Hex
From The Tic-Tac-Totality
| Hex | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Creator: | Piet Hein, John Nash | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Type: | Connection | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Setup: | Elaborate | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Length: | Medium | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight: | Welter | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Contents |
Summary
Hex is a connection game in which each player tries to form an unbroken chain of chips that connects his or her sides of the board.
Setup
First, create the diamond-shaped board:
- Lay out seven white chips in a straight line.
- Each player nestles a line of six white chips on one side of the original line.
- Each player then nestles a line of five white chips onto that line, and repeats the process on down to a final line of one white chip.
- Finally, remove the center white chip.
Next, place two blue dice on each of two opposite sides of the diamond, and two red dice on each of the other two sides. These dice will denote the Red sides and the Blue sides. Corner chips are considered on both sides.
Finally, each player takes two dice of his or her secondary color.
Play
Play consists of a series of turns, each of which consists of a move by each player.
- At the beginning of every turn, players roll for order, using their secondary color, to see who moves first.
- A player's move consists of placing a chip of his or her color on top of a white chip, or in the center space.
- A player may only play in the center space if by doing so, he or she will immediately win the game.
End
If a player connects his or her sides with an unbroken chain of adjacent chips, he or she wins the game.
Issues
This is a classic, time-tested game, with two moderately playtested alterations: the lack of a center chip, and the constant rolling for order, both of which were done to reduce first-turn advantage and allow the game to scale down. At this size, Hex without constantly randomized turn order is, while not trivially solvable, solvable enough to lead to serious analysis paralysis. However, there may be other, more elegant solutions.
| Beta This game is in the Beta design stage. It is playable, but may be flawed, and is still subject to revision by its creator. Any user can edit the page; substantive rules changes, however, should be suggested on the discussion page first.
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