Did you know that honey bees are the only insect that produces food eaten by humans? They also pollinate over 80 percent of our cultivated crops. And in turn, we’ve decimated the honey bee population in the last 50 years. It seems like they’ve had enough.

The game scales very well. I have played at a two and four player count, and have found myself having enough downtime between turns without being bored. There is also a solo variant to the game, which has different levels of difficulty, increasing the replayability. Decree: This is a wild and allows you to do any of the other actions, however, you have to pay to take decree tile from the Hive Board. As you continually expand your hive, you’ll forage for nectar and pollen, make honey, sell different varieties at the bear market, host honey tastings, and attend to the queen and her court. There’s only so much nectar to go around, and finding it won’t be easy. Players will have to scout out the nectar field and pay attention to other players searches to try to deduce the location of the nectar they need for themselves The rest of the components are also great. The artwork is interesting, the player colours are fun, and the honey is … appetizing? The tokens for honey honestly look like gummy candies. While I think this is fun, it’s definitely something you need to look out for if you have young kids. Even I, an adult who knows better, have been tempted by these tasty looking pieces. The gameplay in Honey Buzz revolves around your personal hive which you create from hexagonal tiles. Each tile has two hexagons and every player starts the game with the same tiles arranged in the same shape. There is also a field where different types of nectar are laid out in a grid. Each player has one bee token that can move around and collect nectar throughout the game.Before I tell you how much I love the game, I do feel the need to mention a couple of slight criticisms. The first of these is to do with the honey pieces. At first glance they do look like each other (aside from the wildflower). Unless you have the trained eye of a Dulux paint fanatic, it can be hard to tell them apart. The second negative is the advanced variant. The basic game is fantastic, but the advanced variant didn’t really have enough to make me want to play that version more often. Queen Bee Or Not For Me? That’s often a misleading metric. When there are various difficulty levels broken up into easy, standard, and hard categories, I typically start at the bottom and work my way up. It takes time, yet there are some cases where the easiest level feels more like a tutorial. There isn’t much of a challenge, yet I imagine that’s always different for everyone! The challenge in this one comes with trying to decide how and when to build the empty cells on your board. You need to rush towards making the ones you need for the Queen’s contests but you also need to balance out what will give you good choices in the market. I love the multi-step planning in this game which makes it a real challenge as you try to make the right decisions moving forward. There are quite a few different ways to gain victory points as you play this one, and I have seen players try different approaches well.

If you wanted to challenge yourself further, there is an advanced variant. On the other side of the woodland board, the forage grid changes. You also place the nectar tiles face down, so it becomes a memory test as well as a strategy game. I don’t know that the advanced variant adds much to be honest. I’ve played both and don’t feel like it’s any better than the basic game. Totally agreed! Especially once you take into account that the structure of the cell also determines what sort of nectar it will gather, and therefor honey it will eventually produce. What I really like about Honey Buzz is how the actions work. It’s a worker placement game in that you are placing your worker-beeples to get tiles, but the actual actions you get from this might not be immediate. This can either be great allowing for super combos, or tortuous as you watch your opponent beat you to the action you want to take. This delayed action mechanic reminds me a bit of Tzolk’in, a worker placement game where the player’s actions happen when they remove their workers. This comparison is a compliment to Salomon’s design. I really enjoy when designers take a concept we are familiar with and find a new way to implement it. Produce. Here you will place your fan token on any space in your hive and all nectar tiles that it touches will produce one honey token. The honey stays on that spot, so until you are able to spend the honey those nectar tiles will not produce more.Art. What can I say but wow-this game is cute. The art style and character are all super fun and really immersive, I love the style and the characters on the boards and cards. They have some really fun expressions and jump off the table when you play. Honey Buzz is a worker and tile placement game where 2-4 players face-off to have the most prosperous hive. How to Play Out in the woodlands, players’ forage tokens will move around from flower to flower, gathering nectar and pollen. Pollen is a side currency that can be sold on the market. Nectar can only be added to your hive if you have an open cell that is structured properly to hold it. For example, wild honey can be held in a cell constructed from 3 tiles, like so: The bees in Honey Buzz have realized they can cut out the humans and sell their honey directly to the bears and badgers of the forest for those sweet dollar bills that every bee’s dreams are made of. Hopefully, they can afford some good lobbyists to fight for environmental protection when it’s all said and done. Gameplay Overview: