The Pawn

Pawns travel one hex per move in any of the three forwardmost directions, but they capture hard-forward-left and hard-forward right. (See below.) Note that "forward" for each tridrant is indicated by the red arrows. A dashed white line marks the boundary separating the tridrants. The umber-colored hex at the center of the chess board does not belong to a tridrant.

drawing of the 4P3 board with pawn moves shown

A pawn that has entered an opponent's tridrant changes its forward direction to face the arrows in that tridrant. In the figure below each of the red pawns is in a different tridrant so each has a different "forward" direction.


drawing of the 4P3 board showing how pawns turn to face the arrows when they enter an opponent's tridrant
Above-right: A red pawn is in its starting position in Red's tridrant.
Above-left: A red pawn has entered Black's tridrant.
Above-center: A red pawn has entered White's tridrant.

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The center hex is the only location on the chess board that is not within a tridrant. A pawn that has moved there does not change its forward direction. (See below.)

drawing of the 4P3 board showing white pawn-moves from the center hex
A white pawn has moved one hex to the center hex. It has not entered an opponent's tridrant so is does not change its forward direction.

Each player begins the game with four pawns. A pawn that reaches the far end of an opponent's tridrant is promoted to a piece of higher value.
(See promotion.)