HIVE (2001)

PLAYERS	TIME	DESIGNER	ARTIST	PUBLISHER
2	15 mins	John Yianni	John Yianni	Gen42 Games

METHOD

HIVE is a 2-player only game where insect tiles are used instead of chess pieces. Each hexagonal insect piece has a special ability to move around the Hive, with the goal to have your opponents Bee piece surrounded on each of its six sides.

HIVE doesn’t play on a board, so find any flat surface and you’re ready to go. This makes it a game you can play almost anywhere; more so with the pocket version. It’s also a quick game with zero actual setup.

POINTS OF INTEREST

The pieces themselves are really nice acrilic tiles in either black or off white, making it easy to distingish your pieces during play. Each insect type also has its own colour making it easy to identify. Whether it’s the Ants that can go almost anywhere they want, or the grasshopper that can jump however far it needs to in a straight line, it’s about using the insects together to keep your own Bee safe while surrounding the opponent’s.

The game offers a really nice balance of offence and defence. I’ve seen players fail because they go too aggressive and forget about their own Bee. I’ve also played against a very defensive player who kept me two moves from winning for so long that the game ended up taking about 45 minutes (most games take between 5-15 minutes).

The key is to not rush all your pieces in and to sacrifice certain insects to hold your opponents pieces in place. I tend to throw the spiders out first because their move set is specific. I’ll build the core of the hive with them to free up my ants and grasshoppers. But I’ve seen other players use Spiders to perfection, closing the trap around my own bee when I didn’t see it coming.

If you play a lot with the same people it can turn a quick friendly travel game into a really thinky and tense head-to-head. This is a good thing. The game has legs (lots of legs!) and I find it as interesting to play today as when I picked it up 5 years ago.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

While it’s easy to teach, it can take a while for new players to learn all the best techniques for the insects. This can make for unbalanced games when the skill levels differ. But when both players are equally skilled, it can have the tension of a good Chess match, with preplanning moves and the ability to adapt being important.

EXTRA CONTENT?

There are a couple of extra insects that you can add to the game that mix things up a little.

The Mostquito is the most interesting as it has the ability to use an insects power that it is currently touching each turn. This allows it to be constantly changing its skill set making it a swiss army knife in your arsenal.

The Ladybug is a little more complicated. It requires the piece to move twice on top of the Hive and then back down to the ground level. It feels like a mix between the Beetle and the Spider and takes a little planning each time it moves. It’s a piece I tend to place early and forget about.

Finally there is the Pillbug, a piece I’ve not played with yet. This one can move a single space, or it can move a piece it is touching, following some specific rules first.

All three pieces are good to mix things up if you play HIVE a lot, but overall they are mostly unnecessary.

FOR 2-PLAYERS?

Released in 2010 and HIVE is still one of the best 2-player only games around. Much like it’s grandparents, CHESS and DRAUGHTS, it’s a simple one piece per turn tactical game with specific rules for different pieces. Because each player has identical pieces and available tactics, it’s a classic head-to-head game.

– – CONCLUSION – – A great 2-player game, a great travel game, and a pretty decent gateway game. It’s simple components also make it great to play anywhere with a flat surface, and it’s one of the few games that can 100% weather the dangers of food and drink.

Review #0001