Homeworld Rules

[William Boling]

Not sure if i'm being dense, but it seems to me that the Homeworlds PDF doesn't actually tell you how to play the game.

I am new to Pyramids in general, only having played Ice Dice and Launchpad 23. I got the impression that the current rules available for download are more of a primer for experienced players.

Is there a resource that someone could point me toward to help me better understand this game?

[William Boling]

I think videos of some of the more abstract games would be a great idea. It seems there are a couple of pyramid games where the instructions state that you should learn from an experienced player, but depending on geography, population, and level of social awkwardness, that is not always possible.

It would be a great boon to some gamers to have other avenues of discovery for new games so that they can then introduce them to their friends and gaming groups.

[Matthew Rogers]

There's a short single-stash game by Andy Looney called StarRunners that introduces some basic Homeworlds mechanics. It's a quick little outing, and might make good "training wheels" for Homeworlds play.

[William Boling]

I'll have to give that one a whirl. Thanks.

[Georgia King]

Hello,

Since this is a basic discussion about Homeworlds rules, I am wondering if anyone could clarify this for me:

When using the blue trading power, if you're trying to trade a certain size ship for another color, but none of that size are available in the "bank", does that mean you just can't do it at all, or do you pick the smallest available size (like how the green construct power works) or what?

[Joshua Denmeade]

You are correct, it means that you are not able to trade for that size. It's part of the reason that the color economy is so important. Controlling who has what colors is a key to being able to win in a game of Homeworlds

[Georgia King]

That's what I thought, but it wasn't explicitly stated anywhere in any version of the rules. But thanks for clarifying! :)

[Russ Williams]

FWIW, http://www.looneylabs.com/rules/homeworlds says:

Green: Build a new ship in the target system. Same Color: The color of your new ship must be the same as one of the ships you control in the target system.Smallest Size: You must take as a new ship the smallest piece of the target color available at that moment in the Bank.

Blue: Swap one of your ships with a differently colored piece of the same size from the Bank.

And in the book Playing with Pyramids, it says "an identically-sized piece".

So it seems pretty clear to me that to use Blue, there has to be one of the same size in the Bank.