We highly recommend playing with only one additional Hive expansion at a time whilst familiarising yourself with the rules.
Once you have mastered them individually it's time to take on the ultimate Hive challenge by combining Hive: Venom with the Honeycombo, Predators and Guardians expansions for a superbug showdown. But, If you really want to mix things up, try including Hive: Swarm rules to push your mental skills to the absolute limit and discover who has the definitive Hive Mind.
Hive Swarm
Setup
Hive: Swarm can be played with Hive: Original or Hive: Venom, including any other Hive expansions. Both players select their initial hand which includes their Queen Bee and three secretly selected pieces of their colour. The remaining pieces are placed into the Swarm bag. The Players then reveal their hand ready for play to begin.
Game Play
The game plays exactly like Hive with each turn consisting of placing, moving, or flipping a piece in the case of Hive: Venom. Upon placing a piece you must draw out a new piece from the Swarm bag, unless it is empty. The extra twist being that you can draw out and place your opponent's pieces! Each piece must be placed in accordance with the rules for that colour.
Alternatively, you can choose to draw out an another piece from the Swarm, or steal one of your pieces from your opponent's hand. This can only be done once you have placed you Queen Bee and counts as your turn. You can immediately move any of your pieces placed by your opponent.
Hive Predators
The Predators pack includes two deadly bugs with bite, the Praying Mantis and the Assassin Bug. Both of these bugs have the ability to permanently remove an enemy piece from the Hive.
The Predators can be used with any of the Hive games, injecting an exciting range of new offensive and defensive possibilities.
Additional Victory Condition
If the player's Queen Bee or Wasp is removed from the Hive then the game is won instantly!
Assassin Bug
The Assassin bug moves one space around the Hive. Or, instead it can use its special ability to remove an adjacent enemy piece that's not in a stack. To do this it moves on top of the enemy piece permanently removing both the enemy piece and the Assassin bug from the game.
The Assassin bug cannot remove a piece your opponent has just moved or flipped.
Green: Move piece. Orange: Remove piece.
Praying Mantis
The Praying Mantis doesn't move, it waits..
The Mantis cannot ordinarily move, however, if your opponent placed a piece on their last turn then the Mantis can fly onto and remove that piece. Both the Mantis and the enemy piece are then permanently removed from the game.
Note: The Mosquito is removed if it mimics either predator in removing an enemy piece. The one Hive rule must not be broken at any time during removing a piece. Also, neither Predator can remove a piece which is touching the Shieldbug.
Orange: Remove the black Scorpion that's just been placed.
Honeycombo
Flip the Honeycombo to play two moves on your next turn and discover a host of new possibilities. The Honeycombo can be used with any of the Hive games, creating new game-play possibilities and spicing up the opening positions.
The game begins with The Honeycombo placed facing dark (black) side up.
The Honeycombo is neutral so both player's can place their pieces touching it. However; it still counts as a piece surrounding the Queen Bee.
The Honeycombo can only be flipped by the player who's colour is face up, and only once they have placed their Queen Bee.
Flipping the Honeycomb counts os your move for that turn but allows you to moke two moves on your next turn.
The two moves can be with the same piece or separate pieces and includes: placing, moving, flipping, drawing or stealing a piece in the case of Hive: Venom and Hive: Swarm respectively. Your opponent cannot immediately re-flip the Honeycombo, they must wait until at least their next turn.
When moving two pieces in a turn it is only the last piece moved which cannot then be moved by your opponent on their next turn. The Honeycombo cannot be moved, removed from the Hive, or remain covered by any piece at the end of a player's turn.
Hive Guardians
The Guardians pack includes two high flying bugs which protect the Hive from above, the Butterfly and the Moth. They have a unique placement as they can only be placed directly on top of one of your existing pieces, including those in a stack.
As with standard bug placement they must not be placed next to a piece of your opponent's colour. The Guardians can be used with any of the Hive games and may be flipped on the Hive.
Modified Victory Condition
In addition to surrounding your opponent's Queen Bee or Wasp you must also ensure they are covered from above and therefore entirely surrounded.
Butterfly
The Butterfly moves two spaces on top of the Hive but cannot move down off the Hive.
Moth
The Moth moves two spaces. One space down from on top of the Hive to ground level, then one space back up to finish on top of the Hive.
Note: The Mosquito can only mimic the movements of the Butterfly or Moth when adjacent to either piece on top of the Hive and not at ground level since they don't begin their movement there.
Continue Reading
