Elf Creek Games | Honey Buzz | Board Game | Ages 10+ | 1-4 Players | 45-90 Minutes Playing Time

Product Information

There are some games that generate some real hype and excitement when they start to make their way around the community of gamers. One such game has had a lot of discussion recently and has risen to the top of some lists in 2020. I guess you could say, there is some real “buzz” around this one! Let’s take a look and see if we feel the same way about it! The start of the game is a little slow, as you only have one worker bee. If you are the third player in a 3-4 player game, it immediately limits your options. If you want to place a bee to claim the same hive tile as someone else, you must place one extra beeple in a “beeline”. The game really does build up in pace as you start to recall workers and in turn give birth to more worker bees.

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. 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.The bees have discovered economics. The queens believe that if they sell honey to the bears, badgers, and woodland creatures, they will find peace and prosperity. Spring has arrived and it’s time to build the hive, find nectar, make honey, and, for the first time ever, set up shop. Forage: move your foraging bee up to one space to collect nectar or pollen. If you want to move farther you must pay a coin for each additional space. To collect nectar, you must have the correct completed cell for that type of nectar. Depending on how you place tiles, different nectar cells will be formed. What there is though is a lot of strategy. And most of that comes from the interaction between your tiles and the actions you can take. The bulk of the game is centered around creating empty cells and filling them with nectar, but there is a lot to consider when doing so as the tiles you choose will dictate your actions later in the game.

I quite like this game. If you want proof, all you have to do is spend 50 minutes of your precious time watching me do a full playthrough of Honey Buzz. But just in case you don’t want to do that, I can also give you the highlights here. The bees have discovered economics. The queens believe that if they sell honey to the bears, badgers, and woodland creatures, they will find peace and prosperity. Spring has arrived and it’s time to build the hive, find nectar, make honey, and, for the first time ever, set up shop._x000D_ When a player recalls their bees, they may also “scout for nectar”. This gives players one free movement with their foraging bee, but unlike in with the Forage action, they don’t get to take pollen or nectar.

Fun with Numbers

Sweetwater Grove is all a buzz, with honey on the lips and minds of all the woodland creatures. Thanks to the hard work of accountants like you, the Queen’s honey stand is up and running. But now fall has arrived, and winter is coming! Her Majesty has given Her workers new responsibilities: harvest and sell fruit from the fall crop, decorate the hive with colorful autumn leaves, cap and store nectar for winter, and send retiring workers to be honored at the harvest festival before the sun sets on Sweetwater Grove. So strike up the waggle dance, it’s time for business!_x000D_ I feel the exact same way. The production is through the roof, but I’m not sure if the deluxe version is really worth it in this case, which is kinda rare for me (collector brain being what it is). But I’ll add an even stronger caveat to your caveats and say I think Honey Buzz is basically a 2-player game for me. But at that player count I do think it’s a fun series of interconnected mechanisms and I enjoyed engaging the puzzle of its gameplay.

Final Score: 3.5 Stars – Well produced euro game with an unexpectedly important spatial puzzle. The delayed gratification of triggering actions later is interesting, even if it leads to some longer turns throughout the game. 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:In Honey Buzz, points and coins are one and the same. The main way that players will be receiving coins throughout the game is with the Market action. Another way to get coins is through the Queen’s Contest. At the beginning of the game, three contest cards will be placed on the Hive Board. These contests will either be speed contests or final contests. A speed contest will reward the first player (and potentially second and third, depending on player count) to achieve a certain goal, such as having every type of nectar. A final contest will reward players at the end of the game based on certain conditions, like having the most nectar. Bees are woven into our history. The worker bee is a symbol of industry in Manchester. The bee is also the topic of some of our finest art and literature, such as Billie Piper’s 1999 classic hit “Honey to the Bee.” There are also several bee-related board games, such as Hive, Beez and Queenz. The big question is… where does Honey Buzz rank amongst them? Imagine All The Beeple… Components. I have the standard edition of Honey Buzz and I am impressed with all the care and work that went into this one, I can’t imagine how much better the deluxe is! The tiles, the beeples and especially the honey pieces! The honey is the squishy, tactile goodness that you didn’t know you needed and will love to play with the whole game!