Hexes of Sygon Preview
12.04.2024 - 14:09
/ boardgamequest.com
Note: This preview uses pre-release components and rules. What you see here may be different from the final, published game. This post was a paid preview, you can find out more information here .
When I heard about a preview opportunity for a game about wizards and volcanoes, I jumped at the chance to check it out. But did I teleport myself into a worthy gaming experience or should you keep on wandering by?
Hexes of Sygon, launching soon on Kickstarter, is designed by Alec Cacheris. The game supports 3-4 players and should take about 2 hours to play.
In Hexes of Sygon, you’ll be playing a wizard tasked with manipulating your environment by casting spells that will build and develop settlements within the realm. The landscape can be harsh at times as there are three fuming volcanoes periodically erupting and threatening the surrounding area with flowing lava and ash.
In this game, you’ll be controlling three wizards that will cast spells to build up your settlements by collecting spell components from the map. On your turn, you will start by moving your wizards across the landscape; they can either walk freely from one hex to another, or spend gold to teleport further away. As the terrain becomes harder to navigate, wizards will need to rely more and more on teleportation. Ash hexes created when a volcano erupts and walls built by enemy wizards block normal movement, so gold will be essential to maintaining mobility. You’ll also have to pay gold to your opponent in order to move into a hex containing their wizard.
The next phase allows your wizards to begin affecting their environment by casting building spells to erect towns and walls on hexes. In order to build a structure, you’ll need to turn in a specific combination of spell components and gold. Once a hex has been settled, it’s possible to expand by adding markets and workshops, which produce additional resources and extend your victory point total. A game of Hexes of Sygon is won by reaching a certain victory point threshold and most of those points come from the buildings in your settlements. Walls are useful for protecting your towns from volcanoes and enemy wizards as well as for generating victory points by helping to completely surround a hex. During this phase, you can also cast exchange spells, which allow you to trade gold for spell components or even sell unneeded component cards for extra cash.
Following the building phase, each of your wizards can cast a spell to either forage for spell components on their hex, steal gold from opposing wizards and towns, or protect themselves from being stolen from. At the end of your turn, collect resources from your buildings and adjust your score according to the current board state. Towns