Hexagon Tiles: Like them, love them, or RAGGGEEEE!!!

I think hexes will be wierd for the first game and then it will feel like they should have always been hexes to begin with...

Wonder why hexes though. Why not octagons, or whatever-agons? What is so special about hexagons that games like to use them?

StittsvilleJame said:

Wonder why hexes though. Why not octagons, or whatever-agons? What is so special about hexagons that games like to use them?

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You can tile hexagons.

Can't you tile octogons too? It works in my brain, but then again, so does communism.....

StittsvilleJame said:

Can't you tile octogons too? It works in my brain, but then again, so does communism.....

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No. If you try to tile octagons, you get left-over square spaces.

The only uniform shapes you can tile with are triangles, squares (or other 4-sides shapes) and hexes.

StittsvilleJame said:

Wonder why hexes though. Why not octagons, or whatever-agons? What is so special about hexagons that games like to use them?

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Only three shapes with equal sides can create a regular tessellation on a 2D plane like Civ needs; squares, triangles and hexagons.

Anything else requires another shape to fill in the gaps that will be left over. Of those three options hexagons have the most sides (increasing strategic and tactical movement complexity) and also make diagonal movement 'fair', instead of allowing you to use just one point of movement to effectively go up and sideways at the same time like with squares, often through things that should be a solid line you cannot go through, like two mountain squares connected at a corner, or two units.

with Hexs, 1 tile away is 1 unit away, with square diagonals, 4/8 are 1.414