Pygmy looks like a good argument for having a separate class of half-aliens - aliens that provide a minor benefit too weak to qualify is a full alien on their own, but which give you a second half-alien power whenever you play as one. That seems like a quick and dirty way to handle powers like the Pygmy that are conceptually interesting but mechanically not terribly useful for winning the game; if Pygmy isn't competitive alone, perhaps Pygmy+Symbiote, or Pygmy+Zombie-minus-compensation, or Pygmy+Gith-in-its-most-basic-form would be. After all, if the original version of the power is anything to go by, the alternative is to tack on a weak version of the Zombie anyhow.

The guidelines could vary, but might involve something like giving an alien certain numbers of "points" when it gets passed over at setup time, loses by a huge margin, goes an entire game without getting a benefit from its power, etc.

The art of Pygmy is its ability to slow the advance of its enemies. Pygmy can afford to play a low attack card or negotiate and lose an encounter. His opponents don't really gain anything, and Pygmy typically only loses 1 or 2 ships. Hand management and ship resources are a very important and often overlooked aspect of the game. Not every alien can or should be about how to best win an encounter. Just sayin'.

Not bad!

I'd leave out the "(round down each player's totals)" part. There's no need for it.

I'd also leave out the "Do not use this power unless you have an unused player color." If we like, we can replace it with, "If you don't have an unused color of planets, you can use whatever is available for the extra planets: drink coasters, half-dollar coins, pieces of paper, kinzosh lids, etc."


I agree.

When Locust devours a Pygmy planet, it counts a full colony toward victory, because devoured "planets" count as colonies, whereas "colonies" on Pygmy planets count as half-colonies. IOW, each Pygmy *planet* is still one planet. Only a *colonies* on Pygmy planets are halved. Likewise for the The Claw.

When players agree to grant Sniveler a colony, may he establish two half-colonies on Pygmy planets? Yes. When players do not agree to grant Sniveler a colony, is losing one half-colony from a Pygmy planet sufficient? No.

If the Siren lures the Pygmy and wins, can she get two half-colonies in Pygmy's system? Yes.

What about Relic? The power says, "gain a foreign colony in their home system on a planet of your choice." This is technically not possible in the Pygmy's system, unless he's got the Genesis planet or other planets moved to his system. He could have a colony on two planets, or half a colony on a planet, but not a colony on a planet. I'd rule that he gets two-half colonies on two planets. That seems the most fair.

Can Amoeba increase his ships beyond four when defending on a Pygmy planet? I'd say yes.

Can Disease use his power in a system where he has only a half-colony? By a literal read, no. I could be persuaded otherwise, though.

If the defender refuses to discard down to three cards, id granting the Mite a half-colony on the targeted planet sufficient? I'd say yes, despite my answers to these other questions. Because it targets a specific planet. Mite is just out of luck when facing Pygmy (though Mite might be able to force Pygmy off of one of his home planets due to the population limit, which means that even though Mite isn't gaining as much as he might like, he might do more damage to Pygmy. This evens out well, IMO.)

If Xenophile somehow gets a Pygmy planet in his home system with someone else's half-colony on it, it adds 1.5 to his attack total (if we eliminate the round down thing, as I recommend).

If the Plant has a half-colony in Pygmy's system, that is not sufficient to graft Pygmy's power.

The Genius will usually be glad to ally on offense against Pygmy, since he can take cards instead of landing on the planet anyway.

But remember that one of Sniveler's opponents is the Pygmy itself, and the Pygmy definitely doesn't have any half-colonies to lose; every time the Sniveler whines, the Pygmy loses a full colony even if everyone else loses only half a colony. This means that any clause on the Pygmy's sheet that can reduce how often the Sniveler can whine about colonies (which the "rounded down" clause certainly does) is very much to the Pygmy's advantage, and the Pygmy's already weak enough as it is.

The art of Pygmy is its ability to slow the advance of its enemies. Pygmy can afford to play a low attack card or negotiate and lose an encounter. His opponents don't really gain anything, and Pygmy typically only loses 1 or 2 ships. Hand management and ship resources are a very important and often overlooked aspect of the game. Not every alien can or should be about how to best win an encounter. Just sayin'.

I still think Pygmy is incredibly weak because you are a non-power that just wastes people's time a bit. At best you can slow someone down by half a colony IF they target you.

you're not just slowing someone down by half a colony.

The thing that most encourages me about seeing Pygmy in Cosmic Alliance is that it really does seem that FFG is monitoring our "best homebrews" posts (or at least mine, heh ). Last April, I had posted a "Top Ten Homebrews that I've discovered" thread here, and in that thread, Barney had suggested Pygmy as one of his Top Ten. I wasn't so crazy about it, BUT it's encouraging that our stuff gets read. As I've said before, I'm not a power designer, but there are some good ones amidst the many cruddy or boring homebrews, and as a reviewer of homebrews, it's nice to see ones you've championed become included. Let's hope FFG took a good look at some of the other ones Barney or I championed (except Wastrel, which IMO Invader totally replaces).