6: Siege – The Board Game – The Heart of the Game

After our first article described the preparation and the set-up of a game, it’s time to talk about the different key concepts that characterize 6: Siege, namely time management, the principle of alternate activations, the destructible environment, and the differences of 3- and 4-player games.

The Game

Every operator in Team Six knows that a good plan is always subject to the reality of the field, and to the tactical responses of their opponent. The same is true in 6: Siege – The Board Game. Once the operation is launched, there’s no time to procrastinate or hesitate. To simulate the pressure, the stress and adrenaline of a combat situation when faced with the unexpected, the game relies on a few important mechanisms: a limited playing time, alternate activations, fog of war, and destructible environments.

Alternate Activations

A game turn is divided into 4 activation phases: a first activation phase for the attacker, a first activation phase for the defender, then a second one for the attacker and a second one for the defender, in that order.

During each phase, a player can activate up to 3 Operators. You are free to activate two Operators in the first phase, then three, or vice-versa. It may even happen, if you only activated one Operator out of the 5 in the first phase, that you cannot activate all your Operators in the turn, since you can only activate a maximum of 3 in an activation phase. Most importantly, it is the attacker who starts each round from the beginning. So, they will always have the Initiative at the beginning of a new turn. The defender, on the other hand, will always be able to retaliate. Note also that an activated Operator cannot be activated again until the next turn! You will therefore have to manage the way you distribute your activations.

Limited Game Time

In 6: Siege – The Board Game, time is managed by a free app. At the beginning of a game, each player chooses a game speed level from the four proposed (1 – Initiation, 2 – Calm, 3 – Standard or 4 – Extreme).

These levels determine the deployment time and the playing time per Operator allowed to the players, respectively. For a balanced game, players can choose the same level. However, a more experienced player can play with a handicap by choosing a higher speed level than his opponent.

These levels also determine the time capital of each player during his two activation phases. The time allotted for the different levels is, per Operator in the game and for each turn, equal to:

• 2 minutes for the Initiation level
• 1 minute and 30 seconds for the Calm level
• 1 minute for the Standard level
• 45 seconds for the Extreme level!

Be careful, this time capital is a cumulative time for the whole game turn. You use it and distribute it as you wish over the two activation phases of your Operators. The more time you take to perform the actions of one of your Operators, the less time you have for the others in your group. Furthermore, losing an Operator means you lose action time as well on the next turn.

In initiation, you have 2 minutes per Operator, or 10 minutes altogether at the beginning of the game to play all 5 of your Operators on your turn, but also during the opponent’s turn for your Operators on overwatch and performing a reaction shot (but we will talk about this in more detail in our next article). Thus, each Operator eliminated during the game will reduce your time counter by 2 minutes for your next and subsequent turns at the Initiation level.

Another element of the game affects the time you have available to you: challenging Line of Sight. Indeed, during a shot (an action which will be described in the next article), the targeted player can contest Line of Sight. The timer is stopped while the verification takes place. If Line of Sight is valid, the player whose action or reaction was wrongly challenged immediately adds 30 seconds to his own timer or takes 30 seconds off his opponent’s timer (their choice), by pressing the -30 seconds or the +30 seconds button. If the challenged Line of Sight and level of protection are invalid, it is the contesting player who chooses to add 30 seconds to his own timer or remove 30 seconds from his opponent’s timer.

As you can already sense, time management is one of the important elements of the game, which contributes to its highly tactical character by simulating the tension of an intervention operation. In infiltration operations, the timing of the different stages of an assault are paramount. You must keep a cool head as time is continually running out and make right decisions.

With all that being said, it is also possible to play without the app, and without any time limits. We recommend this for your first game. In this case, challenges do not lead to time bonuses or minuses, but to bonuses giving an additional action or the removal one of your precious actions.

The app works like a chess clock, which each player will start as soon as he starts playing and can be paused if there are interruptions in the game.

Fog of War & Destructible Elements

Defenders always start the game hidden. As mentioned above, this means that two hidden Operator tokens are placed by name at the moment of deployment: one representing the Operator and the other being a decoy. These tokens are limited in what they can do. Spotting the enemy then takes on a whole new challenge for the attacker who will have to use tactics (or electronic gadgets) to identify the right tokens and make an effective shot through a light wall with his sniper.

Many elements of the board (light walls, openings reinforced with boards, barricades) can be destroyed if the Operator in charge has the right equipment, symbolized by an obstacle destruction ability of a certain level (Yellow, Orange, or Red).

Knocking down walls or barricades allows you to find shortcuts and open up lines of sight for weapons that can fire from one end of the board to the other.

3- or 4-Player Games

In a 2-player game, the players are solely responsible for their choices. Just like in a video game, where several players participate together in the assault or defense of an objective, 3- or 4-player games capture the spirit of team play along with the constraints and tensions of the mission, such as how difficult it is to communicate under fire! Agreeing on the right approach vector for an assault, or the timely activation of your strategic assets can be a tricky exercise when time is short!

In 3- or 4-player games, players use the assault to train a Recruit. The Rookie brings new perspectives to the team by providing additional tactical gadgets. His evolving profile also brings tactical depth and flexibility to your games. In a 3-player game, one person will control a team of 5 Operators just like they would in a 2-player game, while the other two players control the opposite side. Each player on that opposing team will choose 2 Operators each and then choose a Recruit together. In a 4-player game, each player on each team will choose 2 Operators, forming a team of 4 Operators, to which they will add a Recruit. 

This Recruit is a novice and does not have the gadgets normally available on the Operator’s card. To symbolize this, the Recruit’s gadget or special ability is covered to hide its effects. The teams choose their tactical gadgets together, but each player is only responsible for their own two Operators and special gadgets.

The defenders set up the environment together without any time constraints, then carry out timed deployments of their own Operators. Lastly, the defenders decide together where to deploy the Recruit.

The attackers then proceed in the same way: deployment of both groups by their respective controllers, then deployment of the Recruit.

During the game, the sequence of play is modified for the team dynamic:

• Phase 1: Activation of a first attacking intervention group with the option for that player to activate the team’s Recruit.
• Phase 2: The same applies to the defending team.
• Phase 3: Activation of the second attacking intervention group and the possibility of activating the Recruit (if it was not activated in Phase 1).
• Phase 4: Same for the defenders’ team.

To enrich the game experience and to give more scope to 4-player games, an additional mission, dedicated specifically to 4-player games, is currently in development. We will communicate more about it after the campaign, and it will be included in the final mission booklet.

We hope that these few rules give you a first clear view of the gameplay of 6: Siege – The Board Game. The next article will go into more detail about the possibilities of the operators.

6: Siege – The Board Game

Soon on Kickstarter! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1162110258/6-siege-the-board-game

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