6.12 Bits and Pieces
by Dave Shukan
ANSWER: BIN
The 16 groups of pieces are from different 5-player board games but some of the player colors are not represented ("not playing with a full team"), yielding bits for 5-bit binary. The ranking of the colors is given by the 8 pieces from the game Diamant, running down the right side (white = high, black = low).
To aid in identifying the games, they are presented in alphabetical order, and each group also contains one non-player-associated game piece:
| Board game | Player pieces | Binary value | Piece count |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amun Re | 0 4 4 0 0 | 01100 = 12 (L) | 8 |
| Automobile | 4 4 0 0 4 | 11001 = 25 (Y) | 12 |
| Canal Mania | 1 0 0 2 2 | 10011 = 19 (S) | 5 |
| Carcassonne Hunters | 0 3 4 4 0 | 01110 = 14 (N) | 11 |
| Cartagena | 1 0 0 2 0 | 10010 = 18 (R) | 3 |
| China | 3 0 0 4 0 | 10010 = 18 (R) | 7 |
| Cuba | 2 0 2 0 0 | 10100 = 20 (T) | 4 |
| El Grande | 6 0 7 0 0 | 10100 = 20 (T) | 13 |
| Hacienda | 0 14 0 0 0 | 01000 = 8 (H) | 14 |
| In The Year / Dragon | 0 2 2 2 3 | 01111 = 15 (O) | 9 |
| Khronos | 0 1 1 2 2 | 01111 = 15 (O) | 6 |
| Niagara | 0 0 0 0 2 | 00001 = 1 (A) | 2 |
| Notre Dame | 1 0 0 0 0 | 10000 = 16 (P) | 1 |
| Oasis | 0 7 0 0 8 | 01001 = 9 (I) | 15 |
| Ticket To Ride Eur | 5 0 0 5 6 | 10011 = 19 (S) | 16 |
| Vegas Showdown | 0 2 2 3 3 | 01111 = 15 (O) | 10 |
Converting the binary to letters, and ordering the letters in order of the numbers of pieces in each set (which run from 1-16), gives PARTS OR LOONY THIS, leading to the answer BIN ("parts bin" and "loony bin", which is also suggested by the BINary mechanic and by the bins from Diamant, and "loony bin" is also a callback to "the nuthouse" in the flavortext).