Binary Homeworlds
| Binary Homeworlds | ||
|---|---|---|
| Andrew Looney | ||
| A 2-player variant of the standard Homeworlds game | ||
| Players: | ||
| Length: | unknown | |
| Complexity: | Medium | |
| Trios per color: | 3 matching sets | |
| Number of colors: | 5 | |
| - - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - - | ||
| None | ||
| Setup time: | 1 minute | |
| Strategy depth: | Medium | |
| Random chance: | None | |
| Game mechanics: | Color powers, resource management | |
| Theme: | Space | |
| BGG Link: | 14634 | |
| Status: Complete (v1.0), Year released: 2004 | ||
Overview
Binary Homeworlds, designed by Andrew Looney, is a two-player variant of the game Homeworlds, designed by John Cooper.
Materials
45 pyramids in four colors are needed to play.
Goal
The is to cause your opponent's Homeworld to be empty of his own ships. A player may still have many ships on the board at different star systems, but if none of his ships are at his Homeworld by the beginning of your turn, he has lost.
Actions
| Yellow Ability | Move | |
| Green Ability | Build | |
| Blue Ability | Trade | |
| Red Ability | Attack |
On their turns, players select a star system and perform one action in that system. The actions available for a player to take depend on the colors of pyramids in the star system where the action is taking place. The power to do these actions can come from the color of the player's own ships or from the color of the stars that make up the star system.
- Movement Take one of the ships you have in any existing star system and move that ship to a new system. The system must be connected to the star system the ship began in. So if the beginning star system consists of , then the ship can only connect to a star system made of a medium pyramid. The player does not have to limit himself to star systems that already exist on the table: he can send his ship out to Discover a new medium star system by taking a medium-size pyramid of any color from the bank and placing it on the table, then placing his ship next to it.
- Trade Change the color of your ship. Take one of your ships and return it to the bank of pyramids not in play. Then replace a pyramid of the same size from the bank, but a different color.
- Build Look at a star system where you have one or more ships. Look at the colors of those ships. You may take a new ship in one of those colors from the bank, placing it in the star system alongside your other ships. The new ship must be in smallest size available from the bank in the color you chose.
- Attack In a star system where both you and your opponent have a ship, you may turn one of their ships around to change ownership of it to yourself. Ships are never removed from the board or returned to the bank during an attack.
- Sacrifice You may sacrifice one of your ships during your turn by returning it to the bank. This will let you perform actions associated with the color of the sacrificed ship: one action for each pip the ship possessed.
Galactic topology
The topology of a Binary Homeworlds game is simpler than the topology of a multi-player game, because there are at most two binary stars. If the two players choose homeworlds of different sizes, then the galaxy can be laid out in rows between the two players so that movement "toward" and "away from" a homeworld maps directly onto movement across the table.
Trivia
Binary Homeworlds differs from the original multi-player Homeworlds in that it discards the Werewolf aspect; the game is simply a fight to the death between two players.
External links
- Full rules for Binary Homeworlds can be found on Andy's Page About Homeworlds at Wunderland.
- Homeworlds can be played online at SuperDuperGames.
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| Binary Homeworlds |