One of the (many!) best parts of the Space Empires: Close Encounters (CE) expansion was the addition of the empire advantages deck. If you are not familiar with the expansion, this deck gives players variable starting powers by having them play unique alien races—an aspect of modern sci-fi board games that seems to be almost a necessity for some. But while you are zooming through space as the House of Speed, making peace with deep-space aliens as the Amazing Diplomats, or bringing major hurt as the Star Wolves, you can bring even more close encounters into the game with a simple rules tweak, outlined below.

Before the game starts, remove the following Empire Advantage cards from the deck:

• Fearless Race (31)
• Celestial Knights (33)
• Giant Race (34)
• Hive Mind (38)
• Immortals (44)
• Expert Tacticians (45)

Mix these cards up, set one to the side face-down, and mix the remainder back into the Empire Advantage deck. Set up the game and play your chosen scenario without any further changes, saving you must be playing with the non-player aliens (base game Advanced Rule 14.0). In this variant, though, when a barren planet is discovered in Deep Space and alien ships are added to the map, reveal the set-aside Empire Advantage card to see who these aliens are and how their base stats are modified. Do not flip over the card until the counters themselves are revealed in combat; if the alien markers are face-down due to a ship using Exploration Technology to explore that hex, leave the Empire Advantage card face-down as well. All non-player aliens revealed from here onward are considered to be of that particular race and are modified accordingly.

All other rules for aliens remain the same (they have PD 2 technology, do not retreat, etc.). Captured alien ships cannot be scrapped for technology and are treated exactly the same way as in CE rule 4.6, with the addition that they now have an Empire Advantage.

You could shake things up further by setting aside several of the Empire Advantage cards listed above at the beginning of the game (I would not recommend using all of them, though you could). Each time a new barren planet with aliens is discovered, reveal one of the cards and set a numeral marker on it. Place a matching numeral marker on the aliens (should any survive combat) in order to remember who they are. If all Empire Advantage cards have been revealed and another barren planet turns up, use a combination of drawing and flipping numeral markers to randomly determine which Empire Advantage it gets. For example, if you were playing with three of these alien Empire Advantages and needed to chose one, you could mix a 1/2 and a 3/4 marker up and draw one; if you get the 1/2, flip it as you would a coin to get your final number.

If you want to delve even deeper into the sandbox of design-your-own possibilities, one or more players could instead come up with one or more of their own alien “empire advantages”, which they write down on a piece of paper before the start of the game. Use similar methods to those outlined above to reveal/randomly determine these advantages. Some possible ideas to get you started:

• Expanding Race—each Economic Phase, any remaining aliens in their hex add one ship to their numbers (use numeral markers, and select the highest-classed ship first until maxed out).
• Expert Marksmen—these aliens always score a hit on 4 or less.
• Gamblers—these aliens laugh at your show of force, and suggest settling the dispute on a game of chance. You must leave the hex now, but if you wish you may return with exactly four ships, matching class for class with the aliens. A single die roll determines winner or loser; on a roll of 1-5, you win and all their ships quietly and peacefully leave the map. On a roll of 6-10, they win and all your ships are forfeit (you lose them as if they were destroyed). This wager is open to any player.
• Tricksters—these aliens disappear after the first round of combat (place them under their planet marker), and any of your remaining ships are returned to the hex they came from. No ship of any player may enter this hex until after the following economic phase, when the alien ships reemerge (take them out from under their planet marker) and the cycle repeats.

Even players who don’t have the CE expansion would be able to incorporate the idea above into their games. Just remember, any race you design could be one you end up fighting, so don’t get too carried away!

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