Homestake
Field tutorial · version 1.6.1 · one human settler against three computer settlers
How to begin your first charter
A hexagonal frontier. New charters have 91 playable hexes in a radius-five outline, with the depot at (5,5) and a river through the valley. Earlier 11 × 7 saves keep their rectangular map, land and drays. Choose Start new charter to explore the new shape; export your old charter first if you want to keep it.
- Choose Start new charter on the cover. Name your settler, select the three computer skill levels (Cadet, Staff or Ace), choose 6 or 12 months, and choose a live trading floor or quick sealed-order market. Land the colony commits the new charter.
- During your land grant, select a free plot and compare its information. Try the Food or Energy map layer to see the terrain's potential. Choose Claim selected plot — free when you are ready; selecting a plot alone does not claim it.
- During development, select an empty plot you own. The dray planner shows the full cash cost, full time cost, estimated output and any power warning. Choose a resource and use Deploy to buy, outfit and install the dray in one operation.
- Watch your food and stored energy. Food determines next month's working time; non-energy drays need stored energy when production begins. The dashboard and forecast help you identify shortages.
- Use your remaining development time, or cash it out at the Tap room. An uninstalled dray still following you is lost when the turn ends. End turn gives up unused time without the tap-room payout.
- Read the production result, then trade. Buy shortfall and Sell surplus set useful starting quantities; review the reserve and estimated-spend guidance before opening the live floor. You can adjust the quantities yourself.
- At month end, compare your net worth and the colony's progress toward its survival target. Continue to the next grant. Your aim is to finish richest in a colony that survives.
Starting over is a deliberate action. Opening setup does not replace the current save. Back or Esc cancels setup. Land the colony starts the new charter and replaces the browser's current save.
Read the colony before spending
Your personal dashboard keeps cash, net worth and resources in view. The forecast uses the current phase so that a harvest which has already happened is not counted again. Estimated output can change with production variation, events and available power.
Stored energy matters. Every non-energy dray burns one energy. Energy produced in the upcoming harvest is useful later; it cannot power another dray during that same harvest. Check the stored-energy warning before adding another food or mining dray.
Colony progress is a shared survival measure. It compares current colony worth with the final charter target. Being ahead of that target now does not guarantee survival at the end, and surviving does not guarantee that you finish first.
Choose a plot, then act
Click or tap to select a plot. The empty corners outside a new charter's hexagonal frontier are not playable; Fit, zoom framing and the keyboard cursor follow its boundary. Its details remain available when you move to the side panels. During a free grant, inspect first and then confirm the claim. The Food, Energy, Smithore and Crystite layers compare potential yields; My claims helps you locate your own land. Crystite on an unassayed plot remains unknown.
The one-step dray planner
On an empty selected plot you own, compare the proposed outfit's yield and complete cash/time requirements. The planner uses the normal purchase, outfitting and walking costs. It checks the whole operation before committing, so a rejected build does not leave a half-purchased dray behind.
Manual buying, outfitting and swapping
The original controls remain available. Buy a dray, outfit it for a resource, select an owned plot and choose Install carried dray. Installing on a working dray swaps them: the old dray follows you back. Install it elsewhere or accept that it will wander away if you end the turn while still leading it.
Select an unknown plot and choose Survey selected plot to discover its crystite deposit. Surveying requires that you are not leading a dray; the manual Assay control also remains available. You can list one owned plot for the following month's land auction; its installed dray goes with the land if it sells. The selected-plot controls and prompts identify the action being taken.
Turn order: the monthly cycle
| Phase | What matters |
|---|---|
| Land grant | The poorest settler chooses first. Select and confirm one free unclaimed plot, or pass. |
| Land auction | Some months offer additional land. Sealed bids compete for charter-office plots and settlers' listings. |
| Development | The richest settler goes first. A fully fed settler has 50 time; shortages reduce it. |
| Production | Working drays harvest according to terrain, bonuses, random variation and power. |
| Market | Trade smithore, crystite, food and energy, in that order. |
| Month end | Prices respond to supply and demand, surplus spoils, and smithore stocks let the depot forge drays. |
Movement and production
Buying a dray costs 3 time and outfitting it costs 3. Walking costs 4 time plus 2 for each hex from the depot. Assaying a plot and chasing a skree use the same walk cost. Your food requirement rises as the charter progresses; use the displayed current and next-month requirements.
| Dray | River flat | Plain | Mountain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| Energy | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Smithore | 0 | 1 | 1 + peaks |
| Crystite | 0 | Deposit strength, discovered by assay | |
Base yields gain +1 per three drays of the same kind you own and +1 beside one of your same-kind drays. Production also varies by chance; events can change it. Map layers and planner estimates are not guaranteed harvests.
Trade with a reserve in mind
On the live trading floor, choose whether to buy, sell or sit out. The shortfall/surplus presets use your reserves to suggest a quantity. Review the units and estimated spend: the actual price and available supply can differ when trades happen.
Sellers lower their price; buyers raise theirs. When their prices meet, units change hands at the seller's price. The depot buys at its bid and sells at its ask while stock is available. The up/down price buttons and keyboard controls change your offer; the countdown shows how much of this good's round remains.
Crystite is an export. The depot buys it for off-world shipment and does not sell it. Smithore keeps new drays available: the depot needs two units to forge each one.
In quick sealed orders, set a side, quantity and price limit for each good, then open the market. Buy shortfalls and Sell surplus fill starting orders across the goods. Review their quantities, projected reserves and estimated spend before committing.
Winning, losing and scoring
Your net worth is cash, plus $500 per plot, plus drays and stored goods at depot prices. The richest settler at the end becomes the First Settler of Vesh. The colony must also survive: its required average worth is $10,900 per settler for a 12-month charter, or $4,578 for a 6-month charter.
If a computer settler finishes richer, you lose the individual contest. If the colony falls below the charter office's survival target, every claim is forfeit and nobody wins. Keep food, power and smithore flowing while you build your own fortune.
Saving, restarting and keeping a backup
Actions save to this browser, and live auctions are checkpointed periodically. Pending market orders and land bids are included. Watch the save status; a storage error is reported so that you can keep a backup rather than assume the charter was saved.
Choose Return to cover to save and pause computer turns and live trading. Continue charter resumes. To start again, choose New game; Back or Esc leaves setup without changing the current charter.
- Choose Export saved charter to download a JSON backup of the current charter.
- From the cover, choose Restore a saved charter and select a Homestake backup file.
- Read the preview and choose Restore charter only when it is the charter you want. Cancelling leaves the current charter intact.
Autosaves are local to the browser. To move a charter between devices, move an exported file yourself and restore it on the other device. This does not create cloud sync. Finished charters are also listed in this browser's charter records.
Controls at a glance
Mouse/touch: select a plot, then use its available action; drag to pan; wheel or pinch to zoom. Information is on the left and controls on the right on wide screens; they stack on narrow screens. Full screen uses your browser's full-screen mode; Esc leaves it.
Keyboard: B buy a dray; 1-4 outfit it; A assay; L list land; P tap room; E end turn; +/- zoom; 0 fit. Tab to the map, then arrows move the plot cursor, Enter selects, and Shift+arrows pan. On the live floor, Up/Down move your price. Tab to a price button and press Enter or Space to activate it. Esc closes setup or How to play.