From time to time, you encounter games that contain such an unique and fresh idea that you clap your hand in surprise and say "wow, this is cool!". Well, uniqueness is certainly not the only ingredient of a great game. But if you can give it a final finishing touch to complete the game with some quality, that would make a great game. Recently, Hive was one of such games to me. To paraphrase one gamer whom I played Hive with, this game is "really cool".
Hive is composed of 22 hexagonal wooden blocks. That's it - no card, no board. You can play the game anywhere if you have some flat surface to put the blocks on. What's the game underneath these 22 wooden blocks?
There are each 11 blue and silver blocks with stickers of insects on them. The insects and their numbers are : queen bee(1), beetles(2), spiders(2), grasshoppers(3), and ants(3). The goal of the game is to surround the opponent's queen bee with 6 pieces - regardless of the color of the surrounding blocks.
Because there's no board, the game progresses around the group of connected blocks. This group of connected wooden blocks is called "hive" (the hexagonal shape of the blocks, obviously). So it's the relative position of the blocks to each other, not the absolute position, that really matters.
The game begins with starting player placing one of his block on the table, then the opponent adding one of his block adjacent to the first block. After the first turn, each player can either 1) add one of his/her remaining blocks to the hive if there are any, or 2) move one of already placed blocks. You have to place your queen bee in your first four turns, and you can only move your pieces around after you place your queen bee. Also after the first turn, you can only add your blocks so that they only touch your pieces. That is, you cannot add a new block so that it touches opponent's block(s).
Let's see how each insects move. When moving pieces, you count the spaces as if there's a virtual hex board under the blocks. The queen bee and the beetles both move 1 space at a time. However, beetles can move on top of other blocks. The blocks under the beetle cannot move, and you regard the spot as yours when you add new pieces around it.
Spiders can move three spaces - no more, no less. But they cannot change direction while moving and go back to the space they've already passed. Grasshoppers can jump any number of spaces over other insects in a straight line - they can only move by jumping. Last, ants can move to anywhere around the hive, any number of spaces - they are the most versatile soldiers.
There are only two restrictions to the movement. First, the "one hive rule" - you cannot divide the hive into two or more pieces in any cases. You cannot even divide it temporarily while moving. Second, the "freedom to move rule" - you cannot move a piece unless you can slip the piece out of (or into) its (target) position without altering the position of other blocks. But! the beetles and the grasshoppers can move into/out of the blocked spaces because they can climb up or jump over other pieces.
These are all the rules that there are. The game plays quite fast, and it's tactical rather than strategical. Finding your moves in every turn feels like a puzzle. If you actually play the game, you can easily see how effectively those two rules are restricting the movement.
The middle of the game is a struggle to pin down other player's pieces as many as possible while at the same time advancing my pieces to the opponent's queen bee. You'll often use the one hive rule to pin down other player's pieces - especially by moving your ant behind the other piece. On the other hand, you'll often have to connect the hive somewhere else so that you can bring out your piece at the current connection point.
The game created quite a reaction when it came out in 2000, but it's relatively unknown in Korea. If you like 2 player abstract strategy games, I strongly recommend Hive. It's not as elegant or deep as Gipf or Yinsh, but the game is colorful and full of interesting moves.
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© Copyright 2005 by George Phillies.
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