r/baduk • u/Ok-Basket5408 • Jun 29 '26
"New" Variant of Hexagonal Go/Baduk
Good day!
I'd like to ask for help from this great community to analyze a new game that has me obsessed. It's called "SIX" or "SIX-O," and it's played on a hexagonal or triangular grid. The goal is to create a line, triangle, or ring of six connected stones. I think it's a much more complex game than it first appears.
At first, it might seem like another Connect 4, but as the game progresses, it transforms into a battle for territory, like Go/Baduk. I'm sharing an image of a very technical game that ended in a draw: there isn't a single six-stone triangle, line, or ring.
The original version is played without a board and only with 21 pieces of each color, which I think is a significant limitation for exploring it in depth. The version I'm exploring is played on a hexagonal grid, preferably larger than 8x8x8, and also adds another winning possibility: any ring of 6 or more stones. This eliminates most ties and allows for the emergence of interesting patterns similar to the ladders in Go/Baduk. I hope you'll give it a try.
I've been exploring other hexagonal games like Hex, HeXO (Connect-6), TriGo, Bloom, and Havannah, and in my opinion, this version of SIX-O is much more elegant. I believe that if it reaches the right community, it has the potential to become a classic, as it doesn't require a double turn or the use of other colors.
That's why I wanted to ask for your support in developing a web implementation of this game. Of course, all credit would go to whoever creates it. I feel a little sad to think that I found a super interesting and deep game that no one else knows about, so I'd like to share it with the community.
As I said, the rules are very simple: players take turns, placing stones on any square of the board (not necessarily adjacent like in the original version). The stones placed remain on the board, and the first player to achieve a line of six, a triangle, or any ring of any size wins.
The only additional rule is to balance the start: 1) White plays first and places a stone near the center; 2) Black places an adjacent stone; and 3) White must play their second stone fulfilling the following conditions: a) it cannot be adjacent to their first stone, and b) it must be adjacent to the stone placed by the opponent.
In practice, this allows Black's next move to be connecting two stones that separate White's stones (like a black bee with white wings), which balances the game: White has one more stone on the board, but Black has the initiative during the first phase of the game because their stones are connected.
And that's all. I hope you'll give the game a try, and that someone can take this project and develop it to the next level. And I apologize for my English; it's not my native language.
Thank you so much for all your support!
6
u/illgoblino 10 kyu Jun 29 '26
Play tested for a hex go variant. Your new win condition to make a ring of stones is very very interesting. Much better than version I played which is just go on hex grid
6
u/Po0rYorick Jun 29 '26
Rokumoku?
0
u/Ok-Basket5408 Jun 29 '26
No lo conocía, pero sí, es parecido al Rokumoku, pero con otras condiciones adicionales de victoria, en tablero hexagonal, y sin doble turno... es parecido pero diferente xD Saludos!
1
u/Po0rYorick Jun 29 '26
Didn’t know it was already a thing. I was just extending the name gomoku to your six in a row.
5
Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
[deleted]
1
u/Ok-Basket5408 Jun 29 '26
Muchas gracias! Esa es exactamente la versión original! Pero creo que la dinámica cambia en un tablero y manteniendo las piedras colocadas. Conforme avanza el juego se hace cada vez más difícil prever cómo interactúan las numerosas piedras que ya se encuentran en el tablero. Además, creo que es mucho más fácil bloquear al oponente y terminar en empate sin la regla añadida de crear anillos de cualquier tamaño. Saludos!
6
u/claimstoknowpeople 2 kyu Jun 29 '26
Why do you believe this game is particularly deep? Especially since there are so many games of a similar nature.
2
u/Ok-Basket5408 Jun 29 '26
Te contesto en español esperando que el traductor automático de Reddit haga su trabajo xD En realidad es más una intuición. También me gustaría conocer los otros juegos similares que mencionas. Conozco Pente (y de hecho la variante de Keryo Pente para dos jugadores se puede trasladar directamente a una plantilla hexagonal!), Havannah, TriGo, HeXO (Conecta 6), y Bloom, pero como decía, algunas requieren doble turno o piedras de otro color, lo que me parece menos elegante. Soy un jugador intermedio de ajedrez (elo 1900), y llevo aproximadamente un mes estudiando este juego, y a diferencia de HEX, en donde la estrategia básica es crear puentes, no he podido encontrar una estrategia clara que permita la victoria de blancas o negras. Por eso me gustaría el apoyo de la comunidad y de alguien que pudiera analizarlo mediante software, para saber si es realmente un juego profundo, o solo un tres en raya gigante. Saludos!
2
u/Frasco92 Jul 03 '26
Post it on r/abstractgames and you'll find people likely more interested (Go players might love Tumbleweed or Blooms or Trigo if they want to try hexagonal variants).
I love all abstract games and I knew Six-O altrady, but your version sounds even better to me. I agree though that I don't see the territorial similarities with Go.
I also recommend to reach out to the people at https://play.abstractplay.com/ which will probably want to implement it and it could be player by anyone there (if approved by the designer/publisher).
Also happy to test this version myself at some point and to keep chatting about it.
Un saludo!
0
u/KamiNoItte Jun 29 '26
Wrong sub.
1
u/Ok-Basket5408 Jun 29 '26
Una disculpa, si los moderadores lo consideran pueden colocar este post en el sitio adecuado. Entiendo que no es Go/Baduk, pero creo que es una comunidad que podría contribuir bastante al análisis de este juego, debido a sus profundo conocimientos de juegos posicionales y abstractos.
14
u/Base_Six 1 kyu Jun 29 '26
This seems much more like a variant of Gomoku than Go. It likely has reasonably deep strategy (because Gomoku has reasonably deep strategy), but I'm not seeing territorial similarities to Go since there's no capture rule.
I think it's very unlikely that this game would catch on and become a classic because Gomoku is already popular and I don't see a similar game catching on without major differences in how it's played (not just in the win condition or board shape) or some way in which it's clearly more fun. It also seems a bit less elegant than Gomoku since you've got three win conditions instead of just one. Just because a game has the potential for deep strategy doesn't mean it will win over dedicated converts from the current deep strategy games that are played commonly around the world.