So I got this idea for hex, inspired by things like blooms and some other games:

Hex board, same goal, game starts by first player placing 1 stone,

then each player on their move place two stones not touching any of his own stones

until one player decides he had enough on this, he then can place 1 stone touching his stone(s), from then on players just place single stones regardless of where or how they are place - plays as normal hex.

Sadly I do not really have someone with whom I could test this, but I think this could be a very interesting variant. Though possibly significantly diverging from hex. Would like to hear others opinions, or maybe someone could test this.

You're replacing something slightly ugly (pie rule) with something immensely ugly (the restriction).

Well, I'd not call it that ugly, have you tried catchup, similar stuff works really well.

Also possibly I'd made an impression that this for replacing pie rule, but it is not exactly for that, no pier rule for this is more of accidental result. I just think this variant (depending on how long players keep placing pairs game could have very significantly different character from hex) could provide more depth, tension  (not that hex lacks that particularly) and much much bigger branching factor.

I think it is sufficient to restrict that a player puts stones that do not touch each other.

The variant would work and adds a new layer of complexity so it's good for complexity lovers.

I'm a simplicity lover :)

… which is why you love hex. :)

Why not just use the move pattern from connect6 in Hex? The first player places 1 stone, from then the player to move places 2 stones of their color. Has this been tried out?

We could also try to put 3 stones each, or alternately 2 then 3 stones or even put 2 and remove 1 !

There is infinite ways we can destroy the game!

@thomas, this is my idea, but I fear that without limitation that I stated, it would change game even more than with my limitation. Due to nearly eliminating bridges, though that's just conjecture on my part, and interactions might still be interesting.