Butler
Alert
Resource
Control
Destroy
Type
Power to Serve
Underpaid and Underappreciated
When you are not the invader, during launch, use this power to prepare the gate for the invader. The invader may choose to “tip” you by letting you snatch a pod from their cache. If they do not, you may aim the gate on any valid planet, committing any of their ships (equal to the number they specify). Otherwise, you must follow the invader’s instructions regarding where to aim the gate and which ships to commit. You must remain courteous in the voice and text channels at all times, except towards an alien that refused to tip you that invasion.
Legacy: During launch, the invader must ravage one of their pods to commit ships to the gate.
In reverence to a sacred oath taken millennia ago, the Butlers diligently carry out the orders of whatever alien calls upon them, handling the dirtiest and most demeaning of jobs. As long as they are properly compensated, they will carry out their duty with the stiffest of upper lips. Those who don’t pay have discovered the damage logistical errors can do to an acting army.
Not Invader: Launch
Optional
Wild Flare
As the invader, after warpfall, you may discharge this flare to make someone else be the invader instead, using your flagship. That alien must commission you.
Invader: Warpfall
Super Flare
When using your power, you may discharge this flare to request an additional pod as part of your tip.
Not Invader: Launch
Modifications
- Butler’s wild flare works the same in the base version, only it was modified based around my specific rules of fuel and flagships. Originally, it just counts as a win or loss for you depending on the result, allowing your second invasion or not. I have them use your flagship, which results in the same situation.
- Butler’s original design also adds some other manual labor tasks for flavor such as manifesting destiny, but this is done automatically in my version of Cosmic, so there’s nothing really for Butler to do here. Dealing with the gate at least requires choice.
- Butler’s courteous clause for flavor is slightly different in the original design. Butler only has to be courteous to players that tip it. I switched it to have Butler’s courteousness be the default state, only changing if Butler isn’t tipped.
- Butler’s legacy forces the invader to ravage a pod if committing ships to the gate. It reflects the idea of the invader paying the tip in respect to the fallen Butler, to honor the alien’s memory.
Tips
- Not tipping the Butler tends to be more damaging the fewer ships you have. If you start with powerful pods, it could be worth playing few ships and using your pods first before starting to tip. Since aliens can still control how many ships they commit, they generally want to send out fewer ships than what they have stationed on their weakest base. If they have a base with 1 ship, they basically will always want to tip Butler.
- Aliens with weak caches can take advantage of Butler’s mandatory power to get a resupply more quickly. Flares can be played strategically to avoid Butler taking them.
- Due to how the snatching mechanic works, Butler is capable of quickly picking up a bunch of Lucre if aliens tip it. It can be a reliable choice if the strength of an alien’s cache is uncertain.
Development Notes
- Butler is one of the more popular aliens in the Cosmic Encounter fandom, known for its famous/infamous ability to completely wreck the enemy if you don’t tip them.
- Theoretically, Butler is vastly more powerful than Bully and Assassin when it comes to smashing colonies. Its effect activates as often as Assassin, and has as much destruction power as Bully. However, enemy aliens always have the option to mitigate the effect by tipping, which takes away the threat to bases. Butler can only destroy bases, not ships, but that alone can really incentivize a tipping culture.
- Thematically, it would be somewhat better if the card granted to Butler could be chosen instead of random, since that would be more like tipping in real life. However, there’s no inherent value system in place for different pods, so one would need to be invented, which would probably bring it up to a red alert alien. Giving a 40 pod is the same as an N, so players would just give their worst pods to Butler for a win-win. It would be possible for me to have it be a specific card in my version using my Lucre mechanic, but then aliens would be unable to tip if they don’t have Lucre, which would add a lot more incentive to sponsor the defender.I think it’s justified enough for it to be random. It could be abstracted such that the value of the random card denotes the generosity that alien is feeling at the time, which is outside of their control. Perhaps that’s part of Butler’s power as well.