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6 Billion™ - Moves (Issue 102 - DEC/JAN 2001)
Review by Jean Jodoin
(published with permission from Christopher Cummins of Decision Games)Components
Buyers will discover on opening the box: 1 Solar System rigid map (approx. 20" by 20"), 1 Discovery Track [Optional], 1 Distance Chart (both approx. 6" x 8") made of heavy stock, 6 Hidden Agenda cards, 6 x 16 plastic playing tokens (approx. 3/4" dia.), and a 12-page rulebook (approx. 6" x 8").
Players will have to exercise care in handling the components, especially the 2.5" x 3.5" cards. These cards are rather flexible and do not require great force to crease or bend. They are attractive and clear in their usage. The map board is busy and every square inch supports a display or track of some sort. Since the tracks and boxes are colour coordinated with their planet/Asteroid Belt, the board is rather colourful. With five players, the board gets cluttered with numerous playing pieces and spacing between the population tracks is minimal, to say the least.
Rules
The overall objective is for players to expand humanity to the planets of the Solar System and to the Asteroid Belt. Expansion is achieved through sending colonists and migrants to far away place and have them settle the place, in your name of course.
Play order is determined by randomly drawing the player's token, including the Neutral Faction, at the beginning of each turn. This is a nice touch that adds a necessary element of unpredictability.
To colonize the planets, players must expand their population. The generation of population, colonists, and migrants is at the heart of 6 Billion. At the beginning of a player turn, Free Doubling causes his/her tokens to move one space on each population track. This free population growth ceases when the track's growth limit is reached. From this point forward, population growth can only occur through the play of Double cards (nine out of 91 cards).
Players recruit colonists from the available population by moving the population token one space backwards. One or two billion colonists are thus generated depending upon the total population.
If the population token is located on the 8 or 16 spot, one billion colonists can be generated without reducing the population: the colonists are 'free'. Generating a second billion colonists requires moving the population token back one space. If the population token is located on the 32+ spot, 2 billion 'free' colonists are generated.
All players start on Earth. Colonists are sent on their way through playing a New Colony card that matches or exceeds the required distance between the departure planet and the intended destination. The Distance Chart reveals distances between celestial objects. For example, Earth to Neptune is 19, while Mars to Uranus is 12. The greatest leap forward allowed by New Colony cards is nine. Migrants can reach out to 12. Colonists and migrants spend one turn in a holding box (where they may become victims of foul play, to be sure!) before they can start or join a colony.
Discovery cards allow players to circumvent the lengthy process of planet hopping by immediately placing a free colony on a planet. [DAC: They must still survive a turn in the matching holding box - refer 1st bullet point, 12.3]. Distances are irrelevant and the player need not generate colonists from an existing population track to colonize! Players may elect to play these cards to double the victory points associated with that planet's track at the end of the game, provided the player still controls that Discovery card [DAC: Unplayed (face-down) Discovery cards owned by a player at game end still double the player's score for that track - refer 2nd bullet point, 12.3]. Each player may only score from one Discovery card at the end of the game [DAC: If using the Optional Rules 14.1 then a player may score from up to two Discovery cards].
Migrants allow players to export population to distant planets for which they do not have a 'new colony' card. The restriction is that migrants can only be sent to planets already colonized. Once landed, migrants establish a colony.
In addition to players, there is one more source of Solar System population growth: The Neutral Faction. The sole purpose of the Neutral Faction is to increase its population wherever possible, and to send migrants through the Solar System.
Victory Conditions
Victory is achieved through accumulation of Victory Points. Victory Points are earned for having one of the top three populations on each planet and the Asteroid Belt. Not all planets are created equal however. Earth, Mars and the Asteroid Belt are worth 8-4-2 Victory Points for first, second, and third finish. Lesser planets are worth 4-2-1 respectively.
These planets may have their worth doubled by playing, and keeping until the end of the game, the appropriate Discovery card.
Note: the Neutral Faction counts as a player when allocating VPs at game's end. For example, if the Neutral Faction has the second largest population on Mars, the next highest player is now third and gets only 2 VPs instead of 4.
At the beginning of the game, each player receives a Hidden Agenda card. Hidden Agenda cards are only revealed at game's end when they allow players to double their VPs at the appropriate location. There are two cards each for Earth, Mars and the Asteroid Belt.
Ignoring Earth, Mars, or the Asteroid Belt is not an option.
Lastly, and not to be ignored, VPs are garnered by playing certain Action cards. For example, you may play a "New Colony" card on another player's faction. Although you give that player a free colony, you get 3 x VPs for your effort. It sometimes pays to be Mr. Nice!
Example: You are the Blue player and have just doubled your Mars population. The Orange player is way ahead of you. Red player, who goes next, is poised to free double on Mars. You double Orange's population thereby causing Mars' population to reach its free double limit. Red doesn't get a free double. All players must now play Double cards to expand their Mars population base. Take your 3 x VPs and get out of town.
Play Sequence
A player starts a turn by free doubling all friendly population tokens. Other players may interfere with this activity through card play (see below). Colonists and migrants that departed the turn before may now land at their destination. This is followed by the play of one or two Action card(s). This action may in turn generate a flurry of activity in the form of Cancel and Response cards. Cancel and Response cards are resolved as they are played. There is no hierarchy among cards.
Once the stardust settles, one Action card may be discarded. The player then replenishes his/her hand by either taking one of three face-up cards (that is immediately replaced from the deck), or taking a card directly from the deck, to a maximum of 6 cards. Replenishing your hand will dictate your capabilities for the upcoming turn (and possibly the one following that). Choose poorly and you will wish that you had remained on Earth.
Card Play
Action cards allow players to perform one or two constructive actions only during your turn. Non-active players may interfere with this process by playing Cancel cards. A select few Action cards are not subject to such interference.
A third type, Response cards, allows players to respond to Cancel cards. A chain reaction of Cancel and Respond cards may erupt at any moment.
For example, Red player plays a "new colony in trouble" card on Blue player's colonists in the Mars holding box. Since this would effectively vaporize these valuable colonists, Blue responds with a 'save our souls' Cancel card, effectively negating Red's Action card. Red refuses to take this lying down and plays War, a response card that forces Blue to halve one population token. Blue makes a mental note of where War came from and moves on.
Action cards are mostly constructive in nature: double of a player's population, send colonists/migrants to distant planets, or make a Discovery. Exceptions are the 'new colony in trouble' card featured previously and the 'this is our home' card that removes migrants from a holding box. Removing other people's colonists or migrants from holding boxes is a constructive action at any time.
Hidden Agenda card
Cancel cards are more ominous: Pestilence, Famine, Death and Save Our Souls (prevents colonists or migrants in transit from being interfered with). No good comes from playing those cards.
Response cards are Power Politics and War. Power Politics cancels any Cancel card or Response card. War causes a player to halve one token of their choice but unfortunately does not cancel the Cancel or Response card that was played. Call it a payback card if you will.
Game Play
Play starts slowly as players increase their population numbers from which they cull colonists and migrants. Produce too many colonists too early and you may never get 'free colonists'. Wait too long and you may find the Solar System populated with a plethora of colonies and migrants. Players will have to discover what works best for them: early start or free colonists later.
Cards on hand dictate expansion strategy. New colonies may only be started on planets for which you have a suitable 'new colony' card, one that allows you to travel that far. Failing this, migrants may be deployed to already colonized planets. In that case you become second fiddle since the opposition has a head start on you. In this case, getting hold of a Death - Famine - Pestilence Cancel card may get you back in the race. By playing one of these cards during your opponent's turn, followed in your turn by a Double card may propel you in the lead. Be patient: accumulate the right card combination and strike hard when ready.
Players must focus on their Hidden Agenda planet. There are simply too many points to be gained there. Example: You are #1 on Mars for 8 x VPs. This is your Hidden Agenda planet as well. You now get 16 VPs. Being first on Pluto on the other hand nets you 4 x VPs: a difference of 12 VPs. The message is clear. Focus where it counts the most.
Whenever you control the Neutral Faction, send as many migrants to planets where you have little if any presence. Let them multiply and cause the planet's population to cease free doubling.
Conversely, defend your home planet turf aggressively. Those 'This is our home' cards are meant to keep migrants out. Use them early and use them often! Whenever you have a 'New colony in trouble' card, target a player that somehow managed to send colonists to a far away planet. They will be the toughest to replace.
Each player ends their turn with 6 cards in hand. Players should attempt to play as many cards as possible during their opponent's turns. The objective should be to interfere as much as possible with their progress, and activity that is best done during their turn. Playing as many cards as possible even seemingly useless cards allows players to recycle cards faster. Cycle through enough cards and you may end up with the ones you actually need.
Except for a few Cancel cards, there is little aggressive play to be had making it a good 'family game'. On the other hand, the lack of powerful cards/game mechanics means that the game seems bland in some respect. Things appear to move slowly, almost predictably, towards an inevitable end: the (over) population of the entire Solar System. Adding more competitive game mechanics would spice up 6 Billion.
Game End
The game ends either when the Earth or Asteroid Belt population reaches 1024 billion, or when every planet's population track has at least one marker on it. Variants reduce the population requirement to 512 or even 256 billion! [DAC - refer Variants page]. Use these variants as they will help reduce play time. Played by experienced players, a game of 6 Billion can be finished in approximately two hours. Less experienced players, or players prone to procrastination may push the game up to three hours.
Conclusion
6 Billion is a game that is rich in possibilities. Figuring an optimum strategy will require multiple playing. Unlike other games, the number of calamity cards is restricted so that although population development can be slowed down, it cannot be prevented. Once a player surges in the lead on a planet, it becomes very difficult to catch up.
When compared to such games as Advanced Civilization, History Of The World, and Diplomacy, 6 Billion shows improved player interaction and a shortened game length and fares well. However, when compared to popular Eurogames, 6 Billion suffers from somewhat delicate components and takes virtually twice as long to play.
If two-plus hours playing time does not deter you, 6 Billion has some interesting game mechanics.
For a list of articles by me, see the Articles page.
