Some Gaming Reports of 6 Billion™ With 2 Players
Two 2-player games from Doug Adams & Janet Ford. Report by Doug Adams:-
First Game
A wet and windy Sunday in Melbourne confined Janet to the house and gave us a chance to try David's "6 Billion" game two player. This was the first time we'd tried out the finished product.
Instead of beginning with a billion people each on Earth, we started with 2 billion each, with the neutral faction's 2 billion making 6. My hidden agenda card showed Earth (typical, I think half a dozen playtest games saw me get Earth, always hotly contested as every faction begins there), so I adjusted my strategy to make gains on the Discovery track. A lead on any of the three discovery tracks allows manipulation of the turn order for the upcoming turn. IMHO, a very clever addition to the game.
However, Janet beat me onto the wealth and happiness discovery tracks, and was putting considerable effort into beefing up her Earth population. Her efforts here forced me to ignore the conservation discovery track, and play any double cards I had to keep up with her on Earth. I was beginning to suspect she'd drawn the second Earth hidden agenda as well (Hidden Agenda's are kept secret and double points earned for that planet at the end of the game).
Janet had boomed out to such a lead on the wealth and happiness tracks that it was futile for me to chase her there, so I set about colonising some planets. Janet and the neutral faction had gone to the asteroid belt, Jupiter and Saturn, and were busy producing billions of people, so I turned me attentions to the warmer climates of the inner solar system. Establishing factions on Mars, Venus and the tricky Mercury got me back in the running, but still way behind Janet.
A lot of "double another players' token" cards appeared which I pounced upon, because if I could play these, I could double some population tokens of Janet's, and earn bonus VP's for playing them. A quick scan of the board showed I had no chance of overtaking her (or the neutral player for that matter) on Jupiter, so over 2 turns I doubled her Jupiter population three times (earning myself 9 VPs) to maximise her population on Jupiter at 128 billion.
A few more such cards played on the neutral faction also earned me some more points, and the game ticked over towards to end when the neutral
faction's population marker hit 1024 billion on the asteroid belt. Planets were scored up (doubled for hidden agenda and discovery cards) and I took the game 61 to 57.The lead I'd built up in VP's by playing cards that helped Janet and the neutral player just got me over the line.
The game played very well as a two player game. While we were both a bit bedazzled by the board (having been used to umpteen games on the playtest versions), we'd adjusted the end of the game. The game took 2 hours, but we thought we could do it quicker than that, so we played again after dinner.
Game Two
saw Doug draw Mars as his hidden agenda (yay! Not Earth!) so he went straight there (to found Camp Doug at Olympus Mons) while the opening treaty was in effect (nobody can remove a colony while the treaty is in effect...okay, the can but they need the permission of the owning player - not likely!). Janet did not pick up on this move and went off to the asteroid belt (her hidden agenda perhaps?). Doug discarded a Recycle card early - the only single card that you can discard to get a presence on the conservation discovery track (usually you have to discard 2 cards to get on this track). This is the most powerful track, as it has the last "fiddle" with the turn order, and boy did Doug fiddle. If he wanted to send colonies out, he fiddled himself to last in the turn order. If colonies had to land, he fiddled to first in the turn order, and so on. Granted, this track is a lot less powerful with more players, but it was hurting Janet so much that she gave up a whole turn to get onto this discovery track, to deny Doug the "fiddle" ability.
However, the damage was done, Doug was leading on two discovery tracks, Earth, Mars, Venus, and had picked up several VP's through card play.
While Janet was pondering how to get back in the game, Doug saw no reason to prolong the game. He claimed two "Double another player's token" cards, played them on Janet's asteroid belt population (earning 6 VPs) and putting the game one turn away from ending (the game ends when either Earth's or the Asteroid Belt's population track gets a population token in the 1024 billion space - OR when all planets/tracks have a token on them). Janet's next turn came around and she had to automatically double her population on the asteroid belt (question to David - could she have killed her own free double to prolong the game? David:- No, see 7.2 & 11.2) and the game ended immediately.
Scores:
Doug: 55
Janet: 31
This game took 60 minutes.
Thoughts: fun game - *very* different from the game I first saw a couple of years ago (which had population tracks for surface and orbits; no discovery track, etc) and a game I will gladly play.
Cheers
Doug
Present: Alan Stewart, Lindsay Jamieson. Report by Alan Stewart.
Length of game: 70 minutes
My Hidden Agenda was Earth, and I played a double card on my first turn, getting me to 8 (little did I know....) and sent a colony to the Asteroid Belt using the Free 2 colony card.
That was the last double card I saw in the entire game! AAAAAArgh. Lindsay used four double cards to get to the 128 spot on earth, and I was stuck on 64 and never doubled it.
There were not many colonisation cards showing up.
I managed to send out Migrants from Lindsay, and then send them home on my second action in one turn.
The only planets settled were Jupiter, Asteroid Belt, Earth, Mars, Venus and Mercury (Discovery).
I knew it was going to be a close game, but it ended too quickly!
When my free double moved my Asteroid Belt counter to the 1024 point, I had in my hand a Double which would have have given me 4 extra points on my Hidden Agenda of Earth. (My second double card of the game, and I couldn't play it. Lindsay played 6 Double cards during the game, 1 of which I managed to cancel). I had a Martian colony about to land (2 points) which Lindsay had split off from my Jupiter token. Plus I would have discarded to get the lead back on the $ track as I had a Discovery for that. But it was not to be.
Ironically I had a Pestilence card in my hand, but I couldn't play it to stop my Free Doubling.
Despite shuffling the Discovery Card pile, Lindsay drew Smiley and Leaf. My first 2 were $ and leaf. I drew another $, discarding the leaf. Then drew
Mercury, and discarded 1 $. Mercury was the only planet settled by using a Discovery card.
Lindsay kept saying he didn't have any action cards, so I pointed out he could discard to increase his standing on the Discovery tracks.
Final scores: Lindsay 7 VP + 27 from planets + 15 from Discovery Track = 49
Alan 10 VP + 25 from planets + 12 from Discovery Track = 47
Very close.
Lindsay got his Hidden Agenda for Mars.
Comments: At one stage the only actions I did was to play the Mercury Discovery card. I still had a full hand of 6 cards, but we decided that I had done at least 1 Action, so didn't have to discard the hand.
We played the `move position by 1' on the leaf track variation, but it didn't make much difference. Most of the time the tracks were tied, or the player decided not to use the power. The $ track power was never exercised.
Lindsay said the production was good, and it was a game he'd play again.
Finally, some brief comments on a game between David Coutts (that's me) and Ben Flora can be found on the Photographs page.
