Monday, June 4, 2012

I'm Bringing Home a Hive of Bumblebees

Day 33 - Hive
Designed by John Yianni

"I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee, won't my mommy be so proud of me. I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee. Ouch! It stung me!"

"A Game Buzzing With Possibilities." I think that this is one of the most brilliantly invented games in our modern age. John Yianni deserves a giant statue of himself in some park for this great achievement. When I first played this game about 3 years ago, I was blown away. I had borrowed the game from the toy store where I worked and I couldn't stop thinking about the game afterwords. I was addicted. I wanted to buy the game right away (alas, at the time I was a poor college student). This game is just that good. If you are a fan of classic 2 player strategy games such as Chess, Go, Othello etc. you will enjoy this game (or at least you should!).

Hive is a 2 player game that takes about 10 to 20 minutes to play. It has won various awards and with good reason. The playing tiles are made of a domino type material and the game comes with a nice pouch for easy on the go playing. Part of the genius of the game is that there is no game board, but that the player's pieces form the board as well (similar to dominoes again). Each player has a hive of insects. 3 ants, 3 grasshoppers, 2 spiders, 2 beetles, and 1 queen bee (and 1 mosquito and 1 ladybug if you have the expansions or newer versions - I wish I had these!). The object of the game is to surround your opponents queen bee. You take turn placing tiles (you have to play your bee within the first 4 moves) and moving tiles according to their different movement schemes. Spiders move 3, beetles can go on top of pieces moving one space each time, grasshoppers jump over pieces, ants move along the outside of the hive anywhere they can slide into etc. You are restricted in your movements as well because you can't move a piece that would separate one insect from "the hive" or conglomerate of insects (they all must stay connected). The game has fantastic replay value because each game is different. You can even try it out yourself on Gen42 Games' website!

Hive is one of the best 2 player games out there and that is just How Lou Sees it!

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