those pictures.

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.

Because I haven't done the eBay thing in a while

It's a beautiful set, no doubt about that. I'd love to have sealed copies of all nine Eon expansions for Cosmic Encounter.*

I just don't think it's going to sell at $730.

*I've got seven of them sealed, for those wondering. Which was probably no one.

Lawl! Cosmic rules "discussion" FTW!

Man, we've all been there. Sometimes, alien Q acting in phase V does not play well with player X attempting to play flare Z. But, still, it's funny to see someone actually take it public:

... wish I got to play that game of Cosmic Encounter with you guys. The argument after you left went on for another hour.

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.

A late candidate for Best Line of Year

Bill Martinson, via BGG:

Mayfair's flares are Curly-Joes ...

For the full context, click upon this hyperlink. It's worth it.

Yeah, I'm a rebel. That's how I roll

Inspired by this thought over at BGG ...

... why would I want to ask for allies? An extra point per ship is pretty weak and the reinforcement cards are rare.

... I'm going to repeat an experiment I did a couple of years ago. For my next 30 games at Cosmic Encounter Online, I am not going to invite a single ally, offensively or defensively.* I will track the results and post a summary.

Anyone thinking "playing the 'no-invite' guy should be an easy win' " should look for user ID TheDukester at CE Online.

* The obvious exception, as always, is asking for defensive allies when defending against a possible game-winning challenge. I won't play kingmaker just for the sake of an experiment.

Terrifically tantalizing Twitter tidbit

I try not to read too much into these sorts of things, but I did find the following Twitter tweet pretty interesting. Oh, who am I kidding? I love to read too much into stuff like this.

Cosmic Encounter designer Peter Olotka:

In the future (late 2010 + -) there will actually be an abstract connection between Cosmic Encounter and Twilight Imperium.

Let loose the hounds of rabid, uninformed gamer speculation!