Cosmic Encounter - History

History

The original version of Cosmic Encounter had exactly six alien powers and was designed for up to six players. This edition was nearly published by Parker Brothers in the mid-1970s; when it was not, the designers founded Eon Games to publish it.

The first Eon edition was released in 1977. It allowed up to four players and included fifteen alien powers. Over the next five years, Eon released nine expansions, adding sixty more alien powers, components for a fifth and sixth player, and several new types of pieces, including "Flare" cards, money (Lucre), Moons, and special power planet systems. The artwork on these early editions included images painted by Dean Morrissey.

In 1986, the game was republished in the U.S. by West End Games. The game used the same deck of cards and number of players, and the same powers with five additional powers from Eon expansion sets #1 and #2. However, the cards and tokens were incompatible with the Eon edition. Meanwhile, in the UK, the game was published by Games Workshop. The GW edition supported six players, with powers from the Eon base set and some of the first three expansions.

In 1991, the game was licensed by Mayfair Games. Mayfair published Cosmic Encounter, an expansion called More Cosmic Encounter (1992), and a stripped-down introductory version of the game called Simply Cosmic (1995). The Mayfair edition revised some powers from the original Eon set, introduced many more, and significantly revised some of the existing components. It also introduced several new components. By combining the three Mayfair products, it is possible to play a 10-player game.

In 2000, Avalon Hill (by then a division of Hasbro) published a simplified version in one box with plastic pieces. This version was limited to 20 powers and four players.

On August 17, 2007, Fantasy Flight Games announced plans to reprint the game "in the Summer of 2008." This was later updated to "November 2008." Game designer Kevin Wilson gave demonstrations of the Fantasy Flight Cosmic Encounter version at Gen Con 2008. This was released in December 2008, and included 50 alien powers, a new Technology variant, and support for 5 players. Fantasy Flight released an expansion set called "Cosmic Incursion" in February 2010 that added 20 aliens (some new and some old), ships for a sixth player, and a "Rewards" deck which includes, among other things, Kickers and Rifts. In February 2011, Fantasy Flight released the second expansion set, "Cosmic Conflict", which included 20 alien powers, ships for a seventh player, and a "Hazard" deck which adds special conditions to encounters. On December 6, 2011, Fantasy Flight announced that the third expansion set, "Cosmic Alliance," with new alien powers, kit for an eighth player and rules for team play, would be released in early 2012.