Introduction

Rules

Hextol is played with a complete set of 28 "double six" hextiles (hexagonal dominos) each showing a unique pip pair in the range 0 to 6.

Start: All tiles start off face down in the boneyard (unused tile set). Players take turns drawing a tile until a double is drawn, and this becomes the first tile played. Players each then draw their own pool of 7 tiles, which the opponent can see.

Play: Each turn, the current player must place one of their tiles adjacent to at least one existing tile such that any adjacent tiles match in pip count. If the player cannot move, they must draw tiles from the boneyard until they are able to move (no passing). After the move, the player draws a tile from the boneyard to replace the tile just played.

Scoring: Players score points for enclosing territory with their move, equal to the total number of pips around the enclosing perimeter. For example, the mover scores 36 pts in the following example.

                     _____                                         _____        
                    /     \                                       /     \       
              _____/  o o  \                                _____/  o o  \_____     
             /             /                               /             /     \  
       _____/  ooo   _____/                          _____/  ooo   _____/  o o  \ 
      /     \       /____/                          /     \       /____/\       /      
     /  ooo  \_____/                               /  ooo  \_____/     \ \     /  
    /\       /____/                               /\       /____/       \/ o o \  
    \ \     /                      --------->     \ \     /             /       \ 
     \/     \                                      \/     \            /\  o o  /        
     /  ooo  \              _____                  /  ooo  \   36 pts  \ \_____/ 
    /\       /             / o o \                /\       /            \/ o o \  
    \ \_____/        _____/       \               \ \_____/        _____/       \
     \/     \       / o o    o o  /                \/     \       / o o    o o  / 
     /  ooo  \_____/  o o   _____/                 /  ooo  \_____/  o o   _____/ 
    /\         o o \  o o  /____/                 /\         o o \  o o  /____/  
    \ \_____   o o  \_____/                       \ \_____   o o  \_____/   
     \/____/\  o o  /____/                         \/____/\  o o  /____/   
           \ \_____/                                     \ \_____/       
            \/____/                                       \/____/      

Players can play inside closed areas to create smaller closed areas; it is therefore possible to close more than one area with a single move.

Aim: The game ends when neither player has any move, typically when the tiles run out. The player with the highest score wins.

History

Hextiles and Hextol rules by Cameron Browne and copyright (c) Cyberite Ltd, 2008.

The name Hextol is derived from "Hextiles with holes".

Graphical web interface: http://www.gamerz.net/pbmserv/List.php?Hextol

Official Hextiles page: http://www.cameronius.com/games/hextiles/

Implementation and Help file by Cameron Browne, November 2008.