6: Siege - The Board Game – First Impressions

I’ve logged over 750 hours in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege. That time is split between casual, unranked, and ranked competitive online play, but it’s a lot of time nonetheless. That’s a full month of my life spent playing the tactical shooter video game.

And this is not me bragging. If anything, it’s a little self-indicting. Dear goodness, Devon. Get outside and go on a walk…

But I am informing you of that excessive experience with the game so that you are aware from the very beginning of my bias regarding 6: Siege - The Board Game, the upcoming project from Mythic Games.

I like the source material. A lot. The close-quarters tactical combat is really satisfying to me. It plays like if the Fast & Furious franchise invented 3D chess—explosive energy, a blatant disregard for the structural integrity of everything involved, and a lot of smack talk over comms.

And while I was skeptical about the board game successfully channeling the soul and strategic intensity of the IP into a tabletop experience, I did not hesitate to try it out.

I’m so glad I did…

Carlos G.Q. and the team at Mythic have compressed the team-based gunplay, the trademark lethality, and the tactical wizardry of the memorable Operators into a superb 1v1 skirmish game. While it can accommodate 2v2 gameplay, I haven’t experienced that and honestly don’t feel like I need to in order to appreciate what this game does.

Take the theatrical two-player conflict of a game like Star Wars: Rebellion and then combine it with the magnetism of character-heavy games like Dice Throne. After that, wait anxiously as your body is suffused with an intoxicating mix of anticipation and dread when the equivalent of a chess timer is slapped on the table, forcing your and your opponent(s) to make decisions under pressure and in the shadow of the clock, which ticks on ominously until one side capitulates, in frequently fatal fashion.

It’s so good and I want more of it.

What It Does

Players control two sides—defending Operators and attacking Operators—in a close-quarters combat scenario featuring gunfights and gadgets. This is high-tech warfare in a confined space with high mortality rates and difficult objectives.

There are three modes—Control, Hostage, and Bomb—but the most prevalent is Bomb as that’s the defining mode in the video game and it provides the most expansive struggle on the map.

In Bomb, the defending player will set up a reinforced and booby-trapped environment that the attacking player must penetrate. In the different locations, two rooms will be designated as the bomb sites and those rooms are where the attacking operator must reach in order to disarm the active devices.

The defender protects and delays. The attacker infiltrates and defuses. Both sides can alternatively focus on eliminating all enemy Operators, but that’s an indirect path to victory (despite it likely happening a lot).

Using a tactical inventory of gadgets and special Operator abilities unique to each character, players will seek to gain an advantage in the contest through clever maneuvering in and careful manipulation of the environment.

All of this is accomplished under the overwatch of the timer, which simulates the real-time action of a combat encounter and forces players to act with purpose and either reap the rewards or suffer the consequences.

One side tries to maintain control of the situation and deter or deflect the pressure of the aggressor. And the other is trying to dismantle the safety measures put in place.

It’s a tactical skirmish experience that simmers, then boils, then explodes off of the stove like an overcooked grenade.

How It Does It

For a mechanical deconstruction of this game, you’re looking at a timed, action-selection board game with variable player powers that incorporates miniature-based skirmish rules with asymmetric player objectives and a variable board setup.

Players will decide on a map, which contains its own setup rules. Then players will engage in a deployment phase, with a more involved setup for the defender who must construct traps and obstacles for the attacker within the environment prior to round-based movement and action for both sides.

Each team is comprised of five unique Operators, who will be activated at some time during each two-phase round. The attacker activates, then the defender. That turn order takes place one more time, with each side activating operators that weren’t used previously. And then there is an end-of-round upkeep phase before starting all over again (as long as a game-ending objective has not been fulfilled).

During an Operator activation, a player will take control of a defender or attacker and perform a combination of movement and two other actions (running, shooting, establishing overwatch, controlling a gadget, using an Operator ability, etc.).

There are a lot of moving parts with the destructible environment, unforgiving line-of-sight combat rules, and other pieces of the 6: Siege puzzle, but the core of the experience involves players resolving character actions until either one side is completed wiped out or one side has completed their primary objective.

It’s an effective, mechanically impressive, and visually dense simulacrum of the Rainbow Six Siege video game. Pick a map. Select your Operators. And bask in the tactics.

To see the game in action, check out my playthrough with Daniel Burrell from Kidsplaining or watch the Quackalope and BoardGameCo collaboration (and gunfight) below.

Why You Might Like It

If you’re a fan of the video game, the influential decisions on what operators to bring and how to deploy at the beginning of the game continue to have weight and creates unique gameplay experiences.

Fans of skirmish games will be impressed with the layers of gameplay decisions that stack on top of each other to build a strategic heavyweight that plays in a shorter amount of time than you’d expect.

Why You Might Not

Setting the game up is actually part of the game’s mechanics and strategy, so it will feel involved for those that like a quick start to a game. This is a slow-burning fuse to start (which can blow up quite kinetically after just a round or two).

With multiple maps, operators, and abilities able to be used in the game, action paralysis can sink in for players who get overwhelmed by the scope of what can happen in a game.

Final Thoughts

I think about this game before I play it, wondering what Operators I should take into the field, sifting through ideas about attacking bomb locations, and anticipating sitting across the table from someone and plotting out a plan of action.

And then I think about this game after I play it, sitting at the table and look at the final board state, considering what I could have done differently to improve the next time I play or better use the Operators that I did.

Good games create an enjoyable experience for players at the table. But great games make you think about them even when you’re not sitting down in front of them.

And I think 6: Siege - The Board Game fits into that category for me.

The iconic deployment phase creates tension from the outset as the defending player locks down a location to prepare for an assault. An accessible and simple timer app maintains an even flow of play between the opposing sides. And Operator abilities on both sides have a substantial impact on the core rules. All of this pays homage to the IP while enabling players to forge their own breach-filled path in the game.

Mistakes are punishing, as they should be. On the flip side, when you make the right decision, it can be incredibly satisfying to see the inner tactician come out and be rewarded. With balanced gameplay between the defenders and attackers, the asymmetry between the two sides makes certain that your choices and your approach to the game changes depending on which role you take on.

This is a game that will inspire homebrew tournaments and long-term competition between players. Best of three. First to ten wins. Tracking each play over a span of time. Developing expertise in one side or the other. Or both. All of the above.

I’ve spent hours in front of the screen playing Rainbow Six Siege. And when my pledge eventually arrives, I cannot wait to spend hours at the table playing 6: Siege - The Board Game…

Job well done, Mythic.

The Kickstarter campaign is live right now and it’s revealing daily unlocks and extra content for backers to enjoy, but there are only a couple of days left to take advantage if this sounds like something you’d enjoy.

For another look at what this game does and how well it accomplishes it, watch the review with Jesse and Alex based on their gameplay with a prototype from Mythic Games.

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Have you played the video game Rainbow Six Siege? Do you enjoy tactical skirmish games? You should check out 6: Siege - The Board Game from Mythic Games!

Let us know in the comments and give a recommendation for other games of which to share our first impressions.