I'm no big CE fan, but I think it'll go over well with the Casual Players Club.
I have no interest in the FFG edition, for several reasons, but I do in some of the older ones. Particularly the West End Games and Games Workshop editions Those box covers are just perfect. I particularly like the 'Atari 2600' look of the WEG edition.
(WEG)
(GW)
I know there are also Eon, Mayfair, and Hasbro versions floating around as well.
I'm interested in which one is the better base game. I definitely don't like the game enough to buy expansions.
So, am I in luck? Are the WEG or GW editions pretty good?
I am pretty sure that the only versions that really ran with Cosmic Encounter as more than a base game are Eon, Mayfair, and FFG. The individual merits of the WEG or GW versions are a little more ambiguous to me, though neither one is super well-regarded. I mean, if artwork is your main attraction then go for it. I think most fans of the game would say that a different edition will give you a better experience, but you aren't really looking for something to really dig into in that way, as I gather.
One detail I'm trying to find is player count on those editions, because I do think that's an issue. Perhaps the biggest knock on the Hasbro version was that it only went to four players. You really want to go to five, and six is better I think.
If you're looking for a richer Cosmic Encounter experience you might try to find the Mayfair version. It went to six players out of the box, and had a lot of content in its original form. There is also only one expansion to it, which means if you ever wanted to do so you could find it without much trouble. It's also going for a bit cheaper now because FFG has been such a success. The artwork isn't very good, but I think it'd actually be a good option for you.
If you want to do a trade, I have the Eon Big Box version base game with a custom 5th player platter and white chits. I just traded for the FFG 2011 edition.
I can't say the Mayfair board is winning me over...looks like disco searchlights.
Content. It plays six out of the box and has around 50 aliens. I like the look and the way everything snaps together. The ships are chincey, but you could replace them.
Mayfair is the edition I played the shit out of in college.
Bull is absolutely right, it's the only previous edition that's likely worth it. Plays six, good mix of aliens, has flares (although the Mayfair edition uses one-shot flares, which is the great schism in the CE world).
There's a fat expansion called "More Cosmic Encounter", but we survived years of play without it. I really don't think it's necessary, and Lucre has destroyed many a game.
The Eon would be great, but you need to track down a few expansions before it gets to the right spot. That makes it harder and pricier.
I have a nearly-complete FFG set (I think I don't have the latest expansion), but I also traded a long time ago for a Mayfair + More + Simply Cosmic box of joy. "Simply Cosmic" was also Mayfair, and was a four-player simplified set (like the WEG or original Eon set). The nice part is that the four Simply players all had different colors than the six Cosmic players, meaning you can in theory play up to ten.
That would likely be suicidal, but I can mix and match components to my hearts content, including futzing with the deck composition. Extra tokens for Symbiote? No problem.
Jeff, your bottom pic is the Mayfair edition. Like Bull says it plays 6 in the base set so it looks just like that.
The Mayfair base set has a bunch of stuff to keep you busy for a long time. It has all the best parts of Cosmic. More Cosmic is the expansion and adds a few things, but we don't use most of it (moons, lucre) and just use the extra cards and races.
One very important distinction though is that Mayfair is the only edition that makes Flares one-time-use.
Also, I should add the only version we have and play is the Mayfair version with some stuff from More Cosmic. Once in a while I bust out Simply Cosmic for new players. Mayfair Cosmic with More Cosmic has more Cosmic than you'll ever need, but be warned that some regular Cosmic players get really hung up on how Mayfair changed the Flares.
As an aside, the FFG Cosmic Encounter is out of print, but, coming back shortly. I find it amazing that it didn't take but a moment for the price of this game to go up astronomically on BGG and eBay, and, this game isn't really out of print, just in between micro printings to keep it perpetually in stock.
More cosmic is awesome. Imagine 2 ffg expansions in 1 box.
The flare rules are different, maybe it's because I'm newer to hobby gaming, but I don't mind the discarding flares. The aliens look like they were molded in playdoh and then used as a reference for a coloured pencil sketch. I love the look, they're so grotesque and unique.
1) Simply Cosmic has only 8 powers, so I wouldn't really recommend it on its own.
3) Flares in general are good, because it adds options for the players, and since they're mostly tied to the powers in play it makes the difference from game to game more pronounced. Flares generally operate as a weaker version of the power they represent (unless it's *your* power, then you can use the Super Flare which usually extends your power).
From a game perspective, I mostly like kept flares, but I spent so long playing Mayfair that use-once never bothered me. Kept flares change the dynamic of the game a lot, as keeping cards in your hand to avoid discarding good flares suddenly becomes important, as does Consolation for deliberately throwing battles. The upside of use-once flares is that interesting effects that are way too strong for re-use are commonly available. It's a slightly different game with kept flares, but good either way.
I am firmly in favor of kept flares as a design element, because I feel like when you don't keep them they are basically very strong artifacts/edicts. That's more of an abstract design consideration rather than a real problem, but that's how I feel about it.
That being said, Mayfair did redesign flares to make them more suitable for one-shot usage, i.e. making them stronger. Having played a couple games of the Mayfair edition, it's still plenty insane even without keeping flares.
One nice thing Mayfair does is include a LOT of strange cards directly in the deck. FFG separated most of those cards into the rewards deck.
Games
How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
