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Beta Colony box art
2018 Ranked #7,378

Beta Colony

A colony-building strategy game has directors collect materials and construct vital pods to earn settlers’ confidence. Shared dice rolls feed a movement-and-activation system where color and value shape every opportunity.

Dice Science Fiction Area Majority / Influence Roll / Spin and Move

Players

2-4

Play time

40-80 min

Age

14+

Complexity

2.7/5

Rating

6.61

Harder to teach Highly interactive Deep strategy

Overview

At a glance

Is this game right for my group?

ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.

Teachability 2.5/5

Harder to teach

Replay value 4.1/5

High replayability

Interaction 3.8/5

Highly interactive

Player scaling 4.4/5

Scales well

Strategic depth 4.5/5

Deep strategy

See all 5 specifications

How it plays

How does it play?

It all started when the Imperium seized control of Earth and declared martial law, sentencing those who opposed their will to immediate death or worse fates.

Core mechanisms

Key systems that shape the decisions players make.

Read the full game description

It all started when the Imperium seized control of Earth and declared martial law, sentencing those who opposed their will to immediate death or worse fates. It seemed as if all hope was lost, but before their edict could be carried out, a group of defectors managed to wrest control of the Ridback, a Class–II jumpship, and flee with as many of the condemned as they could save. It has been close to seven years that these refugees from Earth have called the Ridback home, and finally the crew has found a planet with promise. They have managed to establish outposts around it, and now the great burden falls on you to expand these small “alphas” into a full-fledged Beta Colony. Success will mean that your people will be able to begin life anew on exoplanet 14 Bos c, or, as they have renamed it, "Victus" — Latin for "way of life". In Beta Colony, you play as one of five Directors working to create prosperous colonies. If you earn the most Confidence Points (CP), you will be elected as the first leader of Victus. Players will collect the needed building materials to produce and erect colonization pods – Defense Stations, Science and Tech Towers, Living Quarters, Agriculture Pods, and Water Treatment Centers – on the varied terrain of Victus. Using a unique "rolldell" mechanism (dice + rondel), Beta Colony is a mid-weight strategic game for players of all levels. Each round, the start player rolls their set of four colored dice. All other players duplicate that roll with their own dice. Players take two actions each round, one action at a time in turn order, with each action using two dice. Players will use one die to move and one die to activate the location to which they moved. Die color and value affect how each of the seven unique locations are used. Players will build colonization pods at each of three colonies to gain the confidence of the settlers and lead them to glory! —description from the publisher

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Editions

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Edition Year Language Publisher / Region
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Player resources

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Game and edition data

All specifications (5)

Play and group

Players
2–4
Best with
3–4
Play time
40–80 min
Age
14+
Complexity
2.7/5
Credits and catalog connections

Credits

Designers

2
Ben Pinchback Matt Riddle

Artists

1
James M. Davis

Publishers

1
Rio Grande Games

Linked items

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