Preemptive Strike! is the redheaded step-child of “Hex”
which was independently invented by Danish mathematician Piet Hein in 1942,
and by American mathematician John Nash in 1948. It is said that very early
on, the game was played by Princeton students on the floor of their dormitory
bathroom, which had hexagon-shaped tiles. Martin Gardner popularized the game
when he wrote about it in The Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles
and Diversions in 1959. Hex has been enjoyed by a wide range of people from
medicated youths to geniuses; Albert Einstein enjoyed playing Hex in his personal
library. It is a connectivity game, in the same family as Go
and Go-Moku. Preemptive Strike! 'takes only a minute to learn, but a presidential
administration's lifetime to master'. 
This weekend I fired up the Ozten factory and finished off a few more copies of this board game. To the right is the board. Want your own copy? Here is the board.pdf (7.7MBs). I created the board in Pov-Ray. The tiff I created was huge 600 ppi at 11 X 17 inches.
And here is the cover to the box. Martha
Stewart and Wizards of the West Coast
eat your hearts out! 