Honey Buzz

We opened up the little bee hive and, I have to admit, Honey Buzz made an immediate impression. The deluxe production is exceptionally polished, and the whole package looks wonderful on the table. Setup gave us quite a few doubts, though. Hexes, money, and a market are enough to make me remember 1862 or 2038 and start worrying. And the longer you explain it, the less the rules prepare you for how smoothly the game will eventually flow. The player aid does not help as much as it should, either; honestly, I find it easier to look at the red walls in the hives and work out what is happening.

Our little bees work through worker placement: we place them to take tiles and gradually build our hive. With those tiles, we form honeycombs and arrange the production of different varieties of honey. The basic picture may sound busy during the explanation, but in play the actions and the hive’s development fit together far more naturally than you expect.

The honey we produce has several destinations: we use it to satisfy the queen through the end-game goals and the race toward them, to fulfil the forest animals’ orders, and to sell it at the market. Interaction therefore comes mainly through the race for those goals and the market’s economic side, while each player tries to build a hive that makes the best use of their own production.

In the end, rather than the heavy thing that its first impression may suggest, Honey Buzz is an honest racing/economic game with satisfying gameplay and enjoyable challenges. It is a little simpler than I would personally like; for a broader audience, though, that probably makes it even more approachable. And with this production, it is one of those games you are happy simply to put on the table.