Moon

Moons are a variant introduced in Eon's fifth expansion, reincluded in Mayfair's More Cosmic Encounter expansion and reintroduced in a new form in the FFG edition with Cosmic Odyssey. Moons are small cardboard discs with identical backs but different powers printed on their fronts. The Moons variant allows players to expand beyond the planets in their systems and take control of a variety of mysterious moons.

Cosmic Odyssey rules

Each moon has a corresponding moon card describing the moon's power, with a number on the front of each moon and card indicating which card corresponds to which moon. During setup, each player draws three moon cards and discards one of them, then takes the moons corresponding to the two other cards and places them number side down next to planets in their home system, with their cards kept face down nearby. Players may look at facedown moons in their home systems and their corresponding moon cards at any time.

During the game, if a main player (as either the offense or defense) wins an encounter at a planet with an unoccupied moon, they may take one of their winning ships from the encounter and place it on the moon. When reestablishing a home colony on one of their empty home planets with an unoccupied moon via drawing their own color for destiny, a player may place one of the ships onto the moon instead of the planet. Additionally, when a player gains a colony on a planet with an unoccupied moon via a deal, the dealing players must specify whether or not the landing player may land one of their ships on the moon.

Once a player has a ship on a moon, that player takes the corresponding moon card, reveals it and immediately applies its effect (unless otherwise stated on the card). If the moon becomes unoccupied, its effect is no longer applied.

If a player has a ship on a moon, the player is also considered to have a colony on the moon's planet, and the ship is considered part of the colony and takes part in an encounter if the player with the ship on the moon ends up as the defense in an encounter at the planet. However, ships on moons are not considered to be on a planet for the purposes of effects that interact with ships on planets. For example, if an effect says "choose a ship in a colony," a ship on a moon may be chosen, but if an effect says "choose a ship on a planet," a ship on a moon may not be chosen.

If a planet with a moon moves to another system or is removed from the game, the moon is removed from the game. Any ship on the moon is placed on the planet if possible, otherwise it is sent to the warp.

Moon types

Cosmic Odyssey includes 88 moons divided into nine types, each with a different mechanical theme:

• Quarter Moon - Has an immediate effect that activates each time a player lands on the moon.
• Half Moon - Has a continuous effect that gets stronger if the player occupies two or more half moons.
• Full Moon - Has a continuous effect that affects all players.
• Blue Moon - Kept secret, and can be revealed for a one-time ability.
• Secret Moon - Kept secret, and can be revealed for a continuous ability.
• Hub Moon - Has an effect that applies while the player is making a deal.
• Moon Base - Counts as an additional foreign colony for the player, in addition to the colony gained on the planet from having a ship on the moon (i.e. if you have a ship on a moon base attached to another player's planet, then you have two foreign colonies, one for the moon and one for the planet, even if you have no physical ships on the planet), but imposes a penalty on the player.
• Cheesy Moon - Has either a silly effect, such as forcing players to speak in rhyme, or an extremely chaotic effect.
• New Moon - Can be any other moon type on its front side.

Eon and Mayfair rules

This article or section uses Eon and Mayfair terminology ("token" for ship, "base" for colony, etc.).

Each player begins the game with two moons in his or her home system, face down - players may look at the front sides of moons in their own systems, but not those in other players' systems. Players do not place any tokens on moons during setup.

During the launch phase, the offensive main player may aim the cone at and challenge a moon in the appropriate player's system (according to the destiny draw) instead of a planet. This also applies if the main player drew his or her own color for destiny. If a wild destiny card is drawn, the player may challenge a moon in any system.

If the moon is unoccupied, the offensive player simply lands his or her tokens on the moon without needing to play out a challenge. This counts as a successful challenge for the offensive player. If another player already has a base on the moon, that player becomes the defensive main player, regardless of whose system the moon is in, and a challenge occurs at the moon, with the offensive player only landing on the moon if he or she wins the challenge. Moon challenges are played the same as planet challenges, except allies may not be invited and alliances may not be formed by any means.

Only one player may have a base on a moon at a time. Bases on moons do not count toward the five external bases needed to win the game (no matter whose system the moon is in), but instead allow the player who owns the base to look at the other side of the moon and use its power. Some moon powers are used immediately when the player lands their tokens on the moon; some are continuously applied for as long as a player has a base on the moon; and some are kept secret until the player wants to use its power. Once a moon's power is used for the first time, the moon is turned face up and remains face up for the rest of the game.

In the Eon edition, moons simply had names and numbers on their front sides, with the moon powers themselves being listed by number in the rulebook, meaning players had to refer to the rulebook each time they wanted to read a moon's power. In the Mayfair edition, the moon powers were printed on the moon's front sides along with the moon's name.

Moon types

The Mayfair edition distinguished its moons by dividing them into four categories, based on how strong the moon's power is. The moon types were indicated by icons on the front sides of the moons but not the backs, so other players wouldn't know what they'd be getting until they landed on the moon.

• Quarter Moon - minor effects
• Half Moon - medium effects
• Full Moon - major effects
• Cheesy Moon - silly effects

Reception

Players' opinions varied on moons. Many players liked them for the new interactions, chaos and unpredictability that they brought to the game, but many players also thought that the moons made the game take longer and were not worth it to interact with because players had to use up their encounters to land on them instead of using them to try to gain external bases to win the game. The FFG version of moons in Cosmic Odyssey addressed this by having the player's ships land on the moon and the planet at the same time and by having moon colonies count as colonies on the planet, so that players can land on moons to use their moon powers and accumulate foreign colonies at the same time.