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Hive is a game that's been on my radar for a while now. My wife and I were looking for a new 2 player game, and I'm glad we finally pulled the trigger. The game took maybe 10 minutes to learn, but it is patently obvious that it has supreme depth. Literally look up "how to play hive" on YouTube, and you'll learn just as quickly. The game is like chess/checkers but much faster. Typically, we set a timer and allow 1 minute for each move. It says games take up to 20 minutes, but 10 seems like the average for my wife and I. •• Pocket vs Regular/Carbon •• I'm so glad we went with the pocket version. The tiles are already quite large; I honestly don't think I'd want them any bigger. Pocket is supremely sized for playing anywhere, anytime, without sacrificing the quality feel of the tiles. The pieces are about the circumference of normal chess/checkers pieces. •• Meet the pieces! •• Each piece has its specific, allowable movement. ◘ Ants can move anywhere around the hive. ◘ Grasshoppers can leap as far as the board in a straight line. ◘ Beetles can actually move on TOP of the hive, effectively pinning pieces (but only one space at a time). ◘ Spiders are the most limited and must move exactly 3 spaces. EXPANSION BUGS -- these pieces are a little more complex. Although they are included with Pocket, I recommend starting without them to learn the flow of the base game. ◘ Ladybugs must move exactly two on top of the Hive and then move one down on its last move. It may not move around the outside of the Hive and may not end its movement on top of the Hive. ◘ Mosquitos take on the characteristics of one of the bugs they around. If they are surrounded, you can choose, and if they are by one, they emulate that single bug. Exception: If moved as a Beetle on top of the Hive, it continues to move as a Beetle until it climbs down from the Hive. •• GAMEPLAY •• The gameplay is where it's at. At first, I was worried it would be a little too simple, but it's quite robust. Different starts make for completely different games. It'll only be redundant if your opponent (or yourself) do the same thing every game, but it's quite easy to vary it up. As a non-competitive, new player, it doesn't SEEM like there's a defined meta that crushes. I read some complaint threads about certain strategies, and people immediately offered counters to counters to counters. Will you use grasshoppers offensively or set them up defensively? Are you a beetle finisher, or are you all about them ants? How many pieces do you place before you start moving? Again, it's simple to start, complex to master. Each games starts with players placing a single piece. They may then place up to 3 pieces or the Queen. By the 4th turn, you MUST place your Queen. You can place her earlier, just not immediately on the first turn (per tournament rules). Once your queen is placed, you may start moving your pieces to surround the enemy queen. It's so much fun creating the game-board from scratch every time. It's quite ingenious, really, and it's the thing that keeps me coming back for more. •• A big rule no-no •• At no point in time may you cause a break in the hive. For example, if you have an Ant tile in the middle of the "board," and moving it would sever the hive into two, you cannot move the Ant. The Ant has become a fixture of the board, unless the board shifts around it, allowing it an escape route. •• Conclusion •• Hive Pocket is fun, reasonably priced, and surprisingly deep. It doesn't take long to learn, and I look forward to busting it out on the regular. The Pocket Version is the way to go. I thought the tiles might be too small, but in reality, they're just right. I love the elegant simplicity of the rule set... and I ain't mad at the price, especially considering how expensive the expansion tiles are on their own. After only a few days, my wife and I are looking to add the expansion pieces to our regular games now that we've gotten the basics down. I'll probably buy the Pillbug pocket expansion at some point, too... but there's plenty of depth to be found in the base game alone. Happy hiving :) Note: if my pictures are weirdly rotated, I apologize. No matter how I rotate and save them, �鶹�� has some weird ideas about how they should be oriented. This is the first time in hundreds of reviews it's happened.