Primal Hex: BUZZ Review
Information:
Mechanics: Area Control, Dice Rolling, Programming
Player Age: 10+
Player Count: 2 - 4 Players
Time to Play: 30 - 60 Minutes
Game Designer: Marcin Sokołowski
Game Artist: Michał Teliga
Publisher: Smart Flamingo Games
Year Published: 2025
Disclaimer: A preview copy for the game was provided by the publisher.
Player Age: 10+
Player Count: 2 - 4 Players
Time to Play: 30 - 60 Minutes
Game Designer: Marcin Sokołowski
Game Artist: Michał Teliga
Publisher: Smart Flamingo Games
Year Published: 2025
Disclaimer: A preview copy for the game was provided by the publisher.
Basics:
Primal Hex is an action programming game that has players vying for control of tiles to gain points through global objectives (season cards), a hidden objective (advisor card), or by using an action to score on surrounding tiles up to five points. This is a demo copy and the final copy may include different art/components.
At the start of a round players will simultaneously roll their 10 dice, gaining any result of 4, 5, or 6 as a success.
Each player will then plan their fate card (a card that will modify the game state, or state of their dice) and then pre-plan 3 out of 6 orders by placing the orders in the following way; two face-down and one face-up on the players exisiting tiles. If the player does not have three tiles, they cannot play all the tiles possible and will have fewer turns this round. Play will start with the first player (this will rotate clockwise each round) revealing each of their fate cards and resolving the effects.
One turn at a time in the main action phase of the round, each player will resolve one of the three orders on the board and remove that order at the end of the turn. Once all the orders are resolved, the round tracker will advance once and the game will end after the sixth round. Each season card will be active for two rounds in a row.
Orders:
Every player has the same six orders they can use each round. The best part of the orders is that they can be used multiple times (on the activated turn). This is as long as the effect resolves from the same starting tile and success dice are spent equal to the order cost multiplied by the number of times actioned.
Attack (1 Success):
Each success allows the player to attack and change adjacent hexes into their colour. The example would be using two successes.
Charge (2 Success):
A charge can run through and convert two hexes in a straight line. For this action to be allowed there can be no terrain hexes or the players' own coloured hex in this straight line.
Shoot (3 Success):
Shoot allows a hex of exactly two spaces away to be converted to the player's colour. A shoot action can be directed over a terrain or their own coloured hex.
Pray (2 Success):
Pray allows any tile on the board that does not have an order to be destroyed. This does not convert the tile into your colour. The alternative option is to move a terrain hex to an adjacent tile. This does not relate to the coloured hexes, rather the hexes such as mountains that tend to block paths.
Harvest (4 Success):
Harvest will gain one point for each tile of the player's colour surrounding the tile where the order was placed. No matter how many successes a player has, this can only be done once per activation.
Fortify (0 Success):
Fortify is used to protect a tile. Instead of the order being removed at the end of a turn, the order will stay for the entire round. The fortified tile cannot be converted/destroyed this round.
Uniqueness:
Action Programming:
Primal Hex has players programming their actions. What makes the game unique, however, is that it is more of a planning phase instead of a programming phase. Players get to choose in which turn to activate these orders, meaning that the players will have to be reactive to how the board state has changed throughout the round. This allows players to not just program their round and see how it plays out, but to be more tactical as the round resolves.
War Chief and Advisor:
At the start of each game every player will choose one War Chief and one Advisor out of the options presented with their player colour. This will give the players unique scoring benefits and starting positions for each game.
The advisor will have a particular end-of-game scoring condition that is dependent on how their tiles are at the end of the game. For example, being along the edge of the board or not adjacent to an enemy hex. These advisors will be hidden within the game unless a player chooses to reveal theirs to gain a one-off special ability on the right-hand side. This will, however, reveal the secret placement the player is fighting for during the game.
The War Chief will also have a special benefit on the right-hand side. The left-hand side will show starting stats, from left to right. The Strength is the amount of strength tokens (which can be spent to re-roll one die). The Cunning determines how many fate cards a player starts their setup with. They will then discard down to six cards (equal to the amount of rounds). These cards will not refresh during the game so when a player is familiar with the game the cunning value gives a crucial decision at the start of the game. Last is the Influence, which determines how many tiles of that player's colour can be placed in their starting area.
Zig Zag:
Primal Hex is an area control game that matches the saying "knife fight in a phone booth" very well. Players will constantly have their tiles flipped over, losing and gaining territory at a rapid rate. There is no defence when a tile is attacked except for the one defend order, creating an area control game that contains such a rapid change of landscape that no player will take losing territory personally.
What a player may take personally, but is a crucial decision in the game, is if a player loses a tile that has their unresolved order on. When this occurs that player will lose that turn this round. Players know this when placing their orders, so if they enter too close to a heavily conflicting area, they should have contingencies in play in case the order is lost.
Zone:
- Knife fight area control that leads to constant (non-personal) conflict.
- Fate cards are a crucial element to the game, which requires planning on which round they should be used to get the best results.
- This game has a large luck factor when it comes to dice. Some players won't like this, while some (like me) will enjoy the tactical choices that have to be made.
I tend to like my programming games that ensure a seemingly simple plan upon set up but a chaotically rapid changing board state once underway. Primal Hex is like this in the way that players are pre-planning three orders each round and how they want to use their success dice. The element I most enjoy about Primal Hex is that the plans can, and will need to be, changed constantly as a player begins to resolve one order per turn. Players have to be adaptable and pivot their ambitions to change how they want to use their success dice, as well as which order to resolve per turn. If you enjoy fast-paced area control games and some chaotic programming then I recommend PrImal Hex as a back.
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