Lets talk about Hex

Ok, so this is a puzzle game blog and this isn’t a puzzle game. But I’ve been playing it and want to talk about it.

What is Hex?

Black wins!

Go ask your mother. Sorry, no. Wait. Come back. Hex is a board game invented by John Nash (who you may know from A Beautiful Mind) and favoured by Martin Gardener (who you may know if you’re a massive nerd). It’s a wonder it has never become more popular.

The game is played on a rhombus shaped grid of hexagons. Players take turns colouring a hexagon their colour. The objective is simple, each player has to build a chain of their colour from one side to the other. One player needs to go top to bottom the other left to right. If you know your old British quiz shows, it’s like Blockbusters, but without the questions.

Why would you want to have Hex?

One of the interesting properties of hex is that no matter how you fill the grid, one player will win. It is impossible to draw in Hex. This causes defence and offence to be equivalent.

The game is almost like a puzzle at the start because it is not immediately obvious how to block someone. If you learn the game with a friend, you’ll pick up the blocking strategy together. Soon it becomes apparent that you can almost always block each other and you have to start making multiple threats at once, at this point it gets even more interesting.

The strategy gets deeper and more involved. You pick up different little tactics here and there, then you start looking at the whole game at a more abstract level. All this from some basic and beautifully simple rules.

I want to have Hex too

A hex board made by Miguel Garcia.

Unfortunately boards of it aren’t manufactured, it’s just not popular enough, though people have made their own. One person used wing nuts and steel ball-bearings (pictured right). 3D printing is getting cheaper, so making your own like that might be feasible. If you do get one 3D printed - let me know!

The easiest method of playing is with a computer version though: There is an available Android app called Hex. Unfortunately while it's ok for two player, the AI for it is very weak. You can increase the difficulty, and it will play a little bit stronger but at the expense of your time and battery. Still fine for two player though. Typically there is a better Hex program available for iPhone (so I hear). You can play a strong computer player on the PC with HexGui. You can also read up on Hex strategy at Hex Wiki.

A quick warning: you should know about:the swap rule, without it there is a massive advantage to player one. Other than that, you're good to go!