On Wed, 1 Apr 2009, Christopher Hickman wrote:
I'm guessing that when someone referred to a "Gemini homeworld" that means that both pieces in the homeworld are the same, right?
I'm not sure about that one either; only played homeworlds once or twice, and several years ago. But I think I can answer the rest:
Can someone explain what is meant by "small universe" and "large universe" as well?
When the two homeworlds contain the same sized pieces, they are both adjacent to the same systems (e.g., if both are a 1 and a 3, both are adjacent to 2s) and are only two hops apart (homeworld->2->other homeworld); that's small universe.
When they contain different sized peices, they are each adjacent to different systems (e.g., if one is 1+3, it's adjacent to 2s; if the other is 2+3, it's adjacent to 1s) and they are three hops apart (homeworld->2->1->other homeworld); that's large universe.
What is fools mate?
A reference to the four-move checkmate of Chess, or any similar ending-the-game-before-it-really-gets-going win (which any non-foolish opponent *should* see coming).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fool's_mate -- Dale Sheldon dales@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx