What's the big deal about Hexagonal map grids?

ParadigmShifter said:

Nah, Queens can move as a rook or a bishop

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Yes, that's probably a good algorithmic way of thinking about the problem... so, no matter how you define movement for the Bishop and the Rook, as long as they don't have identical movement options, the Queen will have more options than either one individually.


The King becomes a bigger sissy than ever, though, with even more limits on its movement selections.


Pawns don't seem to be too much different, except that instead of starting in a position where none of them support each other, they start in a position where many of them are supporting other pawns, which probably favours less aggressive openings.

G-Max said:

I'm still confused about the knights.

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They kind of look like they will be limited to their initial colour. If that's true, then the first two examples of ParadigmShifter's allow the Knights to support each other but can't attack the enemy Knights at all. Compare with his third version, where only 1 Knight can "have it out" for its opponent on the other team, with the Knights on the same team being unable to support themselves.


Of course, it could also be that instead of moving in an L-shape that is less than a 90 degree angle, you actually move in an L-shape that is more than a 90 degree angle, which does allow the Knights to switch between colours... yes, that's how it would have to be, otherwise they'd be moving like Bishops... so, the answer must be an L-shape with a greater-than-90 degree angle.

Why would you assume that the King can only move to adjacent tiles? He should be able to move to the closest 12, following Queen Logic...

My best guess for the knights would be this:

Yeah that's how a knight moves.

Kings can move to 12 spaces (like a 1 step queen).

EDIT: Re: pawns - remember they can only take diagonally (like how a bishop moves).

It's confusing anyway

ParadigmShifter said:

EDIT: Re: pawns - remember they can only take diagonally (like how a bishop moves).

It's confusing anyway

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Wow, okay that bit IS confusing! It's like "jump a column and move 2 (1.5?) hexes ahead."

Do pawns still get to move either 1 or 2 hexes on their first turn of movement? Maybe some of the middle pawns get to move either 1, 2, or 3 hexes, while the ones on the edges of the board only get to move 1 hex?

It seems kind of odd that moving one of your edge-of-the-board pawns on its first turn (moving it two hexes) can set up an immediate threat on an enemy pawn.

It appears the pawns take on adjacent squares. I just played it in the "Zillions of Games" engine (demo version is free) and got my whooped with the AI on "pushover" level. I was in check virtually the entire game and had to figure out why each time. Those jumpy bishops take some getting used to

I think the bishop and knight moves are a little bit kooky. Like they've had to invent a direction that doesn't really exist just to keep those pieces in the game. Which I guess is one of the things we've been saying about hexes for months - namely that all 6 directions are the same - arguably a good thing for Civ. But in chess the difference between the diagonal and orthogonal directions gives rise to the basic game mechanics.

Oh well I have the engine installed now so I guess I should see if I can invent a better hex chess myself. Apparently whatever game you can define to it, the AI will play. Seems pretty cool.