Thank you! The good news is that I prefer your interpretation of the
rule.
Thanks again!
Bill
No, you've misread that rule (and now your strategies are all shot to
hell). At least you still have time to plan for Origins ;)
The rule is that you choose a color, and then take the smallest
available piece of that color. So, say you choose blue, and there are
only mediums and larges left. Then, you take one of the medium blues,
even if there are small greens and reds available.
Something to watch out for that I missed the first time I read the
rules is that you can only build pieces of a color that you already
have in the system. For instance, if you have only a green piece in a
system, you can only build green pieces. If you have a yellow and red
piece in a system with a green star, then you can only build yellow
or red pieces in that system. I'm not sure how I missed it, since
it's stated pretty unambiguously, but I played the first few games
without that rule and the game was much less interesting.
I would recommend playing a few games on SuperDuperGames if you
really want to learn Homeworlds. Playing against experienced players
can really help your strategy, and playing a computer version of the
game that implements all of the rules correctly (as far as I know)
can help you realize when you've made a mistaken assumption about the
rules.