Talk:Mega Hexano

This was independantly developed by Joe Peterson as Hexano. -JEEP

Scoring vs. Hexano

Hexano abandons the traditional Volcano scoring altogether. Mega Hexano uses the same scoring as Volcano scoring, but has a different ending condition (one of each color including one full solid-color tree). I've played this one with the same rules as Hexano (no scoring, first player "out" wins, and I'm not sure which way I prefer on this one. I suspect that scoring would be better for more than two players, while the non-scoring variant would only work with 2 players. Thoughts? Jeremiah 19:49, 29 Apr 2005 (GMT)

I prefer 2 player games, usually. I've acutally never played Volcano with more than 2. I think that adding in the scoring is very good. -JEEP 20:22, 29 Apr 2005 (GMT)

Playtest results

After playing a few more games of this, I'm happy with how it plays out. I was surprised to find that this plays much faster than Volcano. I knew it wouldn't take as long as Mega Volcano, since there are more ways to move, but I thought it'd take about as long as Volcano. We hadn't decided on if we would also require the full tree to end the game, but it only mattered once. In one game, I could have gotten my last color without a full tree. I would have tied if the game ended then. In that game we were trying the no tree requirement, so I was in a little bit of a bind. Since the game does play faster than Volcano, I think that the full tree requirement is probably good. I'll post more information as we get it. -JEEP 18:11, 2 Jun 2005 (GMT)

Actually, there are fewer ways to move than in Volcano. You can move horizontally, vertically, or diagonally in Volcano, for a total of 8 directions, while there are only 6 directions in Mega Hexano. I find this game takes longer than Volcano but is faster (and for me, more satisfying) than Mega Volcano.

The intent of the tree requirement is to increase the tension slightly - even if you're behind in points, if you can prevent opponents from getting a full tree, you can prolong the game and hopefully catch up in points. There's already incentives to get trees (since it's worth lots of points), but I often found in Volcano that the 2-point difference between a mono-color tree and a mixed-color tree wasn't incentive enough to really pay attention to the colors of the pieces I was getting unless I was behind on points.

Thanks for playtesting, though. I haven't had much opportunity of late, and really appreciate that others are taking the time to try this out. -- Jeremiah 22:50, 2 Jun 2005 (GMT)

Wow, so I learned Volcano from the quick reference card and never actually read the rules. I never realized moving diagonal was an option. That seems like it will be crazy fast. I'll make sure we correct ourselves from now on. It looks like that is the only thing I missed.  ::blush:: -JEEP 00:02, 3 Jun 2005 (GMT)