Regardless of whether a player positions a different unit to kill those tiles, they will be destroyed by the headquarters, thus clearing space on the board for players to place the next wave of reinforcements. It prevents the board from stagnating by killing units - specifically units that are directly helping a player win. This minor element of the game is helpful in two ways: it prevents the board from stagnating, and it also helps avoid one player running away with a victory. Specifically, each of the bases has an initiative of zero and performs a melee attack in every direction (though it cannot damage another HQ).
The third pro that I will list for this game is that I like that the bases all attack in melee. The fact that the units' attacks are staggered makes the placement of units much more important and is a brilliant facet of the game. Which then can be countered with an even higher initiative unit. Yet, that strong unit will quite likely have a low initiative - and so his opponent may be able to destroy the unit before it would be able to attack, assuming he can play a higher initiative unit. A great example of this is when one player has a very strong unit positioned to attack his opponent's base. Much of the positioning of units is centered around this. The next pro that I have for Neuroshima Hex is the initiative system. Everything fits very well together, and the flow and balance of the game make it great for anyone that enjoys skirmish-style games. And, whoever does finally start the battle will generally be using one of their two tiles in order to trigger the event, which means they will not be able to position their armies as much as they would like. Yet, by the start of your next turn, you feel (sometimes justifiably) like you are going to get obliterated. Essentially, at the end of most of your turns you feel like you are positioned well and wish a battle would immediately begin. It all works very well - there is a nice tension about when a battle will occur. Is that cheating? Essentially, this first pro is "I like how the game works," as the skirmish system is the game (just using more eloquent terms). The first pro that I have for Neuroshima Hex is that I really like the skirmish system that it implements. Play continues in this manner of placing units and battling until one player's HQ has been destroyed, or until one player runs out of tiles - at which point the player with the healthiest HQ is the winner! Whenever a battle occurs (either from one player using a battle action or the board being filled), casualties are determined in initiative order - with the higher initiatives attacking before the lower ones, and with all units within the same initiative attacking at the same time. Alternately, the action tiles do various "one and done" things - they can start a battle, move a unit, attack a single unit, or push back an opponent. However, none of these units will perform any of these actions until a battle is performed. Units and modules go out on the board and can cause different effects - attacking in melee, at range, improving other units, trapping opponents, etc. There are three types of tiles to play - units, modules, and actions ("instants"). Each turn you draw three hex tiles, discard one, and either play or keep each of the other two. Now then, for those of you that are new to Neuroshima Hex, let's review the game! In Neuroshima Hex, each player selects an army and attempts to raze his opponent's base. Based on what I have read, the new art makes it unappealing to mix in the previously released expansions - I believe that you can, but the art style is different enough that they don't feel like they "fit". I think that if you played the previous versions, you will definitely appreciate this being included. New factions are obviously a plus, and I found the new faction (Doomsday Machine), to have a very unique style of gameplay. However, having played several of them, I found that the setup time took longer than actually solving the puzzle, so they may be something that you try without bothering to set the pieces up on the board. The solo puzzles are a nice way of exploring the game and honing your skills.
Having not been totally familiar with the old version, I may be a touch off but here are the things I am aware of: there are solo puzzles, there is a new faction, and the art is different. Though Neuroshima Hex has been around for quite some time, I finally was able to explore the game in the latest edition - Neuroshima Hex 3.0.īefore I get into the main review, I wanted to address what has changed in the new version.