Hex has been a game that I have enjoyed for a while, but I have not been a steady player until I joined this site in October 2020. I know that sometimes abstract games can be daunting, and I noticed that no actual nuggets have been written on the vanilla version of this game, so I wanted to write a few small ones to provide an intro to new players. I am completely self-taught, so I welcome any terminology updates, additional tips, or feedback on what I have written. In short, these few nuggets are simply what I have found my success from.

If you have played the game or read the rules, you will notice that the game is played on a 14x14 hexagonal board (pictured below). On Goldtoken, the white sides (top and bottom) and black sides (left and right) are denoted by a shading of each color along the respective edges of the board.



The concept of the game is that players take turns placing a piece of their color on an unoccupied space with the objective of making a solid connection between the owner’s two sides of the board. Every game will result in one (and only one) winner. This is to say that in any randomization of cell ownership on a full board, there will always be one player whose sides connect. The below image has randomized cells. Can you find the winning path?



At the expense of sounding redundant, the below graphic is a simpler illustration as to why it is impossible for a draw to occur. As you can see, when one side connects, it prevents the other side from doing so.



Since white places a piece first and has an extensive advantage, a swap clause is available for use (which will be discussed in greater detail in a later nugget). This clause allows the black player to swap sides with the white player as if they had placed that piece instead. This ends their turn and the (new) black player now places a hex on the board. This swap can only occur once and only immediately after the very first placement of the game.

There are no further rules to know. The rest of the game is simply about strategy, which I will begin to explain in the next nugget: Basic Movement and Etiquette.