The opening setup is displayed below. The board is colored using three colours. The choice of colours varies, but it is best if one is white. The pawn moves straight forward and takes diagonally, as illustrated above. The queen has the combined moves of rook and bishop.
Pawns move without taking one hex in the direction of the opponents side.
They take diagonally forward. This is rather similar to pawns in the usual chessgame. On their first move, pawns may move forward two hexes, and can be taken en-passant when doing so. Pawns promote when they move to one of the eleven hexes at the opponents side of the board, i.e., at one of the two lines at the border. There is no castling.