Hex Factor: A most pleasant surprise

Sometimes games just surprise you in a positive way because they play differently from the others games you have in the collection.

Hex Factor is one of those games. It was not a game that had a ton of hype before arriving, and yet by the time a night of play was over The Meeple Guilders at the table were discussing was it a game that might make our individual top-five games of 2025? For the answer to that you’ll have to check back in a few weeks of course.

It was sort of a game design goal for designer Frederick Weller, who said he wanted “a very easy to learn game that will stimulate the geek brain in a whole new way. . .

“You can learn to play in one minute, and yet the process of playing is very mentally stimulating. But it’s stimulating to a part of your brain that you didn’t know you had.”

Weller explained, “as a theatre actor, I started designing games when the theatres shut down in 2020.

“I wanted to develop a game that could be equally engaging to both the children and the adults in our quarantine bubble. I knew it would have to be some kind of visual puzzle like the game Azul.”

In Hex Factor players have a set of hexes, each with one of three designs.

From the hand of hexes players simultaneously compete to match designs on a central modular player board, dropping one of the wooden markers on designs they match up first.

When one player has placed their fifth piece the game ends and you add up points. Places ‘captured’ that have five designs being worth more than four and those more than three.

It is a race game of a kind, without really feeling that way because you can win without being the one to complete five ‘captures’.

Weller said he wanted a game that created some rivalry.

“I wanted the players to experience the classic board game tension of trying to balance different tasks that may sometimes conflict; but I wanted this tension to be experienced on a strictly visual, pattern-building level,” he said via email.

“. . . I love the urgency of the game. It’s a pulse-racing experience. You are pressed for time, but there is no clock. The clock is the other players. You are racing to claim territory before the other players do.”

The game has a high level of replay because your hand is always different, and it plays fast enough that when you lose you want to try again.

And, Weller has created some advanced rules – a different scoring method – that will enhance game options too.

For a game that is just a bit different Hex Factor is worth a very long consideration. Check it out at get.roxburygames.com

Solitaire dungeon crawler meets chess in a wonderful marriage

The idea of a print and play solo game which has a player moving through a dungeon using the moves of chess pieces, I was intrigued.

I have played chess – poorly in reality – longer than most any other game.

Dungeon crawling of any kind scratches the itch of a long time D&D RPGer.

Oh yes, this one also has a deck-builder aspect – well as a game option at least. Deck-building is another highly favoured game mechanic, so my interest grew a bit more.

The game is Rook & Ruin from designer Florian Fiedler, who gets some immediate kudos for drawing together rather diverse game mechanics in this one.

Fiedler explained via email the initial design thought was around the idea of chess.

“Initially I wanted to create a game that uses chess moves-like movement,” he said.

“I also wanted to create something with a spacious and simple design.

“At first I was set on making a square-grid dungeon, that you have to navigate with chess pieces. I thought that'd you would simply collect material, bonuses, etc and use that material to buy movement to use as you buy it.

“I mapped it out, and it was boring -- some spice was missing -- and I didn't have a solution at hand at that point.”

Then came the idea for using cards.

“At some point though I wanted to get back at it and find a way to make this interesting - that's when I came up with the deck-building,” said Fiedler. “As a fan of asymmetric designs, imagining how to break the core rule construct in all ways possible is one of the first things I do.

“That's when the idea of the different starting decks and grandmaster brilliancies came together.”

The different ‘roles’ you can play add a nice element of replayability to Rook & Ruin.

Fiedler describes his game as “a super crunchy -- stupid buzzword, but people use it -- thinky and somewhat difficult puzzle, that uses deck-building as it's core mechanic and chess moves and thematic abilities to make it a sound game.

“The game should beat you around 50 per cent of the time, so it's not for the faint of heart. If you like your Sunday's chess puzzle in the newspaper and/or Sudoku, then this is for you.”

Now instead of cutting and sleeving the 55 cards for the deck-building aspect, Fielder offers an option, The Flowing Arsenal system.

Fiedler explains, “the Flowing Arsenal is a mathematically correct representation of playing with a deck of cards. It is simple and only works so well, because most people are used to chess annotations -- N for knight, B for bishop, K for king... They are so easy to remember, that when you read a ‘N’ in a table to how a knight would move in the dungeon in front of you. This means that while this is a deck-builder, you don't have to cut a single card. I love this, that's why this is by far my favourite part of the game.”

I have to admit since I like deck-building, and I find cutting and sleeving a few cards relaxing, I had zero interest in the ‘flow’. I did see a video where it was used, and it seemed a bit messy and easy to forget to mark the list, all that I felt would detract from the game.

As for the game itself, this one is a lot of fun – albeit you will need to do some thinking. You only have three cards in-hand at any one time and you need to think ahead – as in chess – which move is optimum at what time.

The ability to collect ‘things’ that help you with upgrading card effects – rooks and bishops for example can move farther with upgrades – is great part of game.

Having actual chess pieces on the grid, their field of capture no go areas, that if captured give you benefits too. Just an excellent element of the game.

There are lots of options to grow game too. I was sent only two ‘dungeons’ to traverse, so lots of room to expand there.

In Rook & Ruin the basic six pieces from chess are represented, but you could add an elephant, or camel, or a number of other alternative pieces to change things up.

Overall, this one climbs up the favourite solo games list to sit beside ones such as For Northwood, Regicide or A Nice Cuppa.

'Jack': A fine looking solo filler

When it comes to print and play games with simpler the print requirements, and subsequent cutting and prep are, the better – at least for this Meeple Guilder (I don’t even like bought games with a myriad of chits and bits).

So a game such as Jack: Shadows in the Fog, from Federico Franzoni and Paper Tigers Production fits the bill rather nicely.

In Jack, you’ll explore the foggy streets of 1800s London, uncover clues, and follow a dark trail of mystery – so if you are thinking Jack the Ripper-esque by this time you have captured the atmosphere well.

“Your mission: catch Jack before he strikes again. Trace the path on the map, defeat the criminals you encounter, and find the clues that will lead you to the place where Jack will strike. Stop him before he succeeds in his evil plan,” describes the designer.

To play, print the map, the eight cards, and the eight tokens, which combine to make a rather small print footprint for this solo game.

Start from the designated starting point on the map and trace the paths you take as you explore – a pencil if you want to actually mark the map, but sleeve it and use a dry erase marker for a wiser build.

“When you reach a point of interest marked with a number, draw a card and try to capture the enemy using your skills and the dice. If you succeed, you’ll earn a clue,” again from the designer. “Once you’ve collected three different clues, compare your combination with the table in the rulebook. It will tell you where to go on the map to face the final boss, ‘Jack’. Defeat Jack to win the game.

The game is aided in terms of appeal by the great art of Marco Salogni which really is this game’s biggest selling point. It looks great so it is appealing to get to the table.

This one also plays quick. It’s suggested as 10-15 minutes, so this is a coffee break game for one.

Given it’s small deck of cards and map, and it’s quick play time, Jack is not a ‘deep thinker’, and luck holds sway here as you roll dice, but there is a Victorian-era charm of sorts, that makes this one a solid little solo time filler.

Wish we liked it more

Oh how Trevor and I wanted to like Puzzle Board Chess as we opened to box one Friday over a coffee.

The premise here was super fascinating yet so straight forward in terms of rules, we were quickly into.

So as the name implies this is a chess game – well variant to be more accurate.

The difference here is the board, which is created by players taking turns laying four board game square pieces – eight each – with one starter tile laid out as a sort of board anchor to start things.

In the end the board is far from the standard 8x8 board we associate with chess. The puzzle board can have some rather diverse board layouts, almost always with gaps in it.

Gaps are a problem for pieces moving orthogonally (the poor rooks in particular), as they are stopped by them.

Diagonal movers (bishops, queens and kings) can skirt the gaps.

And the knight pops over gaps nicely – thanks to its leap ability.

The unusual board designs and gaps make pawns useless, so while included, they are not used in the game itself.

Once you have the layout players then place pieces on the board on the tiles they have put down (you mark them with a pawn).

It is in the piece placement where this enticing game stumbled – or more accurately game play as a result of piece placement.

Placement is supposed to be done in 60 seconds – an egg timer is included. That doesn’t sound like much time but with only eight pieces to place it’s not onerous at all.

In fact, one can see where an opponent is placing their pieces – say a rook – and easily place a bishop to put it under threat.

As a result the first few moves are trading pieces, or moving the highest value one under threat out of danger – knowing you are going to lose something else as wise set up will put various pieces under immediate threat.

Therein lies the problem with Puzzle Board Chess. There is zero joy in immediate captures made possible by piece placement with zero strategy, or skill involved.

We tried a sort of draft placement with players announcing say rook, and each then placing one, but it had little impact on the immediate threat issue.

Now we liked the board creation process a lot, and if a piece placement option could be figured out to take play back to good moves mattering more than they do here, this would blast into the realm of ‘best’ in terms of chess variants.

As it sits Puzzle Board Chess is really a game with more unfulfilled promise than real play excellence.

You can find this one at www.metadreamsllc.com

Helios lizards are best 'encounter boc' to-date

For many gamers out there fun is equated with moving miniatures they have painted around the table.

That might be a band of orcs discovered in a dungeon room by a group of role players.

Or, it might be players manoeuvring their ‘band of heroes’ in battle with an opponent is one of many miniature-based games.

Ultimately it doesn’t matter the game or ruleset, as much as the minis.

Yes there are games with specific minis, but many allow gamers to be creative in what they put on the table, and if you are a gamer who likes to create a bit, well head over to heliostabletop.ca.

Helios does boxes of outstanding minis – themed though -- they are Egyptian mythos, Hordes of the Inferno, Goblins, Kobolds and more.

I have reviewed a few boxes in the past and this week the focus is ‘Savages in the Swamp’ and it is an absolute beauty – in an angry critter sort of way.

In this one you get a band of lizard men, led by the big guy ‘Dreadjaw’ supported by seven weapon wielding underlings.

As are all Helios minis – at least the ones I’ve seen to-date – the minis – all with dramatic ready for a fight poses -- come basically ready to prime and paint with limited prep work.

Canadian 

This box will have game masters drooling, and they can fit nicely into traditional D&D campaigns, something more current in a bayou, or some jungle adventure where a bit of weirdness would fit.

It would be hard to imagine a GM not being able to work these lizards into a game scenario to challenge their table mates.

It helps that Helios provides some ideas of just how to do that, along with some mini stats which of course are easy to tweak as needed.

In past Helios box reviews I’ve suggested a ‘rule set’ designed to pit box against box as a miniature game, is much-needed.

Dreadjaw and his buddies reinforce that view. They would be a near ideal miniature battle group. So please Helios think about it some more.

Ultimately, my favourite box set to-date.

Far from chess, and long way from fun too

To start, a pet peeve in the world of board games is slapping the word chess into the name of a game as a way to draw eyes.

Sure sometimes it makes logical sense. Omega Chess as an example is acceptable because the game is so obviously a variant – one of my personal favourites – of the basic chess most know.

Shape Chess – this column’s review game – has zero that connects it to chess unless you count being an abstract strategy game and that would mean it should be Xs & Os Chess, (it would make as much sense).

So out of the box this one was a tad misleading. I know when I first read the rules online I was quite surprised that it had no connection to chess.

That doesn’t mean the game play is bad, it just isn’t reflected in the game name.

So what is game play here?

Well, players’ are trying to build up reflectional symmetric shapes with their stones  -- a concept a little hard to visualize from a rules read (at least for Trevor and I, but in-game it becomes more obvious).

To achieve this goal, players can either drop a stone on a empty point, jump one of their stones to another empty point, or push an opponent's stone to an adjacent empty point.

Once you achieve a scorable pattern the pieces are removed. You will often find you need to avoid completing patterns because the removal opens the board allowing your opponent freedom to complete bigger patterns, or the one needed to win. It’s annoying that you could score but really mustn’t if you want a chance to win.

Points are given according to the size of the symmetric shape, and the winner will be the player who reach four points – although the end goal can be adjusted to taste.

This one is another small box, cloth board, wooden pieces effort from Kanare_Abstract. On the publisher’s website it notes, “Shape Chess originated in China around 2010 and has evolved into its current form through years of refinement within the game design community.”

Shape Chess isn’t a bad game, but it didn’t capture our imagination either. There are, in the end a number of game from the same publisher which we enjoy significantly more.

But tastes do differ so check it out at kanare-abstract.com, it might be the perfect game for you.

A very solid addition to solitaire card games

If you are a board gamer and you own a deck of regular playing cards, you have most likely played at least a few hands of Patience, the solitaire that dates back to the 1780s.

It’s a classic time-killer that most will know.

The idea of a solitaire card game is as a result not new, and there have been dozens, maybe a few hundred variations on the idea of a solo player taking on some challenge created within a deck of 52-cards.

Now a new game has emerged; Concealed from designer Ivan Marić, artist Luka Čubrilo, and publisher Mowl Games – although this one is available as a print and play offering.

In this one you play cards around a printed board with the basic game play being to play out all the cards required in 13 turns, or you lose.

Before the game starts you draw one card and that will be your concealed card for the game.

The goal is to “fulfill the prophecy of that card by drawing and placing cards around your board every turn until you fill up the whole board except for the two cards that together create the concealed card,” details the game designer.

Now there is not a great deal here that is hugely different from the old reliable Patience, but it adds a neat twist that makes it feel just different enough to be a fun one.

Adding to Concealed is that there are several different boards each with slight rule tweaks which will help keep this one fresh.

A definite one to look into for solitaire fans. Check it out at mowl-games.itch.io/concealed