What does the red circle next to your starting world mean?

[Starwarrior1128]

It flicks to a number when I mouse hover it.

[IllusionKnight]

Are you referring to the red circle inside the world that's to the left of the centre or the red circle to the South East outside of the world?

[Starwarrior1128]

Are you referring to the red circle inside the world that's to the left of the centre or the red circle to the South East outside of the world?

The circle that is on your player mat that is just South East of your starting world. It doesn't matter if it's red, I know now that was because it was my player color.

[IllusionKnight]

That refers to the starting world set number. The irl game has 8 empire mats (increased to 16 with The Starry Rift expansion), which have all the development tile slots; world slots etc. but each side has a world on it (one non-military world; one military world) and at the start of the game you pick a side to use by flipping the empire mat or not. The number is used to identify which start world set you have e.g. Board 1 will always give you the choice between Old Earth (Non-Military) and Abandoned Mine Squatters (Military).