Battle Hex

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Origin: Battle Hex is derived from Hex, which is a game invented by Piet Hein and John Nash in 1942. Like Hex, Battle Hex is a strategy game involving 2 players and played on a hexagonal grid.

Description:

The Battle Hex board is a diamond shaped board tiled in hexagonal cells. Two players, red and black, are assigned opposite sides of the board to make a connection. The red player's goal is to form a connection from the upper left to lower right. The black player's goal is to form a connection from the lower left to the upper right. The board is empty at the start of the game, but the players play pieces two at a time until a connection is formed. Each player uses a set of cards to indicate their move, with each card representing a line of cells on the Battle Hex board. Red cards represent a line going from upper left to lower right, and black cards represent a line from lower left to upper right. The player's move is the intersection of those lines. In the event that players indicate moves in the same cell of the board, a tiebreaker will be held. In the tiebreaking event, red will try to match the color of the cards to their opponent, while black will try to place the color of the cards opposite of their opponent.

Objective: The goal for each player is to establish an unbroken chain of playing pieces of their own color going from one border to the other marked by the same color.

Rules: The players start play using an empty board. They indicate their move using two cards from a playing deck of 26 cards. The cards are ordered from ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king. These represent lines of cells. The red card represent a line of cells going from upper left to lower right, and the black cards represent a line of cells going from lower left to upper right. The player's move is the intersection of those cards.

When the players move, they first place their cards face down on the table. When both players are ready, the players' moves are shown simultaneously. If the cards indicate different moves for both players, the players' pieces may be placed on the board without contest. If the cards indicate the same move for both players, a tiebreaking event will be held.

In the tiebreaking event, red will try to match the color of the cards to their opponent, while black will try to place the color of the cards opposite of their opponent. If the colors of the cards match, red will proceed to place their piece on the tile indicated by the move, and black will choose any other open tile. If the colors of the cards are opposite of each other, black will proceed to place their piece on the tile indicated by the move, and red will choose any other open tile.

Tiebreaker, Same (RED) Wins	Tiebreaker, Opposite (BLACK) Wins

In the figures above, the left image depicts both moving to “Red 6, Black 7.” However, in this tiebreaker, the red player (Same) takes the cell, and black moves anywhere else on the board. In the right image, the move is again to “Red 6, Black 7,” but the black player (Opposite) takes the cell, and red moves anywhere else on the board.

In the event that a player indicates a move on a tile that has already been occupied, that player will forfeit their move.

The game is won when one color or the other is able to form an unbroken chain of pieces from one side to the other between the borders of the same color.