Neuroshima Hex!

While I haven't played the board game equivalent, I'd be very excited to try it out. Neuroshima Hex! is just that: a board game port. And the exclamation point is warranted.

When AI is carefully programmed and online connectivity is smooth, board games are an excellent match for the mobile touchscreen. They're games that are best played in person, but they're also games that are meant to be touched. And as a plus, they're generally very well balanced and thoughtfully designed, since they cost a lot more to produce than, say, an app. It is a shame when board games are relatively incompatible with the platform (Catan). But the ones that do work, work like they were meant to exist on a touchscreen.

Neuroshima Hex! is, of course, one of those fine examples. (And it's especially impressive since it's not a well-known game to begin with.) It's a strategy game themed in a post-apocalyptic world with four main armies (and several more with a costly but quality expansion). Each army has it's own unique hexes that are played on a cramped and competitive battlefield. Players begin by placing their HQs, which hold special bonuses for adjacent units but also serve as lifelines and scoreboards for their respective armies. A turn consists of receiving (drawing) three hexes, choosing one to discard, and playing the other two. When either an army plays a battle hex or the entire battlefield is full of units, a battle occurs, and HQs take appropriate damage (they start at 20 hit points and each time they're hit, they lose a point and their army falls one mark further from victory). Any units in the line of fire also take damage and typically disappear from the board after one hit. When all the hexes have been played, the army with the most hit points wins.

What makes this game especially interesting and challenging is that each attacking unit has an initiative number, which determines when it will attack. So many times, units are eliminated from the battlefield before they ever have an opportunity to strike.

Neuroshima Hex is full of deep strategy, as well as constant surprises from the unpredictability of which hexes will arrive next. It all comes together to form a tense, exciting, and enormously replayable game. There is an admitted learning curve, however, as when you first start out, you'll have little to no idea what any of the hexes do. But thankfully, the game includes an information button that gives fair explanations for any hex you tap. So as long as you're patient enough in the beginning and willing to work through the unknown, you'll learn to love an overlooked marvel. If you need more convincing: I never muted the in-game music.