I recently discovered Hexal with people I love playing board games the most with. The few rounds we played, reminded me of the joy of shared experiences with the like-minded. Clearly, heterogeneity works better for some, than it does for me!
Hexal from Dr Wood retails at `249, and at first glance reminded me of Six, also from the same company. It comes with 48 hexagonal tiles in a nifty cloth bag, and an instruction leaflet that’s a pleasure to read. Hexal is a two to four players rapid fire game, that will make you want to play round after round!
The basic rule is to have clarity of thought around three characteristics: Colour, symbol, and size. From a hand of four tiles, players match any one of the three characteristics of the tile played with the adjoining tiles.
A point is scored for each tile successfully placed, and you keep playing till you can match tiles, or your hand is done. There are bonus points to be won for every hexagon formed. On one particular turn, I actually completed three hexagons. Indescribable joy!
The symbols in play are dollars, euros, pounds and rupees. Ironically, in the final game we played, it’s the rupee that was the most sought after currency. It was the most needed to complete hexagons, and the most certain to earn you the points! Four symbols, five colours, and three sizes add up to a formidable number of permutations and combinations to be considered on each turn. As a bonus, the shapes formed during play are veritable works of geometric art!
The author may be contacted at arup_kavan@yahoo.com