Mirage
Alert
Combat
Control
Type
Power of Delusion
Changes Ships in Combat
As a leader, during combat, use this power to create a “mirage”. Target one of your bases and an opponent’s base. The might from those bases are added to their owner’s fleets instead of the committed ships.
Legacy: During launch, the defender chooses the target planet. The defender must choose a planet the invader does not already occupy.
For the longest time, it was debated as to whether the Mirage actually existed or were simply the product of shared delusion created after being exposed to an unusual nebula. The answer was never truly confirmed, but they were allowed to enlist in the Federation regardless.
Leader: Combat
Mandatory
Wild Flare
As an actor, during combat, you may discharge this flare to transform an N pod in your cache into a reinforcement pod until upkeep.
Actor: Combat
Super Flare
When using your power, you may discharge this flare to target any sponsor’s base. That base adds its might to its owner’s fleet instead of the owner’s committed ships.
Leader: Combat
Modifications
- Originally, Wild Mirage temporarily transforms the N pod into a +3 reinforcement. Since my Cosmic does not assign absolute values to reinforcement pods, it just becomes a normal reinforcement pod, which is a buff to the effect given my ranges from 03 to 08.
- Mirage’s legacy makes it so the defender will decide which planet the invader will invade, instead of the invader. While they can’t waste the invader’s encounter by having them target a planet the invader already occupies, they can have them target that has already been invaded by other aliens, protecting one of their bases and making it difficult for the invader to pull sponsors. This legacy can make a match defensive, resulting in powers like Warrior or Tick-Tock gaining an advantage. However, since the defender decides which planet to target, they could also target their strongest base instead. Aliens like Citadel with special planets can put this legacy to great use, since opponents bypassing its citadels is its biggest standard weakness. This legacy also makes it virtually impossible to take down space stations. Original Cosmic has no legacies.
Tips
- Mirage’s power makes the number of committed ships inconsequential in terms of might. Both leaders can commit one ship, since Mirage will most likely always choose its own strongest base and the weakest opponent base.
- Against Mirage, vacating a base can potentially be superior to a base with 1 ship on it, since Mirage can’t use non-existent bases against you.
- Be wary about committing a small number of ships to any invasion as an invader or foreward. Your smallest single base will almost certainly be your committed ship count when fighting Mirage.
- Winning as a backward is the most efficient means of jumping many ships onto one base for Mirage’s power, since it can reposition the winning ships and revive more ships to put on the base.
Development Notes
- What I find most disappointing about this power is the lack of interesting choices the user is tasked to make, which goes against Edict 3. Mirage’s power only affects might, which means higher is better and lower is worse. Mirage will always want to target its own strongest base and the opponent’s weakest base. The interesting choice doesn’t come from using the power. It instead comes from the choices made to create a strong base, as well as for other aliens to ensure none of their bases are too weak.
- Assuming the opponent commits 4 ships and Mirage commits 1, Mirage can target its own base with 4 ships and an opponent’s base with 3 maximum. That means the power provides a base 4 power swing, which allows it to barely pass the Human Test in the first invasion. Of course, Mirage is capable of adding more power to its encounter by stacking more ships onto one base, but it makes this base vulnerable to destruction. Soon enough, other aliens will start having bases with 1 and 2 ships on them, increasing Mirage’s base combat potential by a little more. It likely can’t stack up power anywhere near as high as a combat power like Warpish or Villain. Even Calculator can likely produce more might than it on average. However, similar to Human, the power is consistent and can be leveraged to restrict the resources of other aliens.
- Human is a good point of comparison in terms of combat might. In the best-case scenario, my Human has a cap at 9 bonus might, which is unzappable. This would mean that Human never loses a home base and gains 4 dominion, an unlikely circumstance. Mirage can risk its ships by stacking up many ships onto one base, potentially even as high as 15 or 16 like Worm. Also unlikely to pull off, but Mirage can get a much higher swing than Human with less effort and higher risk, likely capping out around 15 bonus might. It can also hit 9 bonus might much more easily than Human can.
- Mirage is a good alien for considering how easy it is to jump one’s ships freely between bases, since it is the primary method of Mirage stacking up power on its own end. According to my rules, ships cannot be freely moved around at-will. Greenhorn can redistribute its ships as the invader during warpfall as part of its power, meaning other aliens cannot do this. Reviving a ship allows it to jump to any base of choice, which includes warpfall, boons, and the warp key. The strongest means of repositioning ships appears to be winning as a backward, since you get to rebound those ships after winning to any base, and the boons you gain can revive more ships to reposition them to any base as well. Winning in any other role will result in your ships on the target planet, which naturally won’t allow them to be repositioned.
- Though it may not seem like it at a glance, Mirage’s power is similar to that of Assassin and Brute, where it encourages all aliens to establish as many ships on a base as possible and keep them there. This means that even if committing four ships against Mirage doesn’t help its combat power, they still need to risk those four ships to stop them from having one ship in every encounter against Mirage for the rest of the match. Combat powers may be less pressured by Mirage’s effect, since their power can offset the loss of ship might. Other aliens have to weigh the punishment of Mirage against the threat of spreading their resources too thin.
- Another alien worth comparing to Mirage is the red-alert Gorgon, an alien that prevents ships from moving once they either coexist with Gorgon or establish a base in Gorgon’s system. Unlike Gorgon, other aliens will not hesitate to commission or sponsor Mirage, since the penalty will be imposed whether Mirage is involved or not. As a trade-of, the ships established on bases are not “lost” in the same way as they are against Gorgon. They simply make combat against Mirage more difficult when it acts as a leader. Gorgon is also a persistent power, which makes Gorgon more of a direct threat for more of the match. Gorgon receives no direct combat bonus from its power and is much closer to Void in terms of the advantage it receives. Other aliens cannot use the same strategy to defeat both Mirage and Gorgon, as attempting to deactivate Mirage’s power is the most effective strategy to removing it as a threat, while it is borderline counterproductive against Gorgon.
- Mirage can be perceived as a variation of Worm, a power that changes the target planet after contact. Worm’s power changes the committed ships of the defender, but the invader’s ships remain constant. Mirage changes both, and it has no impact on which ships are at risk during the encounter. As long as Mirage has one base with 4 ships on it, it can always commit 4 ships of might into the encounter. However, it won’t get 4 boons as a backward or 4 pods from compensation unless it commits 4 ships, since its power only applies to combat.
- A mirage refers to an illusion that looks real but is not. It is commonly associated with the illusions seen by desert travelers, causing them to see water in the desert due to the reflection of the sky. Mirage is meant to create a similar illusion, fooling the opponent into believing the committed ships are actually different.