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With amazing production value tied to great economic and strategic mechanics, Honey Buzz ticks most boxes for any gamer looking for a new and different item in their collection. The Deluxe Edition brings production to the next level, but is it worth the upgrade? Stick with me to find out!
What’s In The Box?
When you first open the box, there is a lot going on. You’ll get loads of tiles, tokens and cards and it is important early on that you reorganize everything to your liking to ensure you know what you’re getting when you’re setting up. To help you though, you’ll have a very, very nice organizer included in the box. I decided to clearly separate the solo mode components from the rest to ensure I don’t get them mixed up during setup.
Everything looks and feels of amazing quality. The rulebook is nice and clear, the artwork is gorgeous, and all the components and boards are of great quality, even the cardboard ones. I particularly like the honey tokens with their jelly-like feel, it brings an extra touch of detail that I really appreciate.
Obviously, as we are reviewing the Deluxe version, you want to know what you get for the extra bucks you may put into the purchase versus the normal version. The main differences are the plastic nectar tiles, the wooden fan tokens, the first player marker (all of which are an immense upgrade compared to their cardboard counterparts despite the cardboard being of good quality) and your foraging bee, which to be fair I’m not sure how to feel about(?). It’s a fluffy version of a regular beeple and of course an upgrade in itself but it just feels weird in my hands (but that’s definitely a me problem!).
On top of this, you also get a revamped box with a sleeve which, when removed, reveals more of the original cover artwork wonderfully created by Anne Heidsieck. Overall, just an incredibly well-produced and put-together package.
Gameplay
I have to say, this game takes a bit more time setting up than what I like. There’s a lot of shuffling, deck creating and tile removing to do before everything is ready. I always have to go back to the rulebook because I can’t possibly remember everything and while I can clearly see why I’m doing what I’m doing and I agree that it makes sense, it doesn’t stop me from finding it slightly annoying, which might put some people off of it.
Once setup though, the game has a great table presence and it brings to the table a mix of different mechanics that just come together very well, like worker placement, order fulfilment, action planning and tile placement (among others).
At the centre of your gameplay is your hive, and the way you develop your hive will ultimately determine how successful you are at the game. You will need to send your beeples (workers) to the tile board to pick up tiles to build your hive. As you do this, you’ll be able to plan your actions ahead by picking up the according action tiles.
A very interesting mechanic (probably my favourite in this game) added to this worker placement board is the “Bee Lines” (although, they’re more like stacks really). Basically, if a particular space already as a beeple on it, instead of it being locked like in most worker placement games, you’ll need to put a stack of beeples that is exactly one beeple higher than the previous stack placed at that location, no matter who’s Beeples they are. So, basically, the first pick of that type of tile will take one beeple, the second two beeples… you get the idea!
Not only is it important to pick the right tiles at the right time, but the way they are placed in your hive is as important, if not more. This is because you don’t take the actions when you pick the tiles up. Instead, you take all your actions in one go once you create a cell. And a cell can be created with 4 different configurations depending on the way you place your picked up tiles. To add to this, each different cell configuration allows you to place a different type of nectar and it is your job to ensure all this is happening according to your strategy!
I know this sounds complicated, but it isn’t. And the game does a great job of explaining everything with the rulebook and the player aid cards. The game clicks easy once you understand these bits and soon you’ll find yourself planning two or three turns ahead as you try to complete orders, sell high value nectar on the bear market and fulfil the queen’s contests.
Once the game ends, point counting is relatively easy and so far I’ve not yet had a one sided game. It has always come down to pretty close calls and I think that is a testament to the quality of the gameplay and the balancing of the regular game.
Why do I say regular game? Well, because Honey Buzz also comes with an advanced variant that adds a memory mechanic to the foraging of the nectar tiles (I am yet to try it but certainly sounds challenging) and, as previously mentioned, a solo mode (also haven’t tried it so can’t comment on it).
The only negatives I could maybe point out is the order decks, which don’t feel very varied and as well balanced as the rest of the game and maybe the downtime experienced by the other players when one player closes one or two cells in one play and then take 5, 6, 7 actions in a row (it’s particularly annoying against experienced players because they get the famous grin in their face that just screams “You’re all going down now!”).
Final Thoughts
Honey Buzz is a great game and I highly recommend it. It’s got great and captivating mechanics, beautiful artwork, and quality components, and it is highly replayable. It’s not perfect and it does have a couple of things that could be polished further but ultimately it’s a very complete package that caters for players of all skill levels and tastes. The Deluxe Edition is, in my opinion, worth it if you have the extra money to bank. But you won’t be missing out on anything if you get the regular version.
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Editors note: This post was originally published on 15th January 2024. Updated on 5th June 2024 to improve the information available.
