aka Bees and Wasps
aka Honey!
A honey gathering game for 2 players.
Objective
One player is Bees. Bees make honey. The aim of the game is to fill your hive with 20 contiguous cells of honey – if you manage to do this, you have won.
The other player is Wasps. Wasps steal honey. The aim of the game is to steal 20 cells of honey – if you manage to do this, you have won.
Materials needed
Hive board
A selection of tokens to represent Bees (large discs)
A selection of tokens to represent Wasps (black cubes)
A selection of tokens to represent honey (yellow discs)
A selection of tokens to represent bee propolis (brown discs)
A selection of tokens to represent bee eggs / larvae / baby bees (white discs)
Setup
Place the hive board between players
The Bee player takes two Bee tokens, and two pieces of propolis (each bee can make one piece of propolis during the game, so use it wisely!). The bee token is purely used to remember how many worker bees you have – it won’t be placed on the board.
The Wasp player takes a single Wasp token, and no propolis. Wasps hate propolis.
The Bee player takes up to 5 actions first. Then the Wasp player can take an action, then the bee player takes an action for each bee, and so on, until someone is rolling in honey.
Order of Play
1/ Bee phase
Each Worker Bee can perform one of the following actions:-
Make Honey : add a honey disc to any free cell.
Make Propolis (a resinous substance which can keep out intruders – this acts as an impassable wall for bees and wasps alike) : add a brown disc to any free cell.
Deliver Royal Jelly. This can be fed to the Queen Bee (who will lay a new egg), or to a pupa / baby bee to bring them to the next stage of maturity. Add a new white disc to a free cell, or on top of existing white discs:-
1 white disc = a bee egg : feed royal jelly to add a new white disc and become a bee larva
2 white discs = a bee larva : feed royal jelly to add a new white disc, and become a baby bee
3 white discs = a baby bee : feed royal jelly to swap white discs for a new adult worker bee.
2/ Wasp phase
Each Wasp can perform one of the following actions:-
Move any number of hexes in a straight line through empty cells (and can consume a single honey cell at the end if desired).
Move any number of hexes in a straight line through multiple honey cells, collecting the honey (for 1 food disc per cell). Wasps are greedy, and must continue all the way to the end of a row of honey. (A cunning bee can determine where a wasp moves, leading him away from bee babies!)
Move onto a cell containing a bee egg / bee larva / baby bee, and eat it (for 1/2/3 food discs respectively)
Move from any cell on the edge of the hive to any other cell on the edge of the hive
A Wasp cannot move through propolis
The wasps can attract new wasps to help, but will need to give up three food discs to do so (honey / eggs / larvae / baby bees).
3/ New Bees and Wasps
If there are any Baby Bees on the board (i.e. a pile of three white discs), they are swapped for a new Bee token (unless the Baby Bee has been encased in propolis of course…) Remember to take a new propolis token with the new bee.
If the Wasp player has stolen three food (either honey discs, or bee eggs / larvae / baby bee discs), he may use this food to attract a new wasp. Exchange the three discs for a new wasp token.
Some notes
The start of the game is heavily weighted towards Bees. However, there is a turning point where Wasps start to overpower the Bees – it is important that Bees have a plan to get their contiguous area of honey before this happens!
A good Bee strategy is to space out honey cells, so as to impede Wasp progress.
It is possible for Bees to trap an unwary wasp into a propolis prison.
It is not possible for Bees to build propolis over honey.
Wasps can only enter the hive into an empty cell – not on top of honey, bee eggs, propolis etc.
Key quote “Oh no! I’ve bloody run out of propolis!”
Nik Newark 