Hex Grid Paper

Hexagons, point upward

A tessellating hex grid with the edge length set at 6, 8 or 10 millimetres. Pointy-top by default; a flat-top orientation is available.

Why games use hexagons and not squares

Because of what a diagonal costs.

On a square grid every cell has eight neighbours, and four of them are diagonal. A diagonal step covers about 1.41 times the distance of an orthogonal one, so either movement is unfair or the rules have to fudge it — which is why so many square-grid games count a diagonal as one and a half, or alternate one and two.

A hex has six neighbours and every one of them is the same distance away. No diagonals, no fudge, and movement over open ground behaves the same in every direction. That is the whole reason hex-and-counter wargames adopted it in the 1960s and never went back.

Pointy-top or flat-top

Pointy-top hexes form clean vertical columns and ragged rows. Flat-top does the reverse.

The choice matters for how you number the map and for which direction reads as "straight ahead". Most hex wargames and most RPG maps use pointy-top, which is why it is the default here. Flat-top suits a layout where horizontal rows need to line up, and it is what the quilting version of this sheet uses.

Numbering a map

Do it before you draw anything. Retrofitting coordinates onto a finished map is miserable.

The convention in hex wargames is a four-digit reference: column then row, so 0714 is column 7, row 14. Number the columns along the top and the rows down one side, and every hex on the sheet has an address you can write in a rulebook.

Scale is a decision, not a default

Write down what one hex represents before the first pencil mark. Ten metres, a hundred, a mile, a day's march.

It determines everything else — movement rates, ranges, how much terrain fits — and a map drawn without deciding tends to end up with a scale that contradicts itself between one corner and the other.

Beyond games

Hexagons tessellate perfectly, which is why they turn up in honeycomb, basalt columns and floor tiles. The grid works for tiling patterns, mosaic design, hexagonal beadwork and any maths lesson on tessellation.

Print at 100% on A4, US Letter or US Legal. Scaling changes the edge length, and on a map where a hex is a unit of distance that is not a cosmetic problem.