I've never played a 4-planet game of cosmic, so I'm curious... do you lose the use of your power when you control fewer than 3 home planets, or when you control fewer than 2?

Also (in the usual 5-planets per player version), I'm guessing that possessing the Genesis planet means that the rules stating " When three or more of a player’s home colonies are eliminated, the player loses his or her alien power..." should read "When three or fewer of a player's home colonies are occupied by that player's ships, the player loses his or her alien power."

Otherwise, the genesis planet would require you to maintain ships on 4 home planets instead of the usual minimum of 3.

In CE Online where there are four planets you need 2 bases to keep your power (so losing 3 of them loses your power). So I would say that losing three home bases leads to power loss.

However, the Genesis Planet (which gives you six home bases, potentially) kinda throws a wrench into it. I would rule that a player with the Genesis Planet still needs 2 home bases to keep their power - so it changes from "losing 3" to "keeping 2".

But I can think of a simple rule that seems to cover all of this - you need to have home bases on one-third of your home planets (rounded) to avoid losing your power. So: 4/3 = 1.3 = 1; 5/3 = 1.7 = 2; 6/3 = 2.

I'm pretty sure the Genesis Planet allows you to keep your power with 3 home bases. The manual probably was poorly worded and did not reflect the Tech card. I will be playing it so that a person needs to have 3 home bases to keep their power, not they lose their power if they losea third planet.

i thought the sole purpose of the genesis planet was to ensure that you have access to your power even if you did loose 3 planets why would you want to build one otherwise anyway?

Yeah, that was the intent. That'll teach me to use language from the old editions a little too freely. In a 5 planet game, you must have ships on at least 3 planets to use your power. In a 4 planet game, you must have ships on at least 2 planets to use your power. The Genesis planet can thus help you keep your power or even get it back after you've lost the use of it.

For a game with so many contradictory rules as Cosmic, I'm surprised it's taken even this long for a clarification to be needed.