Bride
Alert
Support
Resource
Diplomacy
Type
Power to Marry
Weds Other Aliens
As a leader, after launch, you may use this power to “marry” your opponent. You and your opponent each display one of your ships in each other’s nexus as “rings”. You may not use this power while you are married.
You and your spouse may sponsor one another without being commissioned, relay the pods in your cache to one another, and communicate in a private voice channel whenever you are not in another. Once per arrival, you may gift a pod from your cache to your spouse to force your spouse to gift a different pod in return.
At any time, you may “divorce” your current spouse. Rebound the ring in your spouse’s nexus and display it on top of the one in yours. Then snatch half of the pods in their cache (rounded down) as “alimony”. You may not remarry an alien after divorcing them. If your power is deactivated, immediately divorce your spouse without receiving alimony.
Special Offer: If negotiating with your spouse, both leaders establish a base in each other’s system and receive no other demands. – Costs 1 influence plus 2 per dominion. Both leaders must pay the cost individually.
Legacy: The next invader and defender must marry and cannot divorce. Either alien can invoke the pod gifting clause.
When gauging every intergalactic superweapon capable of social control, none can quite compare to the shackles of matrimony. Though you may feel secure as a single species, know that when the ringbearer arrives, your cold feet will not save you. Beware. The Brides cometh.
Leader: Launch
Optional
Wild Flare
As the defender, after launch, you may discharge this flare to immediately retreat from the encounter. The invader may either rebound their ships or jump them to a vacant foreign planet. The invader’s campaign then ends.
Defender: Launch
Super Flare
As a leader, after launch, when the opponent is a former spouse, you may discharge this flare to remarry that alien. Your spouse displays a new ring in your nexus, and you display the former ring from your nexus in theirs. If you divorce again, rebound one of your rings and replace it with your spouse’s ring instead of collecting alimony.
Leader: Launch
Modifications
- Original Bride flips ships upside-down to indicate divorce. My version of Cosmic uses symmetrical ships, so I came up with a different way to indicate it. Since the ships used as rings are lost to both aliens no matter what, transferring it to Bride’s nexus is a simple fix that doesn’t buff or nerf the power.
- Similarly, Super Bride doesn’t receive an additional ring. It simply flips its former ring back over. I added this small buff to make a remarriage visually distinct from a first marriage, since Bride will have two rings stacked together instead of one.
- My version of Cosmic has the voice channel for direct communication. In original Cosmic, aliens can speak freely with one another.
- I gave Bride the unique special offer that is commonplace in original Cosmic to establish a base in the spouse’s system, allowing Bride to make the “base for base” deal if married. Original Cosmic has no special offers.
- Bride’s legacy forces two randomly chosen aliens to marry, allowing them to force pod trades on each other and share everything. Since they cannot divorce, it incentivizes the two aliens to work together, though they are still free to backstab one another. Original Cosmic has no legacies.
Tips
- While other aliens cannot stop Bride from marrying them without a zap, they can make it either a happy marriage or a depressing one. Bride can act as a loyal partner that works with one alien the entire match. Or they can end up marrying everyone once to steal as many pods as possible.
- Since Bride will always encounter its spouse immediately after marriage, they have an opportunity to negotiate right away, setting their marriage off on the right foot.
- Bride and its spouse are two of the only aliens capable of freely relaying their pods to someone else. By knowing exactly what one another is holding, they can best plan their strategy of how to use their resources.
- Bride and its spouse cannot communicate privately if they invite someone else into their fleet, since they will be forced into their fleet’s voice channel. They can use this to their advantage by tricking other aliens into joining into false plans.
- Be wary of sponsoring Bride as a backward. Building up your cache will make it a juicier target for alimony, and Bride will know exactly what you have if you choose to share it.
- The pod trading clause allows two aliens to have a “shared cache”. If they are in the same fleet, whoever has the strongest pod can give it to the current leader, allowing them to always have access to their best pod if either is the leader.
- Having access to a private voice channel with one other alien allows Bride much more freedom in planning strategies. They can speak about matters they choose not to discuss while others are around, including stating aloud
Development Notes
- Bride is an example of an alien that sacrifices parsimony in order to maximize theming as much as possible. It incorporates the marriage, divorce, alimony, and even the wedding rings with the ships in the nexus. All it’s missing is the honeymoon. It’s worth noting that despite the complexity of the alien, Bride remains a yellow-alert alien, even the original FFG version. It goes to show that the word count in the alien bio isn’t solely what determines complexity. Some powers can be wordy but still simple enough to understand.
- It’s difficult to say Bride’s theme is anything but excellent. The power of a bride is the power of marriage, the formal union of two individuals. Whether Bride is marrying for love, politics, or resources, the power comes from the intimacy that comes with sharing everything and the cold sting of divorce. It’s unfortunate that my Lawyer alien cannot interact with the divorce for maximum theming, but it’s fitting that both powers involve snatching pods.
- Bride’s fantastic theming allows for a great deal of roleplay. An alien can act as a manipulative Bride that only marries for pods or a loyal and steadfast partner that insists on being with one alien through thick and thin. It’s a particularly good roleplay for the spouse of a Cosmic fan, though it could also sow a bit of discord if they choose to divorce.
- Miser is an interesting alien for Bride to marry, as they get even more benefit from their shared cache due to Miser’s hoard, and Bride cannot take a single pod from Miser due to its hoarding ability.
- Mechanically, Bride seems designed more than almost any other for the “base for base” deals which are possible in original Cosmic. Since Bride and its spouse face off right after marriage, they are incentivized to negotiate and then give each other a free base. I decided to allow an exception for married couples to establish bases in each others’ systems, since it is both situational and on theme. I would normally be opposed to the idea due to it potentially opening the door for an anticlimactic win. However, I intentionally designed the system so that aliens cannot afford to negotiate for the final base without some kind of influence boosting effect. If both Bride and spouse can generate enough influence to negotiate a win, I think they deserve it. I also specified the special offer to provide no other benefits, given its value, and only the married couple get bases, excluding any sponsors from joining in a peaceful victory. In addition, I made sure the deal can only be made with your spouse, since it wouldn’t make sense otherwise. I made Bride’s special offer more expensive than the peaceful victory since neither has an incentive to cancel it.
- Though Bride can force trade between itself and its spouse and they can freely sponsor one another, nothing forces the two to cooperate. The spouse does not have to show Bride any of its pods or communicate in the private voice channel, and the Bride gets the same luxury. As with a real marriage, it must be a mutual partnership for the marriage to have value.
- I considered using marks instead of ships for the rings, which the original FFG version could have done too. However, the minor ship vaporization power seems to be an intentional aspect of the power, reducing the total amount of ships in play by a small amount. It is also too perfect of a thematic bonus since my ships just so happen to be shaped like rings.
- Due to my lucre mechanic, Bride is generally capable of taking all of an alien’s lucre. If they don’t like the pods, they can immediately request a free resupply using that stolen lucre.
- Bride is one of the few aliens that incorporates a unique voice channel into its power, alongside other gabby aliens like Scammer.