Shown off at Spiel Essen 2023, Hextremadura is one of the six small-box 18-hex tile micro games published by LittleHouse Boardgames. Hextremadura is a solitaire game using hex tiles that show various type of terrain and requirements to be met in your layout.
On its face-up side, each tile indicates two requirements; for example, that there are three segments of forest and three segments of crops adjacent to the tile. The adjacency has to be to the segment of the tile with the requirement. When both of the requirements of a tile have been fulfilled, the tile is removed and flipped. At the end of the first round of placement, these flipped tiles are played with the aim of fulfilling the exploration objectives indicated on each tile's centre.
The game has obvious similarities with this year's Spiel des Jahres winner Dorfromantik (Pegasus Spiele) but David Heras Pino's design makes Hextremadura super-easy to learn and play, and its hexagonal small-box packaging mean it's a game that can be conveniently packed as a travel game. Tho' you're following simple rules and only ever choosing between two available tiles, Hextremadura offers a challenging optimisation puzzle that's relaxing rather than stressful and which gives you a sense of accomplishment when you manage to complete exploration objectives. The game takes no more than 15 minutes to play and, tho' it's primarily intended as a solo game, it's very playable as a two-player cooperative game.
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