To play the Cosmic Encounter board game you need a minimum of 3 players and up to 5 or more. The best amount of players for this game is 5. The premise of the game is for the alien race called Cosmos that wants to control the whole universe. For this, they have to alliances with other races.
The players become the political leaders of the alien races. They're supposed to create 5 colonies as fast as possible on the home worlds of other aliens, or players in this case. The way to achieve this goal doesn't matter. It can be through:
- force
- diplomacy
- trickery
The colonies can be on a single planet or on different planets. Since the players can become allies, the game can have more winners, not just one.
The play time is between 1 and 2 hours, depending on the number of players and on how long negotiations last.