A primer on Hex

Let's be realistic, few people know what abstract strategy game means, let alone what one is. While the most common of them is chess, it's common enough for people to know the basics. Other simple games don't get the privilege of being easily known, so they have to make up for it by being easily playable.

Hex does the job quite well. It's simple enough not to need any help explaining from me, but it's always fun to play. While you need to make a board and grab some counters, there are some websites that provide hexagonal boards and other props.

So how do you play Hex? Hex is played on a hexagonal board shaped in a rhombic configuration, so the four sides will have equal units. You also need a bunch of counters, chips, stones, whatever, in two different colors. Two parallel edges of a Hex board are owned by one color, the other two by the opposing color (Corners are shared by both colors).

The goal is to have your two edges connected by an unbroken path of your stones, adjacency being edgewise. There will always be a winner in a game of Hex, as any chances of a deadlock are rendered impossible.

Play starts with a player placing a stone on any cell on the board, with play alternating afterward. Game ends when a player makes a connection between their two sides. The first player has an advantage, so after the first turn, the next player can either stick to their color or switch sides, after which play resumes. This "pie rule" is usually optional in some cases.

This game is a decent introduction to abstract board games, the rules are easy to memorize and explain, and play is pretty fun, even though there's a chance the game might be solved soon.

Usually, things start slow, and the first moves don't look important. Attacks might pop from here to there, a sustained march from side to side is hard to muster. The middlegame is a bunch of cuts and connections being made, but no sure endgame.

The endgame is just a race to pave their road, direct attacking can happen, but someone's already won at this point.

Hex is a nice, simple game that's fun to play however seriously you take it. I do hope a version gets published here in the Philippines.