This equidistant property of all adjacent hexes is desirable for games in which the measurement of movement is a factor.
A three-colour grid aids in visualising this movement, since it preserves the traditional chessboard's property that pieces moving diagonally land only on cells of the same colour.
Early examples of strategy video games that use hex maps include 1983's Nobunaga's Ambition,[1] 1989's Military Madness (the first entry in the Nectaris series),[2] and 1991's Master of Monsters.
[3] The first Civilization had a hex map version during development, but designers decided against it because "the world was not ready ... it was too freaky".
Other games that use hex maps are The Battle for Wesnoth, Dragon Age Journeys, Heroes of Might and Magic III, Forge of Empires and UniWar.