Minimum number of players to have a good time?

[Frog 1]

What is the minimum number of players you need for Cosmic Encounter to have a good time?

I think this game looks pretty cool!

[Macron 0]

One. It's a joy just to read all the different powers and flares.

Okay. I suppose you actually want to play the game. Three is a lot of fun. The old Eon two-player rules worked, but not really satisfying IMO.

However, I think four is the best number; it gives better opportunities for allying and still not a lot of down-time between turns. Five and six are still good though, they just take a bit longer.

[Just_a_Bill 84]

Minimum four to really get the full flavor of the game.  Three is acceptable, but you'll never have allies on both sides of an encounter.  Two is barely workable if you use a house rule that each player plays two completely different systems, each with its own alien, and you don't allow players to ally with themselves.

[Frog 1]

I figured it had to be 3 plus.  Just my wife and I would not really cut it because there would not be enough planets to conquer.  Every once in a while we have company and could get a 3 or 4 player game going though.

[Macron 0]

And the best part ... "I had to attack you, it was my destiny!"

[Kobold Curry Chef 30]

My group is usually just 3 people.  We have fun with CE, no doubt.  More players is always better, though!

[Baelthazar 0]

3 is fine, 4 is fantastic. I've never played with 5-6, but I can only imagine that it would be > 4.

I'm thinking of trying to teach my wife with a 2-player variant - possibly just tell her to play two races. OR, and this may have some legs - we put two "dummy" civilizations and we alternate who gets to play them - i.e. red and green are "dummies" and I play red, she plays green one round, then she plays red and I play green the next round. The trick would be that, if a dummy civilization wins, then whoever is currently playing that civilization wins. The limiting factor would be that you could never ask the dummy civilization which you are currently playing to ally with you. It would be like playing two civs each, but add the factor that each player would be invested in both dummy civs.

Bael

[Hemux 1]

In our games, we saw that 3 sucks, 4 is perfect and very focused, 5 is greater although messier. So usually 4.

[The Warp 23]

12!   But I will settle for 8.

[Kobold Curry Chef 30]

Of course, you are spoiled!  ;-)

[Gwanum 0]

Three works well but I would rather play with four or more.  Having allies on both sides of encounters is always better.