In HexCastello, the goal is to capture four castles or reduce the enemy force so that there are only two Soldiers left. A Soldier moves one step in all six directions. It can also jump over any piece except a Castle. In its first move, the Soldier may go two steps. A Soldier captures an enemy Soldier by jumping over it. Soldiers can capture a Castle by surrounding it on three sides in a triangular pattern. A Soldier may continue jumping as long as possible, or stop prematurely, but it cannot jump back immediately from where it came.
The four nearest Castles are friendly and cannot be captured. The middle Castles are neutral and can be captured by both players. But the central Castle cannot be captured before one of the Castles on the enemy side has been captured. Try to build a ladder so that you swiftly can attack a Castle. Remember that the center Castle cannot be attacked immediately. Keep your forces together; lonely Soldiers are vulnerable.
Castello, the predecessor of this game, was published by BRIO in 1965. HexCastello is arguably an improvement, as pieces have only six freedoms instead of eight, which are too many in this type of game. Zillions does not play this game well, but it could be used for studying the game.
Any game company is hereby granted permission to produce this game. I irrevocably relinquish all rights to it, together with all other games I have invented and published on my board-game page.
☛ You can download my free HexCastello program here (updated 2026-04-03), but you must own the software Zillions of Games to be able to run it (I recommend the download version).
© M. Winther, 2026 March
