It is all about the encounters in the deep cosmic realm. You are dealing with alien creatures, you have planets to explore and you have countless fleets of ships to move. You are the leader of an alien race. On your turn, you become the offense and must move a group of your ships through the hyperspace gate to that planet. The offense vs. For 3 — 5 players, games last 1 — 2 hours each. Another fantastic best space exploration board games entry that takes you deep into a real life future is On Mars.
This is an interesting worker placement and area control game that has a unique switch mechanism that has you almost playing two different games that happen to interact with one another. Very smartly constructed with many mechanics working together seamlessly.
During colonization, you take actions based on your location. If in orbit, you can take blueprints, buy technologies, and take supplies from the Warehouse.
In the Shuttle Phase, players may travel between the colony and the Space Station in orbit. For 1 — 4 players, games run 90 — minutes. The iconic sci-fi tv franchise is also an easy choice for the list of the best space exploration board games. The Battlestar Galactica board game is not just a big name slapped on a box, it is a great game that lives up to the hype.
This is a traitor and hidden role game that has you explore and build with plenty of intensity and satisfaction. You are one of ten favorite characters from the iconic show, each with their own special traits. All the characters must work together in order for humanity to have any hope of survival.
Problem is, one of you is a Cylon. Players must attempt to expose the traitor while fuel shortages, food contaminations, and political unrest threaten to tear the fleet apart. For 3 — 6 players, games last about 2 — 3 hours. Race for the Galaxy makes the list of the best space exploration board games because it is a fast-paced card game that not only has satisfying mechanics you would expect out of a space game but also a fantastic and immersive theme.
This title is very popular and has spawned numerous expansions and stand-alone games. In the card game, you build galactic civilizations by playing game cards in front of you that represent worlds or technical and social developments.
Their sole purpose is to break the rules we've described above in some weird way, and the game comes with 50 of them. Would you ever dare ally with them? If you like to play mind games, it'll suit you nicely. Or if you're terrible at games. This makes them weirdly terrifying to go up against: 'I have a huge amount of attack power, but what if they… speak to me!?
Other players will be weakened over the course of the game as fighting takes its toll on their ship totals, but the Zombie numbers just never seem to dwindle…. If the player accepts, Fido gets a reward of taking a new card itself, or gaining back a defeated ship. This is great fun for the less confrontational player — you get to be everyone's little buddy! The art for the alien cards is just phenomenal, and they all have a little description of the alien race, in case you feel like roleplaying.
As a final flourish, the alien powers are not intended to be balanced at all — if you look at one and go 'Hang on, that seems unfairly good!? The game wants the other players to think and talk about how they can keep that one player in check… but, of course, you'll also want to break out and be the ultimate winner. That said, Cosmic Encounter is one of very few games with joint winners. You'll just have to decide if you're willing to share.
Alien powers might also combine in interesting ways. Remember the Masochist who wants to lose ships? Sounds like a total nightmare to play against? Well, another alien power is the Healer, who can choose to save other player's ships from being destroyed, and actually gets bonuses if they do so, really spoiling the Masochist's day.
Or there's the Warpish, where the more ships that are destroyed, the more powerful the Warpish becomes in battles, so as the Masochist goes about their business of losing as many ships as possible, the Warpish quietly becomes an unstoppable force.
Of course, the Healer would also ruin the Warpish's plans if all three were in the same game, so the Healer goes from being a nice power that's mutually beneficial, to being villain number one for these players to probably join up against…. You can see why we say that Cosmic Encounter has a cosmos' worth of variety to it.
And this is still the most basic version of the game — it actually comes with two extra options in the box you can choose to optionally play. The first is a deck of 'Tech' cards, which give you big extra abilities, but take time to develop — it's just another way to add more unpredictability.
The second is 'Flare' cards, which are all paired with a specific alien power. They get mixed into the main deck of cards, and give whoever holds them a mini version of someone else's alien power than they can use… unless you hold your own Flare card, in which case you get to use a special 'Super' version of your power.
Green and red have settled into the blue home planets — you can go to the effort of kicking them off, but is it the best use of your turn? I've said a lot here, but only because Cosmic Encounter gives you so much to talk about, despite it all being built on the reliable foundation of a high number winning a fight against a low number. Every time you play, that basic structure is twisted into a new shape by the combination of alien powers you end up picking — familiar, yet always something new to explore in each game.
I also like that it has an element of flexibility about how you play — you can try to negotiate your way to victory, you can try to play social games and form alliances, you can just scheme and battle on your own. And for people who don't like to mean to others in games, Cosmic Encounter is still something they tend to enjoy, because it kind of forces you into confrontation — you get permission to be mean from the fabric of the game itself.
The unpredictability will mean that it isn't for everyone — you have to accept that things are going to get a bit silly and maybe even unfair, and some people like their games to be more knowable than that. After a few minutes, however, the entire affair will degenerate into a shouting match of bitter blame and recriminations over who forget to reload the laser cannons as yet more horrors hove into view. Rather like starring in your own favourite episode of Star Trek. Speaking of which, Ascendancy is the best of the many Trek-themed board games on the market.
While this is a typical setup for an intergalactic conquest game, Ascendancy uses its licence to stand out from the crowd. The way exploration leaves aspects of the galaxy fluid until late in the game helps you feel like you really are going where no-one has gone before. Fortunately, it has a fantastic contender in Outer Rim. The constant temptation to spend your hard-earned credits on new crew and ships is as addictive as it ever was. Not that Race for the Galaxy feels all that more sedate.
The secret action-selection adds a vital layer of tension: will you be able to do what you need this round? Worse, will you accidentally enable another player to do what they need?
Sci-fi buffs will enjoy the many nods to classic genre tropes along the way. If you want a more forgiving space sandbox to play in, look no further than Xia: Legends of a Drift System. It gives you a ship to fly and a modular galaxy to explore and leaves the rest very much up to you. How you want to earn the fame that could win you the game, and even the amount of fame that counts as victory, is determined by the players. Doing so is a satisfying mini-game in its own right, customising your pre-painted miniature ship with cool new options and combos.
Quantum wants everything: all the bells and whistles of space conquest with none of the fuss. Continue if you are looking for games like Cosmic Encounter and are curious about what similar games to play next.
Build a galactic empire… In the depths of space, the alien races of the Cosmos vie with each other for control of the universe. Alliances form and shift from moment to moment, while cataclysmic battles send starships screaming into the warp. Players choose from dozens of alien races, each with its own unique power to further its efforts to build an empire that spans the galaxy.
To determine this list we broke down Cosmic Encounter to what it is. This is a take that race and negotiation game where you must conquer the galaxy with shifting alliances and the unique powers of your alien race. If you are looking for something similar, you have come to the right place. We took all this into consideration and came up with this list of the 5 board games like Cosmic Encounter.
Churchill makes the list of games like Cosmic Encounter because it is another economic and negotiation game, but also puts you on a path with goals to achieve.
There is a little less take that and more about monitoring a constant tug of war. It is not a wargame, but a political conflict of cooperation and competition. Players in the game take on the roles of Churchill, Roosevelt, or Stalin as they maneuver against each other over the course of 10 Conferences that determine who will lead the Allied forces, where those forces will be deployed, and how the Axis will be defeated. The player whose forces collectively have greater control over the surrendered Axis powers will win the peace and the game.
For 1 — 3 players, games run 60 — minutes. Genoa makes the list of board games like Cosmic Encounter because they are both games that bring together many different game mechanics to make for a great experience of a character taking on the world. There is great negotiation and many decisions to make.
0コメント