Hive Pocket

Hive Pocket is bug themed tabletop game designed by John Yianni and published by Gen24games. The game comes with 26 game pieces and a cloth bag.  The Hive pocket is a portable version of the original Hive with smaller game pieces.  Hive is like a better version of chess. To put it into perspective…I HATE chess. I know hate is a strong word, but here, I feel that this is appropriate place to use it. There is just something about chess I don't like. Hive is somewhat similar to chess. My elevator pitch would be “Hive is sorta like chess, but more fun.” 

It also comes with the expansion pieces: ladybug and mosquito.  These bugs have different rules they must follow!

The game pieces are well made and don’t feel cheap. It’s hard to find games these days that are solidly built. They have a tactile quality to each piece where the images of the insects are sort of ingrained or carved into the plastic resin. Whereas some mass-produced cheap games would just have a sticker or painted on image that eventually wears out. You don’t have to worry about being rough with the pieces and having them rub and slam into each other in the bag or during game play. 

The tiles are made of thick bakelite. There seven basic pieces:

Grasshopper (3) - jumps in a straight line over any number of pieces.
Ant (3) - slides anywhere legal.
Beetle (2) - crawls 1 in any direction, including atop the hive.
Spider (2) - slides 3 spaces without backtracking.
Ladybug (1) - moves 2 atop the hive, then 1 down.
Queen bee (1) - slides 1 in any direction.
Mosquito (1) - copies the movement of any single pieces it touches.

The pocket version comes with expansion pieces that you’d have to buy separately with the original game. Though we haven’t added it to our game yet because we still love playing the original. 

This is what your startup "board" will sort of look like.

The rules are simple. You place tiles in an effort to surround the opponent's Queen. Once the Queen is places, players can also move the tiles already on the board. Each of the tiles has special movement abilities. Some are more defensive, and some are more offensive.

In order to win, you must surround the queen bee of your opponent as pictured above. 

Verdict? We love this game. It’s an extremely portable, lightweight, and fun game to bring with you anywhere that weight is not an issue (not backpacking trips). We’ve even taken it to the Galapagos! The pocket version of the game is best suited for travel with its soft drawstring bag and smaller game pieces. The game is also great to play in small places (like in a plane) because it takes up so little space.

Purchase it on Amazon.