# Hex — connect your two sides

- From: Hex, a game by Piet Hein, found again by John Nash
- Players: 2 players
- Time: 10 min
- Made by: Piet Hein, 1942; found again independently by John Nash, 1947–49
- This version: A 5 by 5 board, with the swap rule

Made with boardgameBuilder 0.14.4. To design from it, open boardgameBuilder and choose Open game: its blocks go on the canvas, and the feelings are left for you to pick.

Each player owns two opposite sides of a diamond of hexagons, and tries to join them with a chain of their own colour. One chain always blocks the other, so the game can never be drawn.

## What it shows a designer

Every move is both an attack and a defence, because the same chain that connects one player blocks the other. It shows how a geometric fact can rule out draws, and how the swap rule balances first-player advantage.

## What you need

- paper with a 5 by 5 diamond of hexagons drawn on it
- two pens of different colours

## How to play

1. **The board.** Draw a diamond of hexagons, five along each side. Each player owns a pair of opposite sides.
2. **A move.** Take turns colouring one empty hexagon. A coloured hexagon never changes.
3. **The swap.** After the first move, the second player may take that hexagon as their own instead of moving, so the first player has no reason to start in the strongest place.
4. **Win.** The first to join their two sides with an unbroken chain of their own hexagons wins. Neighbours share an edge.

## After playing, talk about

- Why can nobody draw?
- Did you attack or defend more? Is there a difference in Hex?
- What did the swap rule do to the first move?

## Where the rules are written down

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hex_(board_game)
- https://trmph.com/hexwiki/Rules.html

## Its blocks

- Player interaction: indirect via board
- Chance or skill: mostly skill
- Theme: abstract
- Information visibility: full information
- Timing: take turns

## Saved state

boardgameBuilder reads this part back when the file is opened.

```json
{"mechanics": {"player-interaction": "indirect-via-board", "chance-skill": "mostly-skill", "information": "full-information", "theme": "abstract", "timing": ["take-turns"]}, "chosenFeelings": [], "previousMechanics": {}, "previousFeelings": [], "turnNumber": 0, "locked": false, "turnHistory": [], "answers": {}, "tests": {}}
```