With it being Easter weekend we didn’t have time to open a new board game so we revisited an older favourite.

Created by John Yianni, Hive is a portable strategic game that can be played on virtually any flat surface. Most easily described as chess with bugs, Hive is a two-player game comprised of 11 white and 11 black pieces with different bugs printed on them. The pieces make up the board as they are placed. The goal of the game is to surround your opponent’s queen bee piece by moving the other bugs of which all have unique movement patterns. Having your queen bee surrounded seems like a difficult feat until you realize, like Ryan did in his game against Joee, that your own tiles around the bee count towards your opponent’s victory. For those that are strategically challenged, like myself, this game is a quick and painless way to hone your opponent reading and perfect your scheming skills as it takes only 5-20 minutes to play. After few games, I still lacked the foresight to escape from Joee’s experience in strategic maneuvers, but the games were close; came down to one piece more opportunistically placed than another. Whether it be a quick game at work during lunch or at home during a homework break with the kids, Hive is great for rejuvenating the mind and getting the kids to think analytically; great for teaching how to think ahead and anticipate what is to come. In short, it is great for the whole family.
With expansions of the mosquito and the ladybug pieces make your game even more challenging and exciting!

Published by Rio Grande Games, 20th century is a fitting game for today’s society as it is a game based loosely on the relationship between technological advancement and environmental
cleanliness, you are faced against your opponents in a series of auctions as each of you strives to win the land, science and avoiding catastrophe that will put you ahead. Every second turn there is a bonus phase that allows those falling behind a chance to catch up. The trick is finding that fine balance between your country’s growing economy and its environmental impact. At the end of the sixth turn, totals of coin, science and garbage are calculated and bonus victory points are awarded accordingly. If you plan it right you can pull ahead in this last phase!

In the game that A.J., Joee and I played this week A.J. focused on science, Joee on commerce and I simply focused on gathering victory points. By turn two I had pulled ahead of the guys on the victory track, however, Joee’s mitt-full of coins found himself being able to hold his head above the proverbial water by recycling a large portion of the garbage that he created each turn. A.J.’s focus on science kept him clear of the catastrophes in the last three rounds leaving Joee and myself even more garbage to clean up. In the end Joee, to my surprise, managed to clear his country of all garbage, A.J. was left with a few squares slightly polluted and myself with one garbage lingering in the corner of my country. Despite his perfect environment Joee couldn’t quite catch me on the victory track; however it was a fairly close game as A.J. closed the gap with his hordes of science points.
20th Century is a simple but sophisticated strategy game that the whole family can enjoy.

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This week we have cracked open Sid Meier’s Civilization the board game. This is the second such game with the first coming from Eagle Games. Eagle Games is known for their giant boards (Age of Imperialism is four feet by three feet) and their less than great game play to go along with those boards. This one comes from Fantasy Flight which is already a good sign.

If you have ever played any of the Civilization games on the computer and enjoyed them, you will probably enjoy the board game as well. It comes with so many pieces and markers that even on the box it says “hundreds”. You will need a lot of time to play this one but we found that it’s hard to get bored of a game when there is so much you can do.

You start the game being one of the great civilizations from the computer games. America, Russia, Germany, Egypt, China, and Romans. There are four ways to win the game. You can win with a technology, military, culture, or economy.

Our first complete game we played had Sheryl as America, Donny as Egypt, A J as China , and myself as Russia. Each civilization has different abilities and starting technologies. Russia started with Communism which increased production.

There are a million things I could write about that happened during the game but I am going to cut to the final couple turns. A few hours in it was very close between all of us. I was very close to getting a tech victory, Sheryl was close to an economy victory, AJ close to culture as well as Donny. I researched Atomic Theory and got lucky enough to find uranium to nuke one of AJ’s and one of Donny’s cities. Also, moved some armies into Sheryl’s zone to cut off coin supply from her banks. Finally researching space flight to get the victory.

All in all, this is a great game. We have played it at least five times since we’ve opened it. It IS a time consuming game but it’s very satisfying as you play it. The cost is $64.99 but with all of the pieces you get, and the fact that it is a different game every time you play it, it is a very solid purchase.

Store copy available if anyone would like to try it.

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