Hive- A Game Crawling With Possibilities

This is honestly the best game I’ve tried in years. It’s so absurdly simple to learn for a game that can be easily as strategic as chess—it took myself, my spouse, and our 11 year old about 10 minutes to go from reading aloud the rules and how each piece works to playing the game. We only once referred back to the rules some 2 days later.It’s a two-player game so you’d think it’s not a family game, but my boys don’t mind spectating and neither do I. The hardest part is not piping up to offer advice to the players or commenting, “oooh, that wasn’t the best move bae…” “Daddy’s got you in two turns…” or “You SURE about that hun? His beetle is right there…” and getting dirty looks from players.The pieces are reminiscent of dominoes, with smooth and medium weight hexagons engraved with nicely detailed bugs of the varied types and colors. The artwork is well done, being colorful and vibrant on both black and white pieces with enough detail to appeal to science fans but not so much details that it would aggravate someone with an average bug or spider phobia.The gameplay is much faster in our experience than chess, lasting between 15-20 minutes average, sometimes a bit more if you are in a complex match. The gameplay is very different from match to match as long as players aren’t using the same style and tactics every time.Overall, this is a game I would recommend for everyone’s game library. It does not disappoint at all. I’m only sad that I haven’t gotten the expansion packs for it yet.

Its very great quality, the pieces are satisfying themselves lol. Gameplay is very simple to pick up and play, rules are very straightforward and i loved especially how they show pictures of how individual pieces move. So much more fun with the expansions as well. Perfect for someone who likes chess or someone who wants to get into those mechanics as well. Overall just a great simple and quick game to bring anywhere. Only objective is to surround the queen bee with the tiles...would 100% recommend and would buy again if needed.

Hive struck me like a fresh new concept in tabletop gaming when I first ran into it at the manufacturer's own website. There, you could play the game against a robot that they said wasn't all that good a player. He taught me so much, beating me 15 consecutive times before I finally beat him.Hive has tiles with special movement rules, like chess, but there is no "board". The first tile played in the game initiates "The Hive", and all subsequent play takes place on, or adjacent to, The Hive. The tiles depict bugs, and both players get a queen bee, 2 spiders, 2 beetles, 3 grasshoppers, and 3 ants. An expansion set gives each player a mosquito too.Players take turns adding tiles to the hive. When adding a tile, it must touch already-laid tiles of your color and no tiles of the other color (except for player #2's first tile). During the first 4 moves, both players must add their queen bee to the hive. Once a player's queen bee is played, they may elect to move a tile rather than play a new one. Moving tiles are allowed to land next to the other color in a way that newly played tiles cannot. This decision about bringing a new piece into play or working with the pieces already in play is one small example of the strategy at play here.The object is to completely surround the opponent's queen bee. Doesn't have to be all your tiles, but if she is surrounded you win. Don't let it happen to your queen bee! The game play is strongly oriented towards "1) Don't lose, 2) Win, if you can" That was the lesson of my first 10 games against the robot at the Hive site.Ants can move anywhere on the outer perimeter of the hive - any distance. Spiders can do the same thing, but they must move exactly 3 hexes, no more, no less. Grasshoppers leap over the hive along hex lines to the first vacant space. Beetles can only move one hex in any direction, but they can crawl up onto the hive itself and move around on it. The piece they are sitting on is immobilized until they leave. The optional mosquito can move like any tile of either color that it is touching at the beginning of it's turn.Enough about the game - it's a brilliant invention in game-play with really thought-provoking strategy. Its not a quick learn-and-play game. That said, it is a delicious long-term learn-and-play game - lots of "ah ha!" as I witness my own improvement as a player.This product tho - WOW! These tiles are bigger than I expected - you can squint one like a monocle - and substantial like well-made dominoes, finger-tall. The hexes are white and black, each type of bug is painted into the recessed image in it's own color. The green-on-black grasshopper contrasted with the green-on-white grasshopper is very cool - these pieces are lovely.

This is a great game - harder than checkers, easier than chess, to quote many other reviewers. Comes in standard/full size and pocket versions, and colors or black and white. I specifically wanted a full size in colors, with the original round zippered pouch. That is what I got, but not based on the main photo! This is the most confusing purchase I have ever researched! And read a zillion reviews... The good news is that if it is shipped by AZN, and not what I was looking for, back it goes for free :)This item DISPLAYS with the red plastic cut out front, and the current seven award logos are not shown. So, not what I was hunting, I thought. BUT further down in the interior description it does show the "original second edition" white box, which has the circular zipper travel pouch. All the other newer versions have some kind of cloth pouch. The back clearly displays the batch number, full manufacturer info, and model number. So, I gambled and ordered. And yay! I got the white box with award logos.Why does it matter which mfgr and edition? Because if you want to buy the separate additional bugs, you need them to match! I did purchase the extras, in white packaging which matched the box I received. The pieces were identical in color and shape to the main set. Complaints about mismatches and poor workmanship show up in many of the lower ratings for the "other" kinds of packaging.The pieces in this box are heavy, beautifully rounded and polished, and the bugs are deeply incised, centered on the piece, and no paint outside the lines. Just as with chess pieces, I want a game to be a challenge to play and a pleasure to look at and handle. There's a reason many board gamers spend money and time to painstakingly paint the miniatures - it doesn't affect game play but does affect pleasure in the game for some players. I hope this is useful information!