Cosmic Encounter

About this board game

Cosmic Encounter is a 1977 board game for 2–6 players with a 90-minute play time. Each player represents an alien race seeking to spread across five foreign worlds.

To pursue victory, players make challenges against other players and enlist the aid of interested parties. These encounters are shaped by the alien powers available to each race, creating ways to bend or outright break some rules of the game.

The game’s central objective is clear: establish a presence on five planets in other systems. Success depends on pursuing those planets while dealing with challenges from other players and deciding when their assistance may be useful.

• Represent an alien race with its own alien power.
• Challenge other players for opportunities to spread across foreign worlds.
• Enlist interested parties to aid your efforts.
• Use alien powers to bend or break selected game rules.

Cosmic Encounter also allows for shared victories, so a player does not necessarily need to achieve the goal alone. In addition, a player need not occupy their own system to win, keeping the focus on expansion into other systems.

This description refers to the original 1977 Eon version. While editions share the same core game, their features, compatible expansions, and production can differ.