Newsgroups: rec.games.board.ce
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1992 04:48:27 -0400 
From: Julian D Lighton <jl8e+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: More Cosmic review (Very Long!!)

Since nobody else seems to have More CE yet, and it ought to hit stores
soon, I thought that I should post a review.

Disclaimer: everything in here is IMO.

First impressions: the box contained a bundle of powers, already separated.
The powers are somewhat shinier on the front, and were bent. I would
expect the powers to be packed differently in the sets that they ship.
There were also a number of sheets of cardboard containing punch-out
moons and lucre, some decks of cards, and a plastic tray that has three
compartments that can hold cards, but are too small to hold all the
cards. (I keep the normal flare deck and the main deck separate, and
everything else fits in without trouble.) The rest of the tray is made
up of compartments that aren't the right size to hold any part of either
set well.

Contents:
54 challenge cards
9 kickers
10 edicts
15 reinforcements
54 powers with flares
26 new destiny cards
100 moons
100 lucre counters of varying denominations
rule book

new challenge cards: these range from 20 to -8. there aren't many
negative cards, and nothing really unusual.

kickers: i don't think that kickers have changed at all since the Eon
set. They range from -2 to 3, mostly being x2s.

edicts: a few new edicts that negate some of the components added in
this set. I think they should have put in a lucre zap type edict and
possibly something that stops reinforcements.

reinforcements: ranging from +1 to +5, these are played in a sort of
free-for-all right at the end of the challenge. They aren't common
enough to disrupt the game, and they can add an additional element of
strategy to the game that I like.

new destiny cards: there's two types of these. one is special destiny,
that tell you to attack somebody based on something other than their
color, such as their position in the game, or the amount of lucre they
have. the other kind of destiny card is comets, which affect everybody
in the game for this challenge, such as not being able to use powers, or
having to pay lucre for each card played. I haven't really used these
enough to form an opinion on them, but it seems that they (especially
the comets) will tend to create more disruption in the game. The rule
book reccomends putting on special card in the destiny deck for each
player in the game.

moons: the rules for moons don't seem to have changed much since the Eon
rules. The moons are larger, durable, and have the description and the
icon on the moon. The moons also have another icon on them that is
either quarter, (not very disruptive to the game) half, (more
disruptive) full, (can rapidly change the course of the game) or cheese.
(silly, like mind blank or deck deal) I've never played with the new
moons, and rarely with the old ones, so I can't give any real opinions
on them.

lucre: the lucre counters are smaller and flimsier than the moons, and
have the denomination printed in a tiny number in the counter. lucre is
now worth less, and must be spent to add to the total. The price chart
says you can also buy a random flare from the deck of unused flares for
seven lucre, but I think that you should either increase the price or
eliminate this option, because the flares can really disrupt a game. The
flares for the lucre powers all have a big L at the bottom to make it
easy for them to be sorted out. If you have something like an Illuminati
set lying around, you might want to use the money rom that because it is
much easier to read the values.

rule book: this contains the rules for all the stuff above, and also a
list of all the Edicts, clarifications of ambiguities between the two
sets, a list of the powers that Silencer can stop, a section on 'abused
powers" (Force, Judge, and Witch) that contains no useful advice, rules
for a complex two-player variant which I haven't ever tried, rules for 7
or 8 players, (Shark and Zilch are back) rules for multi-power games,
including a list of combinations that are too strong, too weak, or
conflict with each other. The list is not necessarily reliable, (Is
Macron-Amoeba a weak combination?) but may prove helpful, especially in
determining which power combinations need clarifying. there are also
brief sections on hidden powers, rotating powers, power selection,
bribery, and the punt option, which lets somebody skip their turn to
replace their hand.
(Sorry about the run-on sentences)

powers: if you though the artwork in the main set was bad, wait until
you see the new powers.
My comments on the new and altered powers in the set follow. If I didn't
list a power, there was probably not much change in the new set.
Comments on the powers that were in the Eon sets is based on memory and
what I've been told. I may get some of my facts wrong.

Anomaly: gets to cause most random events to be re-done, once per
challenge. An interesting power.
Aristocrat: no longer gets to go first, and can't take the Keeper.
One-shot flares make it even more powerful. I suggest trying it with
just the power to draw a flare each challenge. That makes it powerful,
but far less likely to just win.
Asessor: now a lucre power, he can be bought off.
Berserker: can challenge everybody on a planet at once, instead of just
one player, and all his compromises are attack 15's. I've never seen it
used, so I don't know how good it is.
Busybody: see Encounter v. 2 no. 1
Butler: tip is increased, other than that, no change.
Calculator: worst art in the set. I think that the amount that the
higher card is decreased is twice as much as it used to be.
Delegator: I have no idea if this has changed. Strong power, but not
strong enough to warrant punting or weakening.
Dictator: no real change, except rules covering wild and special
destiny. Some of the people I play with don't like this one, but I have
no objection.
Diplomat: no change, and as obnoxious as ever. This is one that I would
normally discard.
Disease: now needs four tokens to spread
Doppelganger: Incredibly powerful now. gets to pick cards. should
probably be punted or weakened.
Dragon: no longer gets all of the lucre, just some of it
Entrepeneur: can put lucre in the cone instead of tokens to earn more
lucre. Interesting power.
Ghost: gets to bring tokens in from the warp to help in a challenge. A
pretty good power.
Gnome: some of his lucre adds to the challenge total
Gorgon: any tokens sharing a base with him can't move. I dislike this
power because it doesn't really help the player holding it, and tends to
make everybody hate him.
Grief: gets cards when he loses tokens
Hurtz: has a limited stock of items that he can rent at any one time.
This probably makes the powera lot more balanced.
Industrialist: can add attack cards that he lost with to his total in a
later challenge.
Judge: no change except that he can be bought off with four lucre, and
the description contains a vague statement about anything that disrupts
the normal flow of the challenge negating his power. I reccomend making
him into a lucre-only power.
Lloyd: can insure more than just tokens, and gets paid no matter what happens.
Obverse: switches signs on challenge cards
Pavlov: see Encounter v. 2 no. 1
Pirate: can decide how much lucre to challenge for
Prophet: no change. Another power to consider putting controls on
Prolong: see Encounter v. 2 no. 1
Queue: see same issue
Reserve: can play low attack cards as reinforcements, and can negate
other players' reinforcements
Schizoid: must require at least three bases now, otherwise no change
Serpent: can make a deal with an his opponent or one of his opponent's
allies to end the challenge and send everybody else to the warp.
Spiff: this looks like an interesting power. when he loses by a large
amount, one of his tokens lives and lands on the planet
Sting: when he loses tokens "involuntarily" he can cause somebody else
to lose them instead and draw cards in compensation. This is a very
unbalanced power. I strongly reccomend not using it.
Wraith: gets to commit tokens in secret. It looks interesting, but I
don't know how well it plays

_______________________________________________________________________________
|Julian Lighton     jl8e@andrew.cmu.edu |   :-)   | It is not I who is crazy, |
|---------------------------------------|---------| it is I who am MAD!!!!!   |
|"Sleep my friend and you will see, that dream is | --Ren                     |
|my reality. They keep me locked up in this cage, |---------------------------|
|can't they see it's why my brain says rage-Metallica-Welcome Home(Sanitarium)|
|_____________________________________________________________________________|