Homeworlds

The game is played with 36 pyramids: 3 copies each of 3 different sizes in 4 different colors.

The same pieces are used as stars and ships. A ship is a a pyramid laid on its side pointing away from its owner. A star is an upright pyramid. Ships always orbit a star.

¶ Rules

¶ Setup and Win Condition

Each player builds their Homeworld by choosing two pyramids and stacking them to form a binary star system.

They also choose a large pyramid (3 pips) as their starting ship, and place it next to their Homeworld.

You lose if you don’t have any ships at your Homeworld at the start of your turn.

¶ Action Types

The four colors of pyramids give you access to different abilities. You have access to an action type in a star system if either one of your ships there or the star itself is the appropriate color.

Green = Construct

Choose a ship you have in that system. Take the smallest available pyramid of the same color from the bank, and place it in the system as a new ship.

Blue = Trade

Change the color of your ship by swapping it with a pyramid of the same size from the bank.

Red = Attack (Steal)

Take control of an enemy ship in that system.

You must have a ship in that system at least as large as the one you are stealing.

Yellow = Move

Move one of your ships there to a connected star system.

Systems are connected if they do not share a star size.

You can “discover” a system by placing a new star from the bank.

If no ships remain orbiting a star, the star is returned to the bank.

¶ Each Turn

Choose one of the following each turn:

• Basic Action: Choose a star system where you have a ship. Do one action of a type you have access to there.
• Sacrifice: Return one of your ships to the bank. You may do actions of its type anywhere you have a ship. Small pyramid gives you one action, medium two, large three.

¶ Triggering Catastrophes

A system is overpopulated if it has four or more pieces of same color.

At any point on your turn, you can trigger catastrophes in overpopulated systems. Return all pieces of the overpopulated color from that system to the bank. If one of these pieces was the star itself, then all ships there are returned to the bank.

Homeworlds are binary star systems and can survive one of their two stars being destroyed.

¶ Variant for 3 or 4 Players

To play with more than 2 players, make the following changes:

• Add one extra copy of each pyramid to the bank for each extra player. (48 pieces for 3p, 60 for 4p).
• The win condition becomes to eliminate the player sitting on your left.

Game by John Cooper. Full Original Rules here.