Talk:Homejinks

Rule Clarifications, Please

This seems to be an enjoyable tiny version of Homeworlds. However, some rules need clarification.

[EDIT. I noticed some terms are clarified at the END of the article under Terms. Great! As a result, there are only few questions left. See Setup point 2., Overpopulation, variant without dice.]

• Setup. OK, so star systems are marked by the presence of one or more ships (from either player) and no other markers. Suggestion. If desired, a location can be marked with a poker chip or a playing card facing down.

• Therefore, Setup point 2. is confusing by mentioning the "homeship". Why is this concept introduced? I don't think that the ship is special in any way, because there is no "homeworld" to defend. It's only about ships. A game state consists of a collection of star systems that contain ships.

• Overpopulation. OK, so Terms clarify that an overpopulation exists when all 3 ships of a size appear in a star system. Still, if you play with 3 people, would you increase the Bank with an extra trio? Does this affect overpopulations to 4 ships? Note. of course you could use ANY color of pyramids for the Bank. You could even use different colors, but treat them all the same.

• Catastrophe. Perhaps the rule can be adjusted slightly. By now, considering the appearance of Pyramid Quartet Homeworlds and its adjusted rules, it feels more natural to have the freedom to call Catastrophe at any time during your turn.

• Red Recapture. Because of the dice, recapture most likely will not result in draw, even in a 2-player game, because other options may become available, such as construct, move or trade. (But if desired, no-recapture can be introduced.) Because of the randomizer dice, I don't think the game is draw-prone.

• I'd propose the term "Upgrade" for the Blue action. And in conformity with current rules: Build for Green, and Conquer for Red.

• What about the variant to this game that is played without dice, but where every action is according to your preference? Does this work?

• I'm curious. Was this game playtested? I'll give it a try and get back with findings. I see it is in development phase (label), but on the other hand it's complete (version V1.0) . . . It seems that with 3 trios, only 9 ships in the game, isn't the game rather trivial despite the different actions? In any case, I don't think the game can be very complex and after a few games, it's clear how to get ahead and win. If that is true, what would be the optimal supply instead? With too many ships, perhaps the game won't ever end? I really don't know yet. Can anybody share their experience with this game? That would be appreciated. I will be back on this subject myself.
  • The Bank seems about right for 2 persons. All playtested games were with 3 trios (see below). The games were not trivial, but wanting. I'm going to try a slightly larger Bank in another playtest. Cuc (talk) 03:35, 3 November 2020 (PST)

Cuc (talk) 17:34, 1 November 2020 (PST). Revised Cuc (talk) 23:02, 1 November 2020 (PST). 2nd Revision Cuc (talk) 03:24, 3 November 2020 (PST)

Playtests

I playtested the game, and it was fun to try. However, we found the game wanting and was not as fun because of the Black forced pass. We tried to come up with a different way of using the dice. We tried the following:

• No dice. This definitely doesn't work. First player wins a rather short game.
• throw a D6. If it's 1-3, then you are forced to pass; if it's 4-6 you get an action of your choice. This game is a bit more fun, but the amount of passes is too harsh.
• throw a D6. If it's 1-2, then you are forced to pass; if it's 3-6 you get an action of your choice. This game is much more fun and isn't trivial. We still weren't satisfied with the forced pass.

We considered that it would be fun if you can ALWAYS have an action, but that the number of actions are limited somehow. My game buddy Forest suggested, we should give 2 actions for 1-3 and the other 2 actions for 4-6. This gives 3 games:

Combo	1-3	4-6	Description
I	R/Y	G/B	At first it seemed a good idea to have G/B together, but it didn't work that well.
II	R/G	Y/B	This game works better, but the R/G combo is frustrating, if your build causes an overpopulation.
III	R/B	Y/G	This game works best, and we had the greatest fun. It has reversal of fortune (you can win, even when you seem lost).

• On my way home I considered that, indeed, one could even assign 2 allowed actions to any throw of a D6 as follows:

N	Color Combo
1	R/Y
2	G/B
3	Y/B
4	R/G
5	R/B
6	Y/G

Cuc (talk) 03:25, 3 November 2020 (PST)