Cosmic Encounter gets its first expansion in over 5 years, features a campaign mode

Cosmic Encounter, the space board game about galactic dominance, is getting its first expansion in over five years.

Called Cosmic Encounter: Cosmic Odyssey, the expansion introduces a collection of new content to the base game, including a new campaign mode. According to its publisher – Fantasy Flight Games, the studio responsible for the recent 45th Anniversary Edition of Cosmic Encounter – Cosmic Odyssey is set to be the biggest expansion ever released for Cosmic Encounter.

The campaign mode in Cosmic Odyssey will have players leading various coalitions of alien species across a series of cosmological ages – or multiple games – with the aim of acquiring prizes along the way. At the end of each age players can decide to cash in their prizes for benefits or can save these for the very last age, wherein any player that wins is declared a campaign winner. Every age in the upcoming board game expansion will offer a new set of variants – some of which are from previously released expansions – with there being 13 in total.

A new set of alien species is being introduced in Cosmic Odyssey, which includes the Aura – a species that is honest to a fault – the Bubbles, who are literally a cloud of bubbles, the cybernetically enhanced Magnet, the dangerous Witches species or the Lloyd species, which provides players with a more cooperative option. There are 30 new species featured in the expansion, alongside alternative universe versions of previous species such as the Grumpus, whose alternative timeline version includes a new ability for players to utilise.

Apart from Cosmic Encounter: Cosmic Odyssey and Cosmic Encounter, Fantasy Flight Games is behind the release of the unique deck game Keyforge, several Star Wars board games – such as Star Wars: X-Wing and Star Wars: Outer Ring – and Arkham Horror: The Card Game.

Cosmic Encounter, which was originally released in 1977, is a board game that sees players attempting to invade and take control of rival planets. Players are randomly given an alien species to play as, whose identities remain hidden until specific events trigger their reveal or the player chooses to use an active ability. On a player’s turn they draw a card to determine which opponent they’ll be invading, with the active player then choosing an amount of spaceships to dedicate to the fight. Players can attempt to convince others to join them on their conquest, thereby splitting the control of the planets they’re invading. Those involved in the battle then secretly choose a card to attack or defend with, before the player with the highest point total on their chosen card wins the fight.

Cosmic Encounter: Cosmic Odyssey is set to be launched on 7th August at a retail price of $60 (£46).