Top 5 Hex Based Board Games

Board games, as their name implies, often have a board. Oftentimes, one has to move around on said board. Sometimes, the board is made up of fancy shapes and stuff. One of said types of shapes is the humble hexagon, with its six sides. Lots of games use it, most often wargames. Here are my personal favorites, though! Enjoy!

It's an interesting thing, thinking about the composition and structure of the actual board part of board games. In this case, checking out ones that use hexagonal tiles for purposes of mapping, movement, etc. While a lot of games lean towards squares, hexes tend to be more for war/skirmish games and the like, and in general simply offer more variety compared to some others in terms of strategy. Or maybe I'm reading too much into a shape.

Either way, what all do you think? What're your favorite hexagon-based games, and why? Any particular genre? Let me know what you think in the comments!

[ollllj]

You never need physical hexagons for a hexagonal movement board game.
all you need are a rectangular or square tiles.
Sure, you can do the most basic brick-pattern with those, for hexagonal adjacency, but that is still inefficient in filling a rectangular/square table.

Simply place square tokens in a checkerboard lattice, and allow for diagonal movement (king of chess), BUT forbid 2 diagonal movements along one diagonal domain, only allowing diagonal movement along the other diagonal domain.
this is identical to hexagonal adjacency.

[craftyflutterbycreations]

Thanks for the great suggestions!! Survive Escape from Atlantis is a great take that hex based game. It's a classic that keeps getting reprinted. There is also Survive Space Attack if you prefer a sci fi themed over an island theme. Calico looks like s calm pretty game about cats and quilts but has a lot of strategy as well.

[davidbarbulescu]

I would add to this Explorers of the North Sea, its also a dynamically build hex map which brings alot of replayability.

[chasechase]

cool video! i like monolith arena/neuroshima hex ^^

[BUC]

It is great to watch your videos again :). Mainly, I love hexes for combat and strategy, but I can see that certain aspects of some games would not work the same with squares. My list, just as they pop up in my head, would be:

1. Mage Knight: Agree with you, it is an amazing game. Hexes are great for Zone of control, and this game makes good use of it.

2. Gloomhaven: They say it is a puzzle solving Euro, I agree and I love it for that. I think almost all strategy games are a bit like puzzle solving. Being skirmish heavy, hexes work great.

3. Galaxy Defenders: I love the AI of this skirmish combat game and it works great on a hex grid.

4. Robinson Crusoe: Hexes work great in this game given you won't use that many tiles. The fact that a hexagon connects with exactly 6 tiles instead of 4 or 8 given by squares are the sweet spot in this game, or so I think.

5. Cryptid: Same as above, hexes hit the sweet spot in adjacency number.

6. Hive: Just had to include this one as an extra because I think you like it a lot :P.

Cheers!

[serge-otro]

Thank you for video! I’m also Ukrainian and live in Canada.