Rainbow Six Siege breaches the tabletop with a tactical, real-time board game adaptation
Gadgets, guns and dice - a killer combination.
The popular competitive video game Rainbow Six Siege will venture beyond consoles and PCs and onto the living room table with an upcoming board game adaptation from publisher Mythic Games, Inc. The competitive, asymmetric title - which just launched a Kickstarter campaign - will feature miniature operators, a dynamic combat space and a companion app for keeping track of real-time combat.
Six: Siege - The Board Game pits two players against each other as they control a hand-selected team of Operators in one of three mission types - Control, Bomb and Hostage. One team will form the defense and populate the interior of the double-sided board, while the attacker stages their initial efforts from the outside. Games are short - four or five rounds across one hour at the high end - and prioritize positioning, quick and efficient takedowns, and understanding how line of sight and terrain can affect various factors.
For those who play the original video game, itself based on the paramilitary fiction of Tom Clancy, Six: Siege - The Board Game will sound like an earnest attempt to translate as much of the digital experience as possible into cardboard and extruded plastic. The “tactical shooter with miniatures”, as Mythic Games put it, seems to have looked at the majority of mechanics and toys from the source material. Defenders can construct walls and barricades to funnel attackers into chokes, while those aggressors can use charges to blow them up. Gadgets such as drones and cameras provide extra information, while smoke grenades and gas clouds can obscure or incapacitate threats at a distance.The designers have even managed to codify the trademark action of leaning around corners so that operators can strike without sacrificing valuable cover.
A companion app keeps track of each player’s constantly ticking match time, framing each encounter in “real time” - whenever a player starts their turn, they chew through that bank of time while pondering and executing their moves. The urgency of beating the clock is supposed to simulate the reactive nature of a live-fire Siege match while also sustaining the dramatic tension as the attackers move ever closer to their objective. Optional rules for playing without the timer will be included, and difficulty can be chosen separately, allowing newer players more time than veteran opponents. Groups of three or four will be able to play with only slight variations on the standard ruleset.
The operators themselves are chosen at the beginning of the game to compose a team of five, and each sport unique stats and abilities that could prove vital once inside the building. The base game and planned expansions - of which there are many - look like they’ll cover the full list of operators currently playable in the video game, all of them represented with 32 mm miniatures with nameplates that attach to the blue and orange-coloured bases.
Reading through the mission rules PDF included on the Kickstarter page shows a rapidfire game facilitated by a lot of moving parts, and designer Carlos Gomez Quintana only has one other credit to his name - Burning Games' 2019 miniature sports title CoreBall. Video Game adaptations can be hindered by their reverence for the source material or overeager attempt to incorporate too much. Where Six: Siege - The Board Game will fall is yet to be seen, but its Kickstarter campaign blasted past its initial funding goal of $100,000 (£71,728) within the first hour and has amassed over $270,000 (£190,000) at time of writing.
Mythic Games, Inc. also handled the Darkest Dungeon board game - their first video game adaptation - and are known for the massive miniatures title Mythic Battles: Pantheon and the narrative board game Time of Legends: Joan of Arc.
Six: Siege - The Board Game’s Kickstarter campaign runs through July 2nd, with the core box available for $69 (£50). Backers can expect their copies in June 2022, and shopping is available throughout the world. An FAQ says Mythic Games are currently managing details for an eventual retail release, but no date has yet been provided.