Hex Empire unfortunately, is not about an ancient land of witches turning each other into mules and spiders. The name refers to hexagons, the traditional battleground of the pen-and-paper wargamer. Hexagons tile well, you see, and they look nice with doodles of rivers and mountain ranges between them. They are pointy, but not so much that you need to wear goggles while working with them, like you do with squares or triangles.
It's explaind during the game. But you use both Mouse and Keyboard buttons.
Your objective is to capture the capital cities of your enemies.
The map is littered with smaller cities and coastal ports, and generally speaking, it is a good idea to control as many of these as possible.
At the end of each turn, each city in your territory will generate a unit 10 soldiers strong, while ports and the rest of your occupied land add soldiers to your cities randomly.
Hex Empire occupies a comfortable spot between the simplicity of Risk and the number crunching of the Avalon Hill-style board games that inspired this whole soldiers-on-hexagons thing. You do have to pay attention to the numbers, and even add them together occasionally, but moving a squadron just comes down to two mouse clicks. The five-move restriction, and the way your fighting units degrade quickly in battle, forces you to strategize instead of simply expanding as quickly as possible. The further and faster you push, the more likely you are to end up with a shattered and cowardly front line, ripe for a counter-attack. Real strength in this game comes from an almost chess-like approach, with units constantly guarding and reinforcing each other. There's a distinct and relaxing drumbeat to it, once you get the feel.
