Amoeba
Alert
Combat
Diplomacy
Resource
Type
Power to Ooze
Oozes Through the Gate
As a leader, after approach, you may use this power to ooze ships in or out of the encounter. When oozing out, rebound any number of your engaged ships. When oozing in, add any number of your ships to the encounter, exceeding gate capacity.
Legacy: The gate has infinite capacity.
Born without a backbone, the Amoeba are known far and wide for their indecisiveness. These slippery devils can be highly unpredictable in their conquest, to the point where some question if they even possess sentience.
Leader: Approach
Optional
Wild Flare
As a leader, after approach, you may discharge this flare to add up to four of your ships to the encounter, exceeding gate capacity.
Leader: Approach
Super Flare
As a sponsor, after approach, you may discharge this flare to use your power.
Sponsor: Approach
Modifications
- Amoeba increases the gate capacity to infinity, removing all limits on how many ships can be committed by invaders and sponsors. This can be extremely powerful and dangerous, as aliens can lose a huge number of ships, thinking they can send 18 for an easy win, only to find their opponent did the same and has a stronger encounter pod. Macron essentially becomes Virus with this legacy enacted, capable of getting up to 80 might from ships alone (though this would eliminate it afterwards). Original Cosmic has no legacies.
Tips
- Amoeba can ooze ships in both for combat and diplomatic purposes. Since it activates before pods are signaled, it is not able to guarantee leverage. However, Amoeba can use compensation as a threat to force someone into negotiating, as Amoeba can wipe out an opponent’s cache by oozing in more ships.
- Amoeba is capable of bluffing with its power by contrasting the number of ships it originally sends with the ships it oozes in or out. It can bait an opponent into playing stronger or weaker, only to change gears on them.
- As a leader, Amoeba is always capable of protecting its ships by removing all of them from the encounter. However, it needs ships in order to gain any rewards, so this is more effective as a defender than an invader. Sacrificing a base to protect the ships can be useful since Amoeba is so ship-dependent, but overdoing it can cost Amoeba its power.
- Amoeba’s unpredictable nature is dependent on its number of free ships. If opposing Amoeba, try to take out as many of their ships as possible to keep them under control. As Amoeba, try to keep as many ships free as possible to maximize your options.
Development Notes
- My Amoeba functions identically to classic Amoeba, but a key difference exists because of my Cosmic’s rules regarding bases. If Amoeba removes ships from all of its bases to ooze them into the encounter, it will end up with no home bases and be eliminated from the game during bookkeeping. The exception would be if Amoeba wins its final encounter that turn and gets its fifth VP.
- One thing I always wondered about Amoeba was the significance of the timing. What exactly is learned between sending ships into the system and priming the pod? My conclusion was that nothing is learned, but by the time Amoeba uses its power, it’s too late for the opponent to change their pod.