Judge

Alert

Control

Diplomacy

Destroy

Type

Power to Arbitrate

Unbiased Adjudicator

As a bystander, after approach, you may use this power to scrap an attack or negotiate pod from your cache and abduct all drivers in the encounter. Shroud those pods in your nexus. If you scrapped an even attack pod, the invading fleet wins. If you scrapped an odd attack pod, the defending fleet wins. If you scrapped a negotiate pod, a negotiation occurs.

When the forge is reset, recharge and return all pods from your nexus to the forge.

Legacy: Judge chooses one alien to receive one free dominion. If Judge is not in the match, a random alien is chosen instead.

Across all Cosmic Encounters, the Judges serve the role of determining the victors and losers of every encounter. They are dutybound to the rules of the Federation. So long as they remain unbiased, their rulings cannot be disputed. However, it won’t stop other aliens from asking them what match they’re watching.

Bystander: Approach

Optional

Wild Flare

As a leader, during combat, if the might of the two fleets differ by less than 5, you may discharge this flare to transform both fleets into envoys.

Leader: Combat

Super Flare

When using your power, you may discharge this flare to scrap a distress pod and declare the current encounter a draw.

Bystander: Approach

Modifications

Originally the power of fiat.
Original Judge’s power determines additional rewards or penalties for the winner and loser when acting as a leader. The power seemed too self-serving for a judge, so I opted to take it in a different direction.
Original Super Judge can specify fiat for both winner and loser. It fits the original power well but doesn’t match mine.
My version of Judge is based off an FFG alien called Maven from the Eon Galaxy.
Original Maven seals pods in its nexus instead of shrouding them. I added the ability to view the pods to give Judge a bit of an edge. It seems appropriate that Judge can review the evidence of the case, and the info advantage isn’t too advantageous.
Original Super Maven can add the pods it abducts to its cache. I changed the effect to better fit the new theme, to become more judgelike instead of less.
Bandit’s legacy carries on the process of spinning, only without Bandit’s ability to take the cards for itself. Original Cosmic has no legacies.

Tips

When Judge does not participate in an encounter, the result may be out of everyone’s hands. Consider inviting Judge if you don’t want your effort to go to waste.
Judge can use its power to leverage being commissioned. Or it can intentionally sponsor no one in order to ensure an encounter goes its way.
Judge can use its power as a simple means of cache pruning to get it a faster resupply.
No matter how powerful the combat power, Judge’s rulings are absolute. Only a Cosmic Zap can hope to stop its arbitration, and the opponent may just win the encounter regardless.
Avoid playing your strongest encounter pods when Judge is a bystander. Judge may render them useless on a whim.
Even thought combat does not occur, casualties still result from Judge’s judgments if it rules you the loser. Be mindful about sponsoring aliens that Judge does not favor when it not a leader.
If Judge isn’t particularly interested who wins or loses, it could simply target the fleet with the most ships to lose so it can maximize damage to other aliens. Avoid committing too many ships when Judge is not a leader.

Development Notes

I find it an interesting expansion of the lore that Judge is the alien who normally decides all of the encounter results. It’s also interesting to imagine a being whose judgment is absolute, but only if the alien remains impartial to the decision making. Though he can participate directly, he cannot judge while participating in the encounter.
My Judge is based around Maven, one of the more controversial powers from the Eon Galaxy. If not balanced properly, it can result in a similar issue as Machine, where no one else gets to play the game since Judge keeps auto-deciding. The power is balanced around Judge itself not getting any direct value from its power and the pods in its cache determining which fleet can win.
Even attack pods are much more common in the forge than odd attack pods, meaning Judge is more likely to grant a win to the invader than the defender. This is an important aspect to the power, since it means Judge is less effective at stalling the match. Negotiate pods can also be scrapped to avoid getting stuck with them. Forcing aliens into a deal can be an effective tool in the later game, since it is harder to negotiate for a peaceful victory the more dominion an alien has.
Judge poses a major risk to fully taking away agency from other players, since no one has control of encounter results when Judge is a bystander. However, this is balanced by Judge taking away agency from itself, since it cannot directly participate in encounters while using its power. Unlike an alien like Prophet, Judge has to participate in encounters eventually to win. It cannot stall perpetually, but it can use its power to make its own campaign come about faster.
One subtle way Judge gains an advantage from its power is that it is the only one who knows the value of both drivers that were primed. If one of them is the 40 pod, Judge will be one of the only ones that knows the 40 pod is out of the pool, other than the one who primed it, until the forge is reset.
I considered having Judge’s base power not inflict casualties so I could give that power to Super Judge. I think it might make the base power too weak if it doesn’t destroy ships on the losing side. It would make the power mostly just for stalling and closing the gap other between leading aliens.
Judge’s ability to scrap a negotiate to turn an encounter into a negotiation is highly similar to Diplomat. However, it avoids being strictly superior to Diplomat by gaining no direct benefit from the negotiation. It cannot even participate in the invader’s peaceful victory if such a deal is made.