Hive Carbon

One of 3 excellent versions of Hive, an excellent, 2 player strategy game. All 3 are aesthetically satisfying to play with and it is difficult to choose a 'best' version. This has, perhaps, a more adult feel and look about it, but this is a matter of personal choice. Very good, quality product and highly recommended. N.B. This has been referred to as 'insect chess' and 'chess without a board' and it is an ideal introduction for young children but in this case the colour version would probably be more appealing.

Lovely game that I keep in my bag at all times. Perfect to play in a pub or cafe.

nice set bit tricky learning the move's consulting utube best way

Great two player game at a good price

Love this game; easy to learn hard to master. Very tactile pieces and brilliant to take travelling, for long waits at airports etc.

Update Sept 2024 New versions of Hive, called Hive Ultimate and Hive Pocket Ultimate have been launched. Each are full 28 piece versions of the game! No sign yet of a Carbon Ultimate. You may prefer to try out or practise the game by downloading the appropriate Android or iOS app The 26 playing pieces in Hive Carbon are the same size as the ones in (vanilla) Hive (not to be confused with Hive Pocket). They are 38mm across flat side to flat side (42mm corner to corner) and 12mm high. The cylindrical nylon fabric storage bag is about 17cm across and roughly 4-5cm deep. It also contains a folded sheet of rules printed on thick glossy paper. The whole thing is definitely beverage proof. In vanilla Hive (launched in 2001), the playing pieces are either black or, er, vanilla and the bugs are painted in colour. However there are only 22 in the box. Pillbugs, Ladybugs and Mosquitoes are sold separately just for this set. Launched in 2011, Hive Carbon is still sold today with the Carbon Pillbugs missing. These are also sold separately. Launched in 2012, Hive Pocket is also still sold without the Pocket version of the Pillbugs. Again, available separately and currently, at a higher price than the whole game! Yes you can play all of these games without these expansion pieces, but as soon as you look online and/or invest in a printed guide, they all assume that you have them available! For the upcoming 25th Anniversary of Hive, can we skip the silly Metal/Enamel Special Editions and just sell every existing version of the game with the full complement of twenty-eight playing pieces? The whole “congratulations on buying this game, unfortunately it’s not quite complete!” just encourages price gouging. It’s like selling Chess sets without Rooks and then banging on about how great Rooks are, thereby implying that you really should buy some. This sort of runaround is fine for something like Catan; expansions and extensions are meat and drink to Eurogamers but in abstract-strategy, the norm is to sell the full game and leave the players to decide whether to play a restricted or speed version. Rooks do change Chess completely, which is why they’re in the box from the get-go! Sure, just like Chess, Hive has both online and mobile versions but these only serve as reminders that (unlike Chess) the physical versions are still sold with pieces missing! In 2023! For a game that encourages smart, tactical thinking… Hive could become as popular as Chess, but it won’t as long as the publisher continues with such a disjointed sales model that confuses/irritates potential customers. (I suspect that the root cause is a convoluted licensing issue with the manufacturer). There is a strong marketing case to sort this out and sell Hive sets which match the virtual experience i.e. all twenty-eight* pieces in the box (the existing packaging and storage bags are plenty big enough to hold all of them) and bundled with a decent, printed introductory “Hiveguide”. It’s not rocket science. *Making all the same size coloured pieces together in the same factory at the same time should also improve colour matching where it’s needed (*cough* Hive *cough*).

I brought this for my wife and I to play at the airport whilst waiting. We play it at home and really enjoy it. Look on YouTube for videos how to get the best out of playing the game.

An absolutely brilliant game, if you enjoy chess or draughts (checkers) you will love this game. There are several different versions available, I chose this one because it comes with an additional 2 insects. I also thought the black and white colour scheme was more attractive than the multicoloured ones.