I’ve never seen the original game, but I’ll be certain to buy this electronic edition. It will be interesting to compare it to FASA’s Star Trek RPG and Amarillo Design Bureau’s Star Fleet Battles.

Read the product description here.

Incidentally, Goblinoid Games previously released a PDF edition of Starships & Spacemen, another Star Trek-inspired game first published by Fantasy Games Unlimited in 1978. Read its product description here.

This was the first game in which we used the third Advanced Element: Shots on Goal, and it certainly reduced the scoring opportunities. Mater, frustrated by my increasingly conservative tactics, quoted the rule book with an accusatory tone, “Players should shoot on goal as soon as possible.” (Emphasis hers.) Dramatic pause followed by my hysterical laughter and then hers — thus was much valuable playing time lost.

It should be noted that AE 3 made scoring much more difficult and the only goal scored in the game was accomplished by dribbling.

One memorable moment was when I maneuvered one of my Strikers around one of her players to dribble the ball closer to her penalty area, and she exclaimed, “You can’t do that! You changed direction twice!” I pointed out that my player was dribbling, not passing or shooting, and it became clear that she was not aware of the distinction with regard to the rule that there may be no more than one bend in a pass or shot. “Do you mean all this time you’ve been playing as if a player [i.e. playing piece] can change direction no more than once per move?” I asked incredulously. She nodded meekly, and I realized she had been playing with a self-imposed handicap for the past three games. Needless to say, this invalidates all three, but we begin with a clean slate for Game Four.

For Game Four, we shall be using the first four Advanced Elements, and with luck we’ll be able to play two entire halves for the first time.

By the 13th Minute, I was steadily dribbling the ball up the right side of the field with good protection, which proved a wise precaution since Mater attempted and failed to tackle twice. By the 17th Minute of dribbling and passing, I managed to get a striker to the edge of Mater’s penalty area and made a shot that her goalkeeper failed to save. I was finally on the scoreboard and it was 2-1 Mater.

During the 18th Minute, I failed to tackle Mater and she slipped past my fullbacks and took another shot, but my goalkeeper saved and threw the ball to my right fullback, who proceeded to take it up the right side of the field covered by a midfielder and a striker. The fullback retained possession and was joined by another midfielder to protect against tackling whilst I moved some strikers closer to Mater’s penalty area. By the 23rd Minute, Mater had moved her fullbacks into the beginning of a wall facing my approach, moved a striker into my penalty area, and sent three players in for the tackle. They failed. It was the 24th Minute. My fullback passed to a nearby midfielder who passed to a striker. The striker, whom I had previously moved into an excellent position unguarded by the developing wall, dribbled the ball to the edge of the penalty area and took a shot that Mater’s goalkeeper was unable to save. The score was tied 2-2.

For the next eight Minutes there were successful tackles, failed tackles, shots attempted, and saves made by both our goalkeepers until one of my strikers dribbled a ball straight into Mater’s goal hex. The score was 3-2 in my favor. It was about the 36th Minute, nine minutes until the end of the first half, but Mater was tired (it was 11:30 p.m. by that time) and forfeited the game in spite of my mild protests. I was a little disappointed, but I conceded we ought to have started the game earlier. Perhaps next time we will get to play both halves of a game.

My opponent was my mother, and we decided to start with the basic game as recommended in the rules. We didn’t have time to play a full game, so we played just a single half, which consists of 45 turns.

Mater scored the first goal by dribbling the ball straight past my goalkeeper. I evened the score by dribbling it straight past hers.

She then attempted to shoot, but my goalkeeper saved, whereupon the action was taken back to her end of the field and one of my players took a shot and scored a goal for the lead.

Later, Mater outmaneuvered my fullbacks and goalkeeper to score another goal (I had foolishly allowed my goalkeeper to stray and was one hex too far away to attempt a save). The score was 2-2 and I was the Offense, but Mater swiftly stole the ball and pressed home another attack with scant minutes left on the Clock, firing another shot at my goal hexes. This time, however, my goalkeeper was in place and successfully made the save, leaving one turn left, thus ending the half (since the ball cannot be moved from one end of the field to the other in a single turn).

There was much running, passing, and tackling, too, but without a system of notation or a series of illustrations I’m not quite sure how to describe it. Be assured, however, that the game has an excellent pace.

All in all, it was a fun game that I am sure is even more satisfying as the advanced rules are added, which we shall be implementing in the near future. Further actual play reports will follow.

What would be served by including more rule books, you might ask, except for increasing the cost of the game? Apart from the fact that in most board games the cost of the rulebook is negligible (the infamous exceptions being games such as Advanced Squad Leader or Star Fleet Battles), the obvious benefit is that everyone can learn to play at the same time, rather than waiting for one person to learn the rules and teach it to everyone else. This is especially helpful if there is more than one rule book aficionado in the group. The other benefit is that everyone can look up rules at the same time when a question arises during play. Yet another benefit is that players are free to consult the rules without drawing attention to the fact, thereby answering their own questions without tipping their hand (a factor not to be underestimated in serious strategy games).

It is true there are game companies that routinely provide free PDF versions of their rule books online (e.g. Columbia Games), and I applaud them, but there are still many gamers who do not have Internet access or even computers, believe it or not. This significant fact ought not to be ignored by publishers of board games and war games. These customers, after all, are not being lured away by the computer game industry and they deserve to be catered to, not dismissed. Most rule books are a few pages of black & white print. Just throw a few more in the box! Your customers will be happier, and happy customers are loyal customers.

Additionally, many players are content to let someone else teach them the rules, usually the person who bought the game. If it were made easier for all the players to read the rules by providing more copies, then casual players may come to feel less intimidated by rule books and become buyers of games themselves. This, of course, helps both the hobby and the industry. I am calling upon all publishers of games to create a new standard: one rule book for each player in every boxed game. That’s all I ask.

Cosmic Encounter is available for online play at www.cosmicencounter.com.

The official press release may be downloaded as a PDF at the Fantasy Flight Games site.

• Settlers of Catan (Mayfair Games)
• RoboRally (Avalon Hill)
• Puerto Rico (Rio Grande Games)
• Rheinlander (Face2Face Games)
• Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World (Front Porch Classics)

Time to start playing some games, eh?