Hive

As board games go, Hive is a bit of an oddity in that it doesn’t have an actual board. What you do have is two sets of tiles (white and black), each marked with an insect (or spider) symbol.

Each player takes it in turn to place a tile until the queen bee is placed (which has to happen by the fourth turn). Once a player has placed their queen bee tile, they can then decide to either place a tile or move a tile that is already on the table. The spider moves exactly three spaces, the grasshopper can jump over any number of tiles but always in a straight line, the queen beetle moves one space at a time but can climb on top of other tiles (thus preventing them from moving), the ant can go pretty much anywhere and the queen bee can only move one space at a time.

The aim of the game is to surround your opponents queen bee.

There are a couple of other rules: the pieces in play must be linked at all times (no piece can be left stranded and you can’t split the hive in two) and when you place a piece after the first turn it must be touching one of your pieces and not touching any of your opponents pieces. And finally, pieces move by sliding — if a piece is surrounded to the extent that it cannot physically slide out of its space, it can’t be moved (this doesn’t apply to grasshoppers and queen beetles).

And that’s it. Yet, from these few simple rules, fascinatingly complex games can emerge as you focus on the layout of the pieces, what can be moved, what can’t and how close to being trapped is your queen bee. And with a ‘board’ that is constantly changing as pieces are added and moved, you really do have to think about how things are moving and which pieces are about to become trapped.

It can be easy to forget about the playing pieces and how much they add to (or distract from) the game. In the case of Hive, though, the pieces are gorgeous. The tiles are quite deep and have a nicely chunky feel to them, giving the whole game a nicely solid feel. The artwork is also very well done with clear and colourful symbols indicating which piece is which.

Uniquely, once you’ve opened the box, you can get rid of it as the game also includes a zippered bag to hold the tiles. This makes it a very portable game and one that can be played pretty much anywhere.

Overall, Hive is a game that is easy to learn but one that sucks you into its mechanics and which can keep you engrossed for hours. There are a number of expansions (providing more insects) that I can certainly see us buying in the future but even without these the base game is incredibly playable on its own.