Engaging Hive Game - Strategy Planning for Survival Educational Hive Board Game Based on Bee Biology - Family, Ideal for Pre-Teenagers, Parents, Teachers - Board Games 8+ Year Old

We were looking for something different to do as a family. We experience power outages often (some last for days or weeks). So we needed something that kids and adults would enjoy to kill time. It is not too competitive for the little one. It just takes playing a time or two to get used to the rules. We even have Bee Savvy game day when we don’t have power outages because it’s good spending fun time with family.

Fun idea - instructions are not clear.

Great family game. I love the idea of educating your family about the importance of bees and the challenges they face every year. It took us a little bit to understand the game and rules. We looked up a you tube video and got a better understanding. After that it made for great memories with the family.

This game was fun once we got into it. It is on the longer side and feels rather complicated until you get into a rhythm. We played the easiest version and I think the harder versions would be very challenging indeed. The quality of the board and pieces was top notch. The colors are bright and pretty. The cards and all pieces are shaped in hexagons like bees make their comb, which was a unique touch. The bee related trivia on certain cards was also fun. It's definitely a game that will take repeat playing to really gain any strategy on how to win. The only negatives that led to 4 star is how long it takes and how complicated it is. These can be intimidating when considering a new game.

One you finally figure out what to do, it is a lot of fun. We enjoyed summer, as our hives grew. We didn’t make it very far into fall without losing our hives each round. After we all lost the first round we read through all the other season cards. There is not much hope for survival. Bees do have a tough life. Even though I have my complaints, I keep finding myself drawn back to playing this game again. It is fun and challenging. Pros: Game can be simplified. Every player makes changes to their individual hive each round. Everyone starts the same, the real variety comes in when you start rolling the dice (3 dice cards in each season). Instructions keep mentioning how to restart your hive by using Mother Nature (original starting pieces) or by converting a swarm back into 4 bees and 4 honey. We figured out why because we didn’t survive. Each time a player draws a season card it represents one well in the life of the hive which is why everyone will make adjustments on every round. Game is fast moving. Pieces are thick, sturdy, and feel like quality. Educational Cons: It comes with an instruction book and after 10 minutes of confused conversation (4 middle aged adults) we finally went to the website listed on the box, and search the web for a way to watch the instructional video. We were still confused, but at least we knew how to set up the hive, since no picture of how to start was given in the instructions. The instructions don’t mention the video either, I saw it listed in another persons review. We ran out of Nectar and were using other items to help us remember that we had those pieces in play. It would have helped us if the playing pieces would have been double sided with different items. For example nectar on one side and honey on the other. Also one stage of the bees life and a different stage on the other side. We left the instruction book open on the table to help us remember the steps we were supposed to do each round. Individual cards with those 4 steps with the pictures would have been helpful for each player to have. You need to punch out all of the pieces before getting started. (See photo). Then their is extra space in the box between the pieces and the lid, so if the box get turned onto its side or upside down, pieces move around. (I set a notebook in mine to fill the gap and keep things secure). Once the game gets going a few rounds, there are a lot of pieces in play. It can be difficult to manage your own piece’s as well as somebody else’s (for example helping a younger child with their hive). FYI: My husband contacted the company to give feedback about the nectar and they offered to send us some more pieces. They also said the next version of the game the pieces would be double sided, with different items, so that you had twice as many of each item. This will also help as your hive “ages” each week. He was very impressed with customer service. I hope they improve the instructions.

The box says you can learn it in 5 minutes. The rule book is huge and quite complex. The box gives some simple rules so we just used those and went along with how we thought it was suppose to be played as the booklet made it very confusing. The idea of the game is super fun and educational. However, in trying to teach families about bees and I think the game gets too convoluted. Overall, once we decided to go with what we THOUGHT the rules were saying it was fun and simple. However there are so MANY pieces to the game. I would love to see this game idea made more simple with fewer pieces. The quality of the pieces are great though.