Rules
Hex Empires is a strategy game for 2–4 players on a map of hexes and islands. Gather resources, build and upgrade settlements, raise armies and fleets — and win by conquest or by wealth.
How to win
Deathmatch: be the last player with a settlement standing. Economic victory: reach the room's points target first (20 by default) — a town scores 1, a city 2, a citadel 3, a metropolis 4, and each Great Library card 1.
Setup
In snake order each player places their starting city (the capital) and towns, each with a road. Your capital gets the only starting army, and everyone starts with 2 random action cards.
Resources
Each turn the dice are rolled. Every hex showing that number pays its resource — Timber, Brick, Wool, Grain or Ore — to each settlement on its corners: 1 per level. Fishing grounds pay Grain and whale grounds pay Ore, also to ships anchored on them.
Building
Roads extend your network; towns must touch your roads (or lie across the water from your harbor). Towns upgrade to cities, citadels and — with a Great Library — one metropolis, but only when linked to your capital.
Armies and battle
Raised armies are stationed on your settlements. Stacks move one step and attack once per turn; both sides lose the smaller force and the winner strikes a level off the target. Walls halve the attack, rounded down.
Ships, harbors and the sea
Ships fish, carry armies and battle other fleets. The world wraps east to west. Harbors trade at better rates and link land across the water. Beware the pirate fleet, which sails on its own.
Bandits and famine
Bandit bands roam the land and seize the harvest of the tile they sit on; defeat them to take their hoard. A roll of 7 is a famine: anyone holding too many cards discards half.
Action cards
Draw a card after three turns without a harvest, or buy one. Cards range from Muster (three armies at once) and Road building to Columbus, Spy, Monopoly and the Great Library.
Trading
Trade with other players during your turn, or with the bank at 4:1 — 3:1 or 2:1 from a harbor.
The complete rules are in the game under “How to play”. Play offline / hot-seat