Drew
United States
Eau Claire
Wisconsin
-
Quick Take: Heximania should appeal to fans of Boggle, but the scoring system doesn't reward longer words, and luck of the draw is a big problem.
Heximania, for 2 to 4 players, published by Educational Insights (those nice folks who brought us Blokus and its spin-offs) is a word game reminiscent of Boggle, but with the tile-laying and associated downtime issues of Scrabble. Fans of word-building games (like Scrabble) will probably find Heximania frustrating. But fans of word search games (Boggle in particular) will probably find much here to enjoy.
What's in the Box: Heximania features a rotating 37-hex board with inset spaces into which the letter tiles fit nicely. The 50 letter tiles are large, made of a solid plastic resin, and have a nice heft to them. A draw bag is included. The game also includes four tile racks that can hold up to five tiles, individual score sheets, and a two-minute sand timer. All-in-all, a quality production.
How to Play: Each player takes a score sheet and a writing utensil. The board begins empty except for an "A" tile placed in the center hex. Each player draws five tiles. On his turn, a player chooses a tile from his rack and places it adjacent to any previously-played tile. The 2-minute sand timer is flipped, and the player whose turn it is has two minutes to write down as many words as possible that can be formed from the tiles on the board, provided that each word uses the tile he just placed. Letters in each word must be adjacent to each other and in the proper sequence. (If you've played Boggle, you'll have no problem understanding how this works.)
After his two minutes are up, the player reads off all the words he found. He gets points for these. Then, in turn order, all other players may point out any missed words, write them down on their own sheets, and score them for themselves. (No sand timer is used during the "missed words" sequence; the rulebook states that players have only "5 to 10 seconds each" to note any missed words.)
The player whose turn it is draws a new tile from the bag, and the play passes to the next player. At the end of the game, players score points for all words recorded during the game at a point per letter. (3 points for a 3-letter word, 4 points for a 4-letter word, and so on.)
My Take: If you're a fan of word games, specifically Boggle-style puzzles where you attempt to find words in a jumble of letters, Heximania will probably hold much appeal. Heximania has the added pleasure of building the letter-puzzle tile by tile. There is considerable downtime, however, as players first must decide which of their letters they will add and where they will place them to create the most words, and then during the two-minutes of scribbling as each player writes down the new words he has created. Though it must be noted we rarely needed a full two minutes to write down our words, and decided early on not even to bother using the timer. This is especially true early in the game when there are fewer tiles on the board and therefore fewer possibilities for forming words.
One obvious issue that emerged for us was that a rack of hard-to-play letters can't be overcome. Arguably, in Scrabble, the granddaddy of word games, even a rack of difficult-to-play letters can net considerable points depending on what other words are already in play. Scrabble also allows players to exchange all their letters (but at the cost of losing a turn). In Heximania, players are only playing one letter at a time, and if you've got Q, X, V, U, U (as I did) you may find few places to place them that will result in many words. The rules allow for players to skip a turn to exchange only one letter, and only if the player can form no words at all. The cost of skipping a turn in Heximania is considerably higher than in Scrabble.
Furthermore, if no U has been played, there's no point in playing a Q. Even if a U has been played, there's no guarantee that playing a Q will result in a word being formed. And there's little point in setting up a future play since scoring is simply one point per letter per word. You need to score as many words as you can as often as you can. Taking a low-scoring turn to set yourself up for the future just isn't worth the effort. If you're stuck with hard-to-play letters, just leave them on the rack and stick to playing common letters that form more words -- if you can. If you can't, you're out of luck.
Don't bother trying to form long words to impress your fellow players. At a point-per-letter, a six-letter word (which only happened twice in the two games we played) scores as much as three 2-letter words, and three 2-letter words are easier to achieve. Also, given the number of words you will find, the score sheets as printed are simply not big enough. Don't bother with them and write all your words down on a larger sheet of paper.
Finally, the rule book is quite vague in places, and at times comes off as a list of suggestions rather than rules. For example, the rulebook suggests either playing until the board is full, playing for a set number of rounds, or playing for a decided-upon time limit. I will recommend playing for the six rounds indicated on the score sheet. Considering the amount of downtime, playing until the board is full could test the wills of even the most patient players. Six rounds seems about perfect.
As another example, the score sheet only gives places to write down two- to five-letter words. Are six-letter words allowed? It would seem so, but the score sheet doesn't provide a spot for them. (Another reason for players to record words on a larger sheet of paper.)
Furthermore, the rules seem to indicate that when forming words, players must use the letter placed by the previous player. This is, in fact, how we started off playing, but quickly realized that the rulebook was just poorly-worded. (An example given in the rule book backs this up. Players need only use the tile that they just placed themselves.)
With its "suggestion" book, the smiling kids pictured in the rules, and frequent references to skipping certain rules for younger players, Heximania does not seem aimed at serious word-game fans. But if serious players wish to firm up the rulebook (perhaps with their own house rules) there's enough here to provide for a good game.
Some options:
1. Rather than the point-per-letter-per-word scoring system, use a scoring system that rewards longer words, such as the one used in Boggle.
2. Allow players the option of exchanging all the tiles on their racks instead of just one tile, and even if they can create a word anyway.
3. Again, play for a set number of rounds. There's too much downtime for playing until the board is full, and equal numbers of turns is important in a game where scoring mainly takes place on one's turn.
4. The first player is at a disadvantage, being able to form, at most, two words. Instead of starting with just an A at center, allow each player to contribute one letter from their racks to the starting formation, so that the game begins with more than just one letter at center. (This also allows players an opportunity to dump a bad letter early in the game and without penalty.)
-
Ed Holzman
United States
Seffner
Florida
-
Nice. I like your options. They make the game more interesting. For scoring, I would like to see something like:
2 letters = 1 point
3 letters = 3 points
4 letters = 6 points
5 letters = 10 points
6 letters = 15 points
7 letters = 21 points
8 letters = 28 points
etc.
-
|
|
Posted Wed Sep 5, 2007 1:21 am
