Space Exploration

Game description from the publisher:

Cosmic Alliance, the third expansion set for the Fantasy Flight Games version of Cosmic Encounter, brings 20 alien races, both original and classic, exploding onto your tabletop. Players will now stand petrified by the hideous Gorgon, be baffled by the puzzle of the Schizoid, and feel obsolete before the bionics of the Cyborg.

Cosmic Alliance also makes the Cosmos even bigger, adding another player (white) as well as rules for large eight-player games (if you own all three expansions). Finally, Cosmic Alliance introduces a new variant – team rules, which allow steadfast allies to dominate the Cosmos together!

This optional Team Cosmic variant places players in randomly determined teams of two, in which they'll attempt to conquer the Cosmos cooperatively. Without discussing their race selection in advance, partners sit opposite each other at the table, where they can occasionally offer a helping hand; whenever a player gains a new foreign colony, he can choose to instead gift that colony to his partner.

Space Empires is a game in the finest tradition of 4X space games - eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. Each player builds up a space empire and uses it to conquer the other players. Exploration on the mounted map is simple for players (and dangerous for their ships), revealing different space terrain that affects movement and combat.
Space Empires was developed to keep a rich theme without overcomplicated rules. The game includes carriers and fighters, mines, cloaking, a very large technology tree, fifteen ship classes, merchant shipping, colonization, mining, terraforming, bases, shipyards, black holes, warp points, and non-player aliens. Yet the rules are short and intuitive: The basic rules are 8 pages long and increase to 11 pages in length when the advanced rules are included.

Introduction

The ancient Galactic Realm, ruled from the Core Worlds of the galaxy, is waning. Now, the barbaric kingdoms that lie beyond the galactic frontier are amassing their strength, choosing this pivotal moment to strike at the heart of the fading republic, establishing new empires built upon the ashes of decaying civilizations. But these outer systems are not yet strong enough to engage the forces of the Core Worlds directly. The young kingdoms must first gnaw at the edges of the crumbling frontier, developing new types of units and shrewder tactics. They must build up their energy resources to launch magnificent fleets and overwhelming ground forces. Then, when the time is right, they must strike at the galactic core itself, claiming the most exalted planets for themselves. The barbarian kingdom that achieves these goals will carve out the greatest empire in the galaxy.
Object of the Game

Each player controls a barbarian Star Empire represented by many cards. Throughout the game, players will invade Worlds and draft new Units and Tactics into their Empires. Each card lists its Empire Points in the upper right corner. The player whose Empire contains the most Empire Points at the end of the game is the winner!
Game Terms and Game Play Mechanisms

Core Worlds is a deck-building card game for 2-5 players. The following are the central concepts of Core Worlds:

• Central Zone: Throughout the game, new cards are drawn from the five Galactic Decks and placed face up in the Central Zone, the game's common play area. These cards include new Units and Tactics that the players can draft into their Empires, as well as Worlds that they can invade.

• Empire: Each player represents an Empire that begins with a Home World and a Starting Deck. A player's Empire consists of all of the cards in his hand, draw deck, discard pile, and Warzone (tableau).

• Fleet Strength: Each World possesses a Fleet Strength that represents the starships that defend it from attack. A World's Fleet Strength must be matched in order for that World to be successfully invaded. Many Units possess a Fleet Strength that a player can use to invade a World.

• Ground Strength: Each World possesses a Ground Strength that represents the infantry and other ground forces that defend it from surface assault. A World's Ground Strength must be matched in order for it to be successfully invaded. Many Units possess a Ground Strength that a player can use to invade a World.

• Invasion: In order to add new Worlds to his Empire, a player must launch Invasions. A player performs an Invasion by discarding enough cards from his Warzone to match the Fleet Strength and Ground Strength of the World he is invading.

• Warzone: Each player's Empire includes a Warzone, an area in front of the player where her conquered Worlds are displayed. Players also deploy Units from their hands face up into their Warzones, and later use these Units to invade new Worlds.

The Earth is probably doomed, and rumors and speculation run rampant. Newspaper headlines from across the globe stir the populace to desperation:

"MELTING POLAR ICE CAPS" "RISING SEA LEVELS" "POLLUTION!" "OVERPOPULATION!" "NUCLEAR WINTER?" "RAVENOUS BLACK STAR GOATS?" "WILL METEORS STRIKE YOUR CHILDREN?" "DISASTER LOOMS!"

The race to escape Earth has begun! With the world's nations in decline, powerful corporations now stand as humanity's last hope. Take the reins of one such corporation, as CEO, and venture out into space. With your mission in hand; build ships, collect resources, research technologies, survive the dangers of space exploration, and, while ticket sales hold steady, preserve the human race. Remember to stay a step ahead of competing corporations, which can use slick marketing campaigns and 10 cent tchotchkes to buy the loyalty of the people you just saved from certain doom!

Players are rewarded points for sticking to the mission and building colonies, and saving colonists. As you are a CEO you are also rewarded points for filling the Corporate treasury, and building the company's value proposition by retaining rights to the best technologies. Game play is fast, and exciting. Events, and the vast variety of hazards that space has to offer will keep you on your toes, and your underlings busy on the paperwork for decades to come!

The game is played in 5 phases: Research, Fleet, Management, Revenue, and finally First Player Turn Auction. All players will complete each phase, in turn order, before proceeding to the next phase. This helps to keep the game moving, and keeps players engaged. In Research phase players can pay to research, or choose to license another players tech. In the Fleet phase players get one action with each ship they own. The Management phase is when players build new ships, special tech items, and sell technology to the public domain. The Revenue phase is when players collect their hard earned resources, including a small stipend from their home office on Earth. And finally, the turn auction phase is a bidding war for who goes first. Not that important at the start of the game, but monumental for the end.

The first expansion for Twilight Imperium (Third Edition) features four new races that are unseen in previous editions, more balanced Strategy cards, more belligerent Objective cards, several new surprises for neutral planets, two more sets of plastic units, rules (with more than a dozen new optional variants), and enough additional systems for a fourth ring around Mecatol Rex. Now its 3-8 players. If you played TI3 and had some ideas for potential improvements, they are probably incorporated in Shattered Empire.