Honey War

Honey War is a game played by two players, on a board of hexagons tessellated in the pattern of a larger hexagon, with a side length of 6 and a diameter of 11 hexagonal cells. These cells are colored with any three colors (though orange, purple, and green is traditional) such that no cells have a neighbor of the same color. The board is oriented such that each player is seated in front of a corner of the board opposite their opponent.

The game has some similarities to Chess, in that there are different types of pieces which move in different ways, players take turns moving pieces, and the game is won by destroying a particular piece, but beyond that the two games are very distinct. Honey War has a more overtly militaristic theme than Chess, and all of its pieces and rules are directly inspired by ancient warfare (however, Honey War is still an abstract game of strategy, and not a war game.)

Pieces
Honey War has seven different types of pieces: Footsoldiers, Infantry, Cavalry, Chariots, Trebuchets, Castles, Towers, and Garrisons.

Foot-soldiers
Footsoldiers are the most basic unit in your army. In this guidebook, they will be depicted as a simple circle, pictured in the figure on the left. They can only move to an adjacent hex in the direction of the enemy and cannot move straight forward (see figure on the right).

Footsoldiers can attack any other piece of the opposite color. In order to do so, the footsoldier moves to the hex behind the attacked piece relative to where it is standing, as in checkers. If a piece inhabits that hex already, the footsoldier cannot attack, regardless of which side it is on. See the figure to the left for a visual description of the footsoldier's attacks.

Infantry
Infantry units are essentially upgraded footsoldiers. They are represented with the symbol shown in the figure to the right. They can move to any adjacent cell. They can also move two hexes left or right in the direction of the enemy. See the figure on the left for a visual description.

Infantry units can attack any of the enemy pieces. To do so, the Infantry jumps over the enemy as a Footsoldier would. In either direction where the infantry soldier can move two hexes, it can jump a piece two hexes away. In doing so, it travels three hexes to the opposite side of the attacked piece. Otherwise, jumping works just like the footsoldier.

On the gameboard, infantry is represented with a normal footsoldier piece topped with an upgrade hat. If an infantry unit is attacked, the upgrade hat is removed and the infantry unit becomes a footsoldier.

Cavalry
Cavalry units are very different than infantry and footsoldier units. They are represented as a shape meant to imitate a beast of burden, shown on the left. Their move consists of exactly two movements. The first move is to any hex that is empty or similarly colored and adjacent to the cavalry's position. The second is to another empty hex such that the angle formed between the two moves is 120 degrees. As a consequence, each cavalry unit must stay on the same color of hex the entire game. To the right are two diagrams, the first of which describes how a cavalry unit can move when no hexes are blocked and the second of which shows various cases where the unit cannot move.

Cavalry attacks are much simpler. Cavalry units can attack any piece that is on a tile that it can target for a move (i.e. any similarly colored tile that it can go to).

Chariots
Chariots are very powerful units, so each player only has one. Chariots are very fast and can move in any direction any number of spaces, as long as they only go in a single straight line and are not obstructed by any pieces.

Capturing with chariots works using the same jumping mechanics as footsoldiers and infantry units use, but from a further distance. They can jump over an enemy piece unless there is another piece behind the target.

Trebuchets
Trebuchets, represented by the symbol to the right, have the simplest movement pattern of them all. They can move to any adjacent space, but only as a Type II action (described in Turn Flow section).

Trebuchets do not move to attack; instead, they can shoot a projectile. This projectile flies over any and all pieces and lands exactly two hexes away in a straight line. Any pieces there are removed from play, regarless of the amount of attacks the piece would normally require to take it out of play (i.e. castles, towers, infantry).

Castles
The objective of the game of Honey War is to destroy the other person's castle. The castle is immobile, and thereby requires the protection of all the other pieces. The castle is represented with the symbol on the right, but on the gameboard with the two interlocking castle pieces.

The castle can stand two attacks before it is destroyed. The first attack removes the top piece from the castle; the second attack removes it from play. All pieces that attack the castle are instantly destroyed upon completion of the attack.

Towers
Towers are represented with the symbol to the left. Towers are immobile, and they start off neutral. When a tower is neutral, neither player can attempt to control it.

Players can take control of the tower in two ways. They can convert the tower into a Garrison by capturing the tower with an infantry or cavalry unit. When they do this, the player places the piece they used to capture the tower on top of the tower piece. Alternatively, a player can capture the tower with a Footsoldier unit. Doing so destroys the tower, but allows you to add an upgrade hat to the footsoldier unit, therefore turning it into an infantry unit.

Garrisons
Garrisons can be created from Towers using the method described in the Towers section. Garrisons are immobile. Garrisons can attack any hex exactly two hexes away in a straight line.