Antimatter
Alert
Combat
Type
Power of Inversion
Inverts Combat Strength
As a leader, during combat, your ships and any sponsor ships subtract from their fleet’s might instead of adding to it, and all brigades are lethal this encounter.
As a leader, during combat, use this power to invert the might of both brigades. Inverted positive values become negative, and inverted negative values become positive. Combat calculation is performed normally.
Legacy: All ships have negative might.
After emerging into the Cosmos through a bizarre spatial anomaly, the Antimatter found themselves unable to return to their home dimension. Cursed to exist within a universe that physically rejects them, they now seek to make themselves at home. By any means necessary.
Leader: Combat
Mandatory
Wild Flare
As a leader, during combat, you may discharge this flare to target one alien in either fleet. That alien’s committed ships each have -1 might this encounter.
Leader: Combat
Super Flare
As a leader, after contact, you may discharge this flare to subtract an additional might from your fleet for each ship in your fleet.
Leader: Contact
Modifications
- The original Anti-Matter power is the power of Negation. Changed to the power of Inversion to better fit with the theme of inverting the combat total. Negation is associated with cancelling something out, which is less appropriate here.
- The original Anti-Matter power modifies combat so that the lowest total wins, while also subtracting Anti-Matter’s ships and the ships of sponsors on both sides. My version changes this setup slightly to effectively reach the same result. Instead of the lower total winning, the encounter totals are simply flipped, resulting in what would have been higher now being lower. Since my version of Cosmic requires positive might to win an encounter through combat, I disabled that rule specifically for Anti-Matter, as otherwise only naturally negative values would get anywhere. Reversing it so negative values are required to accomplish anything would only hurt Anti-Matter, as it is better at reaching such values on its own.
- Original Wild Anti-Matter leaned into the theme of negation by letting the user negate a wild flare played by another power. This flare was modified to feel like a weaker version of the base power. By using this flare, allies become a liability instead of an asset depending on how many ships they send. Once others know you have this flare, enemy sponsors will be less likely to send more ships, creating a passive advantage for your fleet.
- Original Super Anti-Matter flare also dealt with the negation aspect by letting Anti-Matter negate a wild or super flare. It matches the original Wild flare but also has very little to do with the base power. As a fix, I opted to simply give Anti-Matter the ability to go “more negative” by having each ship on its side effectively count for -2 might. It helps Anti-Matter overwhelm the enemy when getting a lot of support and help make up the difference when it doesn’t. I think it fits well enough with the theme without creating a super power that’s too oppressive for combat powerhouses.
- Antimatter’s legacy reverses the potency of ship might, giving the default ship -1 might. Naturally powerful ships like Macron’s and Lizard’s become weaker, and aliens are incentivized to commit as few ships as possible. Strong encounter pods are still valuable. Original Cosmic has no legacies.
Tips
- Antimatter’s power makes normally powerful attack pods like 30 and 40 useless, but only if Antimatter is the leader. If not playing as Antimatter, avoid saving these cards for too long to avoid getting stuck with them vs. Antimatter. If playing as Antimatter, be careful about someone taking them through compensation.
- Antimatter gains the most advantage when having more ships and more allies. If Antimatter gets dogpiled, its power can quickly become a weakness. Play nice with others.
- Cosmic Zaps are especially valuable for Antimatter, and especially dangerous, as it is often the case that a win for Antimatter with a zap is a loss without it, and vice versa.
Development Notes
- Antimatter has always struggled with the limitations of its ability. Since its power is mandatory, it always has to play low, while everyone else only has to play low when opposing Antimatter. This means players can save their weakest cards for Antimatter that they would otherwise just throw away as a guaranteed loss. One potential variant to counter this natural weakness is to make it so every encounter in the quarrel uses the “lowest wins” setup unless Antimatter is zapped. This reverses the pod economy, making weak cards strong and vice versa, while also giving Antimatter value as both a leader and ally thanks to its negative-value ships. As a trade-off, it makes Antimatter’s own encounters as a leader less special, unless those are the only ones where the values get inverted. The biggest issue with this variant is the removal of choice from naturally strong aliens like Warpish and Warrior, who are naturally disadvantaged against Antimatter. Their only counter is to zap Antimatter, which goes against my design philosophy.
- Antimatter was the power that got me thinking about what those combat numbers mean. Why does a ship that fires a blast of energy defeat the opponent if it has a value of zero or negative? What does a negative value even mean? I reframed it such that negative values are blasts composed of the energy compatible with Antimatter’s biological composition, which is why negative attack pods are rarer. Antimatter’s power is needed to create an atmosphere where negative values have weight. I could not reconcile zero-value blasts doing anything, so those still cannot win encounters. It’s rare such a value should come up, so both aliens will need to play around it.
- Took awhile to reconcile that Antimatter’s ships do not always have negative might. If they did, people would be disincentivized to invite Antimatter unless it uses its power. And if Antimatter can use its power as a sponsor, Antimatter can always be commissioned for easy wins against Warpish, Warrior, etc.
- If Antimatter and Macron’s legacies are both active at once, each normal ship has base -4 might.