Smart Zone Games Hive Pocket

Great game for two people. From what I understand its worth it to buy the pocket edition so you get the extra players.

Quick to learn. Especially if you watch a few videos on you tube.

A modern twist on chess. Enjoyable play pieces, lots of room for replay. Nice pouch for easy travel.

Great game which reminds me of chess but without the board

For those who dont know, Hive is a rather awesome new strategy game, which is a rare thing. The only other games I enjoy as much are chess, and Go, which are ancient. Hive has some similarities to both, but is uniquely its own. If you like two player strategy games, get Hive; highly recommended. The game is deceptively simple, but becomes complex with good players. Im still learning it, lots of surprises and twists. This pocket set is a nice size for travel, if a little large for an actual pocket. Occasionally, we find it difficult physically to get pieces (grasshoppers and beetles) into or out of the center of a tightly packed hive due to the small size, relative to the full-sized pieces, which is the trade-off for portability. Its not a big deal, we just carefully re-align any pieces that get bumped, but it can be a little fiddly, especially for the very young or very old; if dexterity is an issue, maybe think about the full-size sets... The pieces are nice to handle, well made. This set includes both the ladybug and the mosquito, like the Carbon set. Comes in a drawstring bag. This set now lives in my backpack, ready for a game anywhere, anytime. If youve got a travel chess set, and a travel Go set, youll want one of these as well. 5 stars plus!

This is a pretty cool game. I have played it a few times with my son. It is similar to chess in a way, but every time you play it you can come up with a different strategy. It took a while to understand all the different moves for each bug. What I did was to make a quick cheat sheet to help us remember. If you like strategy games, I would recommend this one. Pieces are made of wood and come in a handy bag. It looks and feels like quality material.

I didnt like this game at all. Great quality product, but not something I enjoyed

LOVE this game! I like how quick it can be and how easy it is to transport. It is a great strategy teaching game!

An honest modern competitor to chess. Hive is a simple game that even kids can enjoy, but quickly becomes so deep that there are very serious competitions and theory books for it. Truly a modern classic. What you get: A pocket-size bag of black and white tiles, with the same tiles for both players in their color. This set also includes the mosquito and ladybug expansions, which I recommend you play without on your first couple games. Youll see why in a sec. How you play: Players take turns laying haxagonal tiles. The first player to surround the enemy queen bee tile wins- and your own tiles count against you! That means you cant play tiles defensively in the usual sense, as surrounding your own queen means you lose. Instead, each insect piece has certain rules for how it moves. Ants scurry around the edges of the hive, while beetles clamber up and over other tiles- beware a beetle dropping down beside your queen! Eliminate your opponents ability to play or move their pieces while enhancing you own positions, and surround that enemy queen to win. Example of play: On your first go, you and your opponent each play any piece and they must touch. Maybe you both play your queens (which is a bad move strategically as now your queens are surrounding each other, but you must play the queen within 4 moves). Every move thereafter, you can either play new pieces touching at least one of your own pieces, or move an existing piece using its particular ability. Maybe you play an ant behind your queen, then on the next turn your ant scurries around to the other side of the hive touching the enemy pieces. Your ant is now blocking several spots so your opponent cant play tiles next to it! Thats the key to the strategy of the game. You start to realize its about eliminating your opponents options, while not being able to form a defensive wall in a traditional way. And since you can open play by playing any of your tiles, each board tends to be vastly different from the next even if like Chess you start to learn a few standard opening patterns. Overall: Most any child of gradeschool age can understand this game, meaning in practical terms its not much harder to play than Checkers. But this game still has all the strategic depth of Chess. Its still too early to say if there are any systematic flaws in the game- players are still arguing over how much of a lead the white pieces have since like Chess there seems to be a scoring bias for white moving first. However, from all outward appearances, Hive is replacing Chess at a lot of tables and may end up being a true classic game. Beginner tips: The spider is probably the weakest stock piece as it can only move exactly 3 spaces. The ant meanwhile can do that same move, or move to any open space on the board, meaning the ant is one of the strongest. It is therefore recommended you play a spider as your first piece in the beginning, as that piece will soon be surrounded as you build the rest of the hive. Leave out the mosquito and ladybug expansions at first. The mosquito just absorbs abilities from pieces it touches, meaning it plays like other pieces on the board. The ladybug is just a different take on the beetle. Leaving these pieces out means youre still learning the same mechanics, and you can put these pieces back in at any time on a later playthrough. There is also a pillbug expansion that offers 2 pillbug tiles. Many players say the pillbug is overpowered, so Im fine not having it in the base set. Later, it is like the other tiles, a great expansion to an already thrilling game.

We took this on vacation to play at the beach. It was so fun and strangers asked what we were playing. We made a few new friends because this game is so fun. 2 player short play casual fun.