Apiary

There is an argument that says Apiary is just another “bland, themeless, worker placement euro about acquiring generic resources and turning them into victory points adding nothing new to the genre”. However, the smooth gameplay and sheer variability baked into the mechanics and components means that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

I really like worker placement system in this game. It's really interactive, because your worker might fly back to your board (or hibernate) because of opponent's worker placement effect. Plus, the flow of the whole game was high for me. Really good surprise from Stonemaier!

Very fun game with a weird theme that sort of works. It's a worker placement game with a twist, where you can bump other workers (this has been done before), including your own (I believe this is a unique aspect) and when those workers are bumped they "level up" to a point, at which point they hibernate (the game clock) and you lose them/they start over at a level 1 (similar to Teotihuacan). Each player starts with an asymmetrical ability/character and an asymmetrical hive where tiles are placed for bonuses and end game points.

On your turn, you either do a placement (bumping another worker if that spot is full) or do a retrieve turn where you pull back all of your workers and get income (provided you have purchased farm/income tiles). This continues turn by turn until someone has hibernated all of their bees or all of the hibernation spots are full (each spot gives a little bonus and the person who ends the game also gets an extra turn). Each action placement is both straightforward and interesting; everything feels positive and like something you want to do. It should be noted that when you place with a max. power bee of level 4, you get an extra added bonus at each space.

The actions are: 1) explore- you move a queen bee marker, which is similar to the ships in Scythe, around space landing on planets and collecting resources- go there early and you get a surprise bonus, and you get to help define what goods are to be collected, go later and you get a little more, although the goods are now prescribed, 2) advance- you purchase from a market of 3 different types of tiles (one time powerful tiles, special abilities, and farms/income which also provide more storage), these tiles are generally worth end game points as well and are placed on your personal hive, 3) convert- you can exchange resources for other resources, including the valuable wax and honey and you can potentially create or use a dance, which is a more powerful exchange action. 4) grow- you can acquire a new level 1 bee worker (provided you have some left in the pool) and/or acquire an extension to your hive, which allows for more placement of tiles, more end game points if you fill it, and more opportunities to tuck end game seed cards, 5) research- gain a seed card. Sounds simple, but these cards can be quite be quite useful (every card is at worst a general resource, or better a specific any time bonus or even better tucked for and end game scoring condition), can be played anytime, 6) carve- you can purchase an endgame tile, which are first come first serve, for big end game points provided you have both a level 4 bee and enough honey to purchase it.

Gameplay seems to scale well (only tried 2er and 3er so far) isn't overly long, has multiple paths and is just plain engaging. Great first effort by this designer and great production of course from Stonemaier games!

Own the [boardgame=427705]Expanding the Hive[/boardgame] expansion.

FUCK randomizing factions. all my homies hate randomizing factions.

Great structure and mechanics, but the cards and tiles are a little too random to result in much of a real choice when presented with options, so the strategic depth falls short of satisfying. Could benefit greatly from a well-considered expansion that results in cards/planet tiles being organized into phases.

Had a good time with this one. Worker placement with spots always available but people can play off other players worker strength values and also level workers up by bumping another off a spot worked really well.