Hive (game)

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Hive is a beehive-themed tile-based tabletop game, designed by John Yianni and published in 2001 by Gen Four Two. Players try to capture the opponent's queen bee, while avoiding the capture of their own queen. Although the game has a theme, it is often considered an abstract strategy game.

The game uses hexagonal tiles to represent the various contents of the hive. The original edition used wooden tiles with blue and silver stickers to represent the units, but a newer edition has been published using black and white bakelite tiles with painted etchings.

On December 20, 2005, HIVE overtook Go to become the highest-rated abstract strategy game on the Internet Top 100 Games List.

[edit] Gameplay

The game uses five "units" with different properties: queen bees, soldier ants, beetles, grasshoppers and spiders. Each turn, players must either place a unit into play from the supply, or move an existing unit. The Queen Bee must be placed within the initial 4 turns of the game, and must be in play before a player can move a unit. The initial units placed by each player must be placed adjacent to one another, and additional units may only be placed adjacent to the player's own units.

No unit can be moved if the action results in more than one hive in play at any time during the action, and no unit can moved into or out of a hex unless its route is clear; however, beetles may burrow into the hive and grasshoppers may jump out.

The game ends when a Queen Bee is captured by surrounding it on all 6 sides by either player's pieces. The game is a stalemate if a move results in the simultaneous capture of both Queen Bees, or in a situation where no player can win the game.