Caveat: This is my first game review and I welcome feedback, both positive and negative (hopefully there will be more of the former and less of the latter ).

I have recently been getting into Print and Play games – games for which you download the rules and components, print them out and then (hopefully) enjoy playing for just pennies a game. I found SuDoku Hex! on Reiner Knizia’s website while investigating another of his Print and Play games, Decathlon.

Game Overview
The game is based on the solitaire SuDoku puzzle, where a player attempts to fill in a 9x9 grid with the numbers 1-9 without repeating any of those numbers in a row, column or in each of the nine 3x3 sub-grids. Unlike SuDoku, SuDoku Hex! (as the name might suggest) is based upon hexagons. The board is made up of 49 hexes, grouped into seven sub-hexes. Each hex in a completed puzzle will contain a number between 1 and 7. As with SuDoku, no number can appear more than once in a row (there are 3 rows for each hex) or in one of the seven sub-hexes.

Components
The game comes in a single PDF file, downloadable from Reiner Knizia’s website. The file includes one page of instructions, two pages for the SuDoku Hex! board, and a page of hexagon tiles. I printed these pieces out on 65 lb. card stock. The card stock components worked fine for game play (be sure to tape the two halves of the board together).

For scoring components, I used colored beads I stole from my daughter’s bead kit and pennies to mark each ‘lap’ of the scoring track.

If you wanted to create a higher quality set you could affix the hex pieces to foam core board and cut them out. Personally, I don’t think the game is going to see enough playing time in my lineup to warrant the additional effort.

Game Play
To setup the game, seven special tiles with a blue background are randomly placed on the board, one in each of the seven sub-hexes. Yellow tiles are placed face down and shuffled. Each player places their scoring marker on the zero spot. Finally each player draws a single tile from the face down stockpile.

Each round a player shows the tile in their hand and then places it on the board, following the SuDoku rules. No number may appear twice within the same sub-hex (identified by differing shades of light blue and dark black borders) or in the same row. Players score points by counting the number of tiles already on the board in each of the three rows that intersect the tile they just placed. (The rules have pictures which make this quite clear).

Players move their markers to reflect points scored. They take a stone from a stockpile each time they complete a lap of the scoring track. If a player cannot legally place a tile, the game immediately ends.

My Evaluation
As a solitaire game, I found the game to be interesting and it proceed fairly rapidly. It was entertaining, but I don’t believe I will play it more than a few times per year.

There are two issues with this game that limit its playability beyond solitaire. First, the game is very much a close chase between the players, and the game ending scenario penalizes the final player in the game, unfairly in my opinion. With only a single tile in your hand, randomly drawn, you really have very limited control on tile placement. (A rules variant may help reduce this issue, see Variants below)

This leads to my second concern, the speed of game play. Each of my non-solitaire games eventually degraded into a cooperative hunt for the best hex in which to place a tile. It was necessary just to move the game along. The rules indicate a playing time of 15 minutes. I cannot see how this is possible unless players are limited by a timing mechanism of some sort.

My 9-year old daughter, who loves to play games with Dad, refuses to play this game after a single attempt. The effort of hunting down “open” hexes for her to place her tiles killed the game enjoyment for her.

My Recommendations

Ratings (using the BGG System)
Solitaire: 6
Multi-Player: 4

Summary: This is an interesting game concept if the SuDoku theme is appealing to you. As a multi-player game, this just didn’t work for me. I will keep it around for occasional solitaire play, but I don’t plan on attempting to play it again beyond that.

Variants

Variant #1 – Larger Hands
Each player draws three tiles into their hand at the start of the game. Each turn, a player draws a tile and must play a tile.

Variant #2 – Draw and Discard (Multi-Player Only)
At the start of the game, each player receives one tile and one tile is turned over to ‘prime’ the discard stack. Each turn, the active player draws 2 tiles from either the discard stack, the face down stack or a combination of both. The player must play a tile and discard a tile.

Variant #3 – Initial Setup
There is the possibility for initial blue tile placement to “stack the deck” and create immediate high scoring possibilities. To avoid this I make sure that when I place the starting blue tiles I avoid placing more than one tile in a single row.