Inexplicably, while facing a mental block with my game House of Whack, I had an idea for a new board game. Two days later I finished the prototype. It is called Hexile. It is a hexagon-based strategy game involving aspects of chess and, well, other stuff. It is still too early to describe the game easily or to make comparisons.

Basically, two players face off across a tiled board made of hexagons. Each has a tower from which they fire caroms. These caroms have to move across the board, avoiding black holes, ricocheting off repulsor fields, avoiding blockers, using teleporters, in order to hit the opponent’s tower. Players uncover various types of terrain hexes and the obstacles mentioned and try to place them strategically on the board. Certain hexes will allow players to upgrade their towers with catapults and tractor beams, and their caroms with force fields and blasters. All of this requires power, so the players need to discover power generators and claim them in order to have power to accomplish their goals each turn.

I don’t imagine a long development time for Hexile. Maybe adding some more hexes and balancing the number of hexes in the deck. Tweak the rules and then it is done.