Frequently Asked Questions
The German translation is for Version 1 of the rules (Click here for the FAQ in German)
The English Version 2.1 of the rules is online and, so far, has only two FAQs on the rules:
- Q. Rule 12.11 states that War can be played in any faction's turn, yet the War card restricts play to responding to a Cancel or Response card played against you. Which is correct?
A. They both are. You can play a War card in any faction's turn, providing you respond to a Cancel or Response card played against you.
- Q. How can I tell which version of the rules (version 1 or 2) was included in the box, short of a line-by-line comparison with the rules at the web site? What changes were made between the two versions?
A. The Version 1 rules that come with the game have been re-organised, and many more examples of play have been added, to create the online Version 2.1 of the rules. There are only 2 actual rule changes:
a) In a 2-player game, using the Optional Rules, the Leaf special power is limited to 1 space (DESIGN NOTE for 14.2: With 2 players, it was too powerful to allow a 2 space move with only 3 tokens on the turn order track).
b) The Opening Treaty rule (9.0) was amended to allow players to play a Response card against any other player still protected by the Opening Treaty. Response card restrictions (11.3) still apply. (DESIGN NOTE: I felt it was a little too easy for a player with just his / her original Earth colony to interfere on other players' turns - via Cancel & Response cards - with no fear of reprisal. Now, they have to be careful.)
- Q. "I think there is a small error in the online Version 2 rules, under 14.2. Where it reads "it is recommended in a 2-player game that the Leaf special ability is restricted to allowing a token to moved up or down 1 space on the DISCOVERY Track", shouldn't it be "Turn Order Track", instead?"
A. You are correct - this was an error. It was fixed today, and the online Version 2 rules have been updated to Version 2.1. DAC 25/02/05. Thanks Glaucio!
You might want to also look at the Play Hints and Variants pages, plus the Summary Table.
The following non-rules questions come up quite often:
- Q. On the box lid you use the expression "pro-life". What do you mean?
A. DESIGN NOTE. Nothing to do with pro-life/pro-choice. I mean caring about all life, not just human life. In 6 Billion™ this is represented via the victory points that can be scored for the Leaf row of the Discovery Track. See my article Per Ardua Ad Astra - Future Fact Or Mere Fiction? for a fuller explanation of the thinking behind 6 Billion™. I would like to see humanity spread life throughout the Solar System, and beyond, before we destroy life on Earth.- Q. Does 6 Billion™ advocate space colonisation as a solution to Earth's over-population?
A. DESIGN NOTE. No. 6 Billion™ uses the population doubling time, and hence exponential growth, as a useful abstraction of the amount of time each turn represents. 6 Billion™ also hopes to highlight the power of exponential growth, and its implications for humanity in space. See my article on the Population Doubling Mechanism. for a brief explanation on population doubling, and my articles Per Ardua Ad Astra - Future Fact Or Mere Fiction? and The Cassandra Prediction - Exploding The ZPG Myth.- Q. What is the difference between Colonists and Migrants?
A. DESIGN NOTE. Migrants are different to colonists in what they represent. By definition, the first people to inhabit a land are the colonists. Imagine the Maori's of New Zealand, or the Polynesians in general. They were first. However, sometimes it happens that we classify people as colonists even if they weren't first. The British are a good example, both in the Americas and here in Australia. In fact, the Europeans in general fit this mould admirably. Then, using the Americas and Australia as good examples, other "foreign" invaders follow on. These people we call migrants. However, I have migrated twice to Australia, both times from England (See my Profile) - so I am a migrant. However, being British, I am effectively a later wave of the British colonists but called a migrant because Australia is no longer a British colony! Confused?
At the end of the day, what is the difference between Native Americans, the "original" European settlers, Black African Slaves or Asians in the USA? (It's a similar story here in Australia, and one I hope to soon recreate in a variant to 6 Billion - Hunter Gatherer to Civilized Man) My answer is - no difference whatsoever, they're all people, and the terminology we use is misleading and confusing. Here's a little article I wrote on this subject of our demographic history.
So, I hope that explains what I intended... but I'm sure that you're after a rules clarification!
In game terms, ALL migrants can only migrate to somebody else's colony (For Neutrals 10.2 & Players 12.2). Colonists can go where they please, even an already colonised "land"(See12.1). Imagine the Dutch, Spanish, French, British and Russians competing over what we now call the USA (already inhabited by Native Americans!) - this is what happened there. They were all colonists, except the Native Indians!
If you look at the cards New Colony In Trouble(12.1) and This Is Our Home(12.2), they are very similar. The first removes a colony from a holding box, the second removes a migrant from holding box. Think again of the USA - the USA fought for its independence from Britain. But it bought Louisiana from the French, Alaska from the Russians etc etc. This is what is abstracted by "New Colony In Trouble". Hence, England took New Amsterdam without much of a fight from the Dutch and called it New York.
Migrants are quite different. If we don't like someone from another country, or we are racist, we have a full range of names for them. Here, I am a Pom (meaning English, even though I am an Australian citizen, and half Scot!). In the USA, I might be a Brit if you like me, and a Limey if you don't. Oh well, I guess names don't hurt. But for people who don't speak English natively, or who have black skin, Asian features or whatever... it gets much worse. Think of the Jews throughout history, blacks in white communities, whites in black communities etc etc. This is what the "This Is Our Home" represents. Only, the key difference is it must apply to migrants, and you must "be" in the "land" to oppose them (see 12.2 again). Think Kosovo /Serbia for a recent example of ethnic cleansing, or Northern Ireland, or Jews from Russia in Israel, Christians in Indonesia, to softer examples like the Greeks in Melbourne (fondly called wogs - though I personally dislike the term). I've married a Greek-Australian (in Australia we still have hyphenated citizens!).
In the end, with the way colonies and migrants work in 6 Billion™, the migrants (whilst sometimes opposed) are harder to stop (because you must be present to stop them) and are usually the minority population (because they always follow colonists). Migrants are typically minorities, so this is realistic. They also tend to be a steady trickle, difficult to stop.
On the other hand, multiple factions can colonise a population track and compete to be the majority populations. New Colony In Trouble affects colonies in a holding box and, if successfully played (by any opposing player, even if not present), means that such colonies were not viable. Once established on a population track, colonies and migrants are amalgamated into one people (e.g. Martians) - regardless of where they came from. However, because they belong to different factions, there is competition between these factions.- Q. What do the factions represent?
A. DESIGN NOTE. At the simplest level, they represent any feasible coalition of existing Earth nations. Demographically, if all 6 factions are in play, one would have to represent China and another India. The Neutral might be best represented by the continent of Africa. The remaining factions could be "The Western Allies", Eurasia (including the former USSR), and South East Asia / Japan.
If you wanted to play an historical variant, you might restrict who gets a "Colony 2" dealt to them at the start (and who gets a random replacement). You could also restrict who gets to play Colony cards for the first few turns. An extreme example would be to deal a "Colony 2" card to "The Western Allies" and only they can play Colony cards for the first 2 turns.
However, another way of looking at the factions is to imagine today's humanity as the Neutral and each of the other factions as enhanced versions of humanity or totally new species created by humanity. Artificial Intelligence, nanotechnology, genetics and cloning are probably the main technologies which threaten to see today's humanity marginalised by the various species of tomorrow.
I'm currently working on a variant along these lines, which gives each advanced species its own advantages. This should be available soon.
For a list of articles by me, see the Articles page.
