Hex Empires

deathmatch · continental · last banner standing or first to 20 points wins

Set the table to begin…

Your hand

Trade with players

Bank trade

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War chronicle

Table chat

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Set up the table to begin.

The dice roll automatically at the start of your turn. Keys: R roll · E end turn · Esc cancel

Your stores

Build & raise

Dice rolls

How to play

Goal — two ways to win. Deathmatch: destroy every rival town and city; the last player with a settlement standing wins the island. Economic victory: every settlement scores points — town 1, city 2, citadel 3, plus 1 for each harbor — and the first player to hold enough points at once wins immediately: 20 points on a tiny or small board, 24 on medium, 26 on large and 28 on huge.
The table. 2–4 banners. Each seat is a player at this screen (hot-seat — pass the device) or a bot. Hands can be hidden between hot-seat turns.
Setup draft — before the game begins. Turn order is drawn at random. In snake order (1→4, then 4→1, …) every player places all of their starting cities, then their starting towns. Every starting structure comes with its own road: a city is placed first and then its road, which may join any of your settlements or roads (if the city isn't touching your roads yet, its road must touch it); for a town you may lay the road first (joined to your settlements or roads) and then place the town on a spot touching your roads — or plant it anywhere as a colony: unlike cities, starting towns need no road connection, and the colony's road is then laid beside it. During the draft only, a structure may not be placed next to any other structure (starting towns are exempt: they may sit next to any settlement, even a rival's) — except that your 2nd starting city must be placed on an intersection right next to your capital (your first city), joined to it by a road. That road is laid for you as the city's draft road — unless your capital's road already runs there, in which case the 2nd city still places its own road. (If no intersection beside the capital is free, the normal rule applies.) Nobody rolls until the whole table has finished placing.
Starting stores. Each starting city collects 1 of every resource from the hexes it touches. You start with 3 armies, garrisoned in your capital. When the draft ends everyone receives 1 Timber, 1 Brick and 2 random action cards.
Whale grounds. Three whale grounds lie off the weakest coasts, favouring the outer waters away from the centre: two on a 6 and an 8, kept away from the fishing grounds, and one on a less likely 4 or 10 that fishing grounds may sit beside. They pay Ore: 1 per level to each settlement on their shore, and 1 per ship anchored on them.
Revolution. If at the start of your turn the points leader is ahead of you by at least the number of players still in the game + 2 (4 points in a 1v1, 6 with four players), your people rise up: you gain 2 Gold for every point you are behind (6 behind = 12 Gold). A revolution costs 1 point toward the economic victory for the rest of the game, and each player can revolt only once a game.
Coalition (bots). When one player runs away with the game — ahead of the trailing player by the revolution gap, or within 5 points of winning — and at least 3 players are left, every bot gangs up on them: the bots go to war at once, march further to reach the leader, stop attacking each other, and refuse the leader's trade offers. The log announces when a coalition forms and when it breaks up.
Map types. Continental (below) is the standard map. Archipelago: no main island — two island chains run side by side across the sea, with a few lone islands between and beyond them; every island is 1 to 4 tiles (single tiles most often) and ringed by sea, and there is no desert (the bandits start on low-odds land); about 75% more fishing grounds and twice the whale grounds, but income defaults to Reduced. Pangaea: one great landmass with mountains gathered into ranges and a few inland seas (lakes ringed by land), plus a single island chain off its coast; few coasts, so fewer fishing and whale grounds. Polar ice (every map) frames the top and bottom edges of the map — scenery only. Income (any map): Normal, Reduced (¾) or Low (½) — every harvest a player collects of a resource is cut to that share, rounded down but never below 1.
The continental map. A main island and outer islands (three on a medium board; the board size — tiny, small, medium, large or huge, 7 to 15 hexes wide, medium by default — sets how many), ringed by open sea. The outer islands lean slightly toward the better numbers, and the desert is always on the main island. 12 fishing grounds (sea tiles with a number) sit off the weakest coasts — the poorer the shore, the better the number. They pay Grain to the settlements on their shore, and 1 Grain to a ship anchored on them (1 Grain per ship).
Production. Roll two dice each turn. Each hex showing that number pays its resource to every adjacent settlement: town 1, city 2, citadel 3. Desert and plain sea pay nothing.
Bandit bands. The game starts with a single bandit band on the desert. Bands never grow — each is a lone outlaw — and a 7 may raise another right beside a player's settlements (whoever has the fewest bands nearby), up to one band for every 2 players. Bandits move on their own: at the start of each round every band stays or moves one tile, drawn to settlements it can overpower and to rich land, and wary of army stacks. Each band seizes the harvest of the hex they occupy (every card its settlements would have earned, at least 1) into their hoard (the hoard grows, the band does not). An army stack standing on a corner of the bandits' hex may attack them (both sides lose the smaller force). Wipe a band out and your army seizes its whole hoard; the next 7 may raise a new band in its place.
Bandits never attack. Bandit bands do not raid or damage towns, cities, citadels or harbors. Their harm is seizing the harvest of the tile they sit on — so drive them off or wipe them out with your armies to take back the land (and their hoard).
Rolling 7 — Famine. Everyone holding more than 7 resource cards (the room can raise this limit to 9, 11 or 13) discards half (rounded down) — unless they hold a Famine relief card, which is spent instead. A new bandit band may spawn beside a player's settlements (the player with the fewest bands nearby; up to one band for every 2 players), and a sunk pirate fleet returns. The roller's armies may also move again (war surge).
Trading. On your turn, offer any mix of resources to the table. Each rival accepts or declines; pick who to trade with. Bots also make offers of their own on their turn: answer them in the box under the dice (unanswered offers lapse after about 15 seconds). Or trade with the bank at 4:1 — 3:1 from a generic harbor, 2:1 from that resource's own harbor (the 9 harbors are spread evenly around the archipelago, 2:1 and 3:1 alternating; each 2:1 sits on the poorest stretch of coast in its part of the map).
Armies are your armies. Armies are raised only by playing a Muster card: it raises 3 at once, free. A raised army must be deployed: it goes straight onto one of your towns or cities, joining its army stack (any left unplaced at the end of your turn join your most threatened settlement or the capital). Settlements form army stacks (the number on the shield is its strength); each stack may move 1 step — 2 steps when both run along your own roads (the intersection it passes through must be clear) — and attack once per turn. Moving a stack onto another of your stacks merges them; stacks cross the sea aboard ships. A stack leaving one of your settlements may leave part of itself behind as a garrison.
Tearing up roads. Instead of attacking, an army stack may destroy one enemy road that touches its intersection. Roads are undefended — but cutting one can cut a rival's settlements off from their capital, so they can't be upgraded until relinked.
Contact rule. You can only attack an enemy town or city right next to one of your structures or army stacks.
Battle. A attackers vs D defenders (garrison + defender's armies in hand): both sides lose min(A, D) (walls add 1 to D, and that point is never lost). Whoever has armies left wins; a tie wipes both out. The winner strikes 1 level off an adjacent enemy town/city (citadel → city → town → razed). Winning attackers plunder 1 resource.
Building. After the draft, new towns must touch your own roads — or sit across the water from one of your harbors, whose link counts like a road (ships are no connection for settling), and there is no spacing rule. Roads need land on at least one side and connect to your roads, settlements or armies (not to ships). Roads of different players may never meet at the same intersection — running side by side, one intersection apart, is fine.
Ships (only from a Ship building card — they can't be bought). A ship occupies a sea tile; several of your ships on one tile form a fleet (build onto it, or sail ships together). Sailing into a rival fleet is a sea battle: both sides lose the smaller number of ships, and troops aboard a sunk fleet are lost. Launch it on a sea tile touching your settlement or road; it can sail from your next turn. Click a ship to select it: it sails 1 tile per turn, never past a rival ship or the pirate (sailing into either is an attack), and may cross the world's east–west edge. A ship fishes: anchored on a fishing ground it earns 1 Grain whenever that number is rolled. Ships do not link your road network — use roads and harbors for that.
The capital. Your first starting city is your capital (gold crown). A settlement is linked to it by an unbroken chain of your own roads and harbors (ships never count) — enemy settlements break the chain. Every settlement produces resources whether linked or not, but only settlements linked to the capital can be upgraded (town → city → citadel). While Upgrade is selected, a green arrow marks each settlement you can upgrade. If your capital falls, your strongest remaining settlement becomes the new capital.
Cards. A player who gets nothing from the dice for 3 turns in a row draws a card — Muster, Colony charter, City expansion, Battleship,Market, Palace, Road building, Ship building, Canal, Fortification, Harbor construction, Bastion, Great migration, Monopoly, Famine relief, Columbus, Spy, Bountiful harvest, Expedition or Great Library. The deck is a real, shuffled pile — 9 Muster, 12 City expansion, 12 Ship building, 2 Battleship, 9 Road building, 6 Famine relief, 6 Expedition, 1 Colony charter per player and 2 of every other card — and every draw takes the top card. A card that is played or spent goes back under the bottom of the deck (so do the cards of a player knocked out); if every card is in someone's hand, nothing can be drawn or bought. Great Library (2 in the deck): play it on one of your towns or cities linked to your capital — it becomes a citadel at once, free.Expedition: gain 2 Gold — the only card that gives Gold (a revolution gives it too). Gold stands in for any resource when you build, buy or play something (it is spent automatically to cover whatever you are short of); it can't be traded, stolen or lost to a famine. Bountiful harvest: pick a resource — until the end of your next turn, every harvest of it pays you double (settlements and ships). Fortification: 2 free walls. Harbor construction: 1 free harbor. Bastion: the walls of one of your settlements gain 2 levels. Great migration: move any bandit band to a land tile of your choice. Monopoly (after your roll): take every card of one resource the dice paid your rivals this turn. Famine relief: kept in hand; spent automatically to skip a famine discard. Columbus: one of your fleets sails to any open sea tile in the world. Spy: see exactly what a rival holds. You can also buy the top card of the deck for 1 Ore + 1 Grain + 1 Brick. Market: 2:1 bank trades on every resource for the rest of your turn. Road building: 3 free roads. Ship building: 1 free ship. Canal: a tile improvement — cut a canal through a coastal land tile beside your roads or settlements — ships may then sail across (and stop on) that tile; it keeps producing. Palace: your capital rises a level for free (town → city → citadel; worth a point toward the economic victory). Battleship: launch a free warship on a sea tile by your coast (or add it to a fleet there); in sea battles it fights as 3 ships — damage sinks plain ships first, and a battered battleship becomes a plain ship. Battleships don't fish or whale: only the plain ships of a fleet bring in a catch. Muster: raise 3 armies, free — the only way to raise armies. City expansion: one free upgrade of a settlement linked to your capital (town → city, city → citadel). Colony charter: place a town for free on any empty land intersection anywhere — no road connection, road or spacing needed; like any unlinked town, a colony can't be upgraded until it's linked to your capital.
Harbors (2 Timber + 1 Brick). Build one only on an empty coastal intersection that your road reaches and that touches an open-water edge (an edge with sea on both sides). Where an open-water edge lies beside it, it links that intersection across that edge (where no road can go) to the intersection on the far side — so a town there counts as connected to your road network and capital. Your armies standing on your harbor can also march across that link to the far side, and back. Harbors can be attacked and destroyed like towns (one successful blow burns them) and don't keep a player in the game. A harbor scores 1 point toward the economic victory, and it gathers from the water only: 2 per roll from each fishing or whale ground it touches (double a town), nothing from land.
Troop transport. An army standing on a corner of your ship's tile can embark (select the army, click the ship — this uses the army's move); a ship carries one stack. Sail it to another shore and, on a later move, disembark onto any land corner of the ship's tile — an enemy stack there means battle. Open water can only be crossed this way.
Upgrades. Town → City → Citadel, each step for 2 Grain + 3 Ore; the citadel is the highest level (a Great Library card jumps a town or city straight to it). Every level pays 1 more per roll and takes one more blow to raze.
Walls. 2 Brick rings a town or city with a level-1 wall (building only ever reaches the first level). Walls add 1 to the defense, whatever their level: they count as one extra defender that is never lost. A blow that lands knocks off one wall level instead of a settlement level. A Bastion card adds 2 levels, so those walls withstand 2 more blows.
The world wraps. The outer sea wraps east to west: a ship sailing off the left edge comes in on the right, and back (the « » marks on the rim).
The pirate fleet. The pirate is a fleet of its own (red number = ships). It starts at sea with 2 ships and sails on its own every round, up to 2 tiles: it sinks weaker fleets, seizes the catch of the fishing or whale grounds it sits on into its hold (1 per settlement level on that shore, at least 1), and robs 1 card into its hold from a player with a ship beside it. The fleet never grows beyond 2 ships. Sail a fleet into it for a sea battle — sink it and you seize its plunder. A new pirate fleet appears on the next famine.
Turn timer. If enabled, an idle player is moved on automatically when time runs out.
Elimination. Lose your last town, city or citadel to your rivals and your roads, armies, armies and stores are swept from the island.

Hex Empires

Victory

Pass the device

Discard

Hexfall Deathmatch