Cosmocotopus is a game by PaperFort Games and is a game for up to four players where players work to earn tentacles and once any player has collected eight tentacles, they are declared the winner of the game.
General Info
Number of players we had: 4
Table size needed: Medium (4')
Special considerations: None
Cosmoctopus is a symmetrical game with a combination of hand management and engine building components. As you build cards, you often gain the benefit of more easily building future cards using built-in discounts from those previously built cards.
Additionally, the game is set up in a 3X3 grid where 8 standard tiles are randomly arranged along with only one of four possible special tiles. This means it would take a very long time for any two games to be the same. Also, this game has a decent amount of strategy and ways to gain tentacles, but fits into a fairly compact box that makes it portable.
Getting Started & Turns
Reading the rule book and setting up Cosmoctopus did not take us very long and the rules were succinct enough that we were able to read through and know what we were supposed to do to begin. I will say that we did not play with the Private Investigator piece since it was our first time playing, so there is some complexity we can add in future games. We did go back and check the rules a couple of times for clarifications, but in general, the player aides and icon guide answered most of our questions.
Once someone begins the game, play continues until someone is declared the winner. Turns are short, with players moving the Cosmoctopus miniature to a new inky tile, gaining the benefits listed on that tile, then playing an optional card and lastly, discarding down to the resource limitations.
This means turns are fairly quick until later in the game when players have the resources to trigger things like playing extra cards or when finishing a constellation card that provides a tentacle. Earning tentacles usually provides additional benefits such as gaining extra cards or resources.
Players remain engaged on other player's turns because Cosmoctopus can only be moved one orthogonal space, unless you spend resources to go further, and you have no idea where the miniature will end up on your turn. This creates natural tension in the game because it affects the resources you can gain on your turn.
Other Game Info
We liked the Cosmoctopus theme, the font chosen for the cards, the uniqueness of the four different types of cards, the tentacle and octopus miniatures and the four different wooden resource tokens. The theme runs strong throughout all of the game.
We liked that while the game was not overly difficult to begin playing, acquiring tentacles is harder than it appears. I personally was the last of our group to gain a tentacle, but then ended up winning because I later saw an opportunity by building several constellation cards, which is mostly how you gain tentacles, all at the same time. This required me to acquire and build several that had the same required order of resources, which took several rounds and at one point I was not sure I could catch up.
There are other ways to gain tentacles and there are lots of cards that can help - including ones that you keep through the remainder of the game while others are one and done. We liked that there were several types of cards like this, as we all play differently and each found our style of game play met.
Lastly, this was a really close game! The game ended with one person having seven tentacles and the remaining players having six tentacles! We tend to like games where the results are close, and we look forward to playing this one again, ideally with a different special inky tile randomly selected!
