Beez Board Game Review

I typically spend far too long thinking about buying a new board game. Watching videos. Reading rulebooks. Browsing reviews. Beez is a different story. I spent less than 5 minutes reading the box when I decided to buy it. It was a total spontaneous splurge. And then it sat on the shelf of shame for a year. Oy.

We finally pulled out Beez a few weeks ago. Let’s take a look at what makes this board game by Dan Halstad interesting!

What’s Beez all about?

You’ll play as a bee flying around the beautiful flowers in a garden. Your job is to collect nectar from these flowers and take it back to your hive where you’ll turn it into honey. The player with the most honey drops at the end of the game, wins!

Gameplay!

Each turn in a game of Beez has 3 phases.

Phase 1: Flight plan. Your bee pawn that’s used to fly around the garden sits on top of a hexagon beehive base. Each side of the base has a movement number on it (move 1 or 5 spaces, move 3 spaces, etc.). The object of the flight plan is to pick which way you want your bee to fly, and then see if you can fly that way based on the movement on the corresponding hexagon side.

Phase 2: Fly and collect your nectar. Execute your flight plan. If your bee lands on a spot with nectar, collect it.

Phase 3: Store your nectar. Place the nectar you collected in phase 2 in your hive on a corresponding movement space. If you used a movement of 3 to collect nectar, you place it on a space in your hive with a 3.

Gameplay summary: Pick how you want to move. Complete the movement. Collect nectar if you can and then place it in your hive!

Objective Cards

The objective cards are what makes Beez interesting. There are 3 types of cards; each representing a different type of honey. One of each type of honey objective will be turned face up for everyone to use. Each player will also be dealt 3 objective cards which they will pick 2 to keep and 1 to discard. These are kept secret from other players.

Purple objective cards will challenge you to collect nectar of specific colors from around the flower garden. Orange objective cards require you to arrange your nectar in various patterns in the hive. Lastly, blue objective cards will have you arranging your nectar in different configurations of specific colors (For example: 3 pink nectar in a straight line).

The completion of an objective cards awards you a specified number of honey drops. As I mentioned above, honey drops are how you win the game!

What do we think of the board game Beez?

Beez is a great board game to share with the family. The rules are straightforward and they only take a couple minutes to teach. The objective cards are clear, but provide fun challenges. We also love that this is a pretty short game, which makes it easy to pull out after dinner when everyone is already a bit tired after a long day.

Pros:

• There is an appendix which explains each of the objective cards. If you have any questions about their meanings, it’s easy to look them up.
• The game is simple enough, which means it’s a great option to play with younger kids. Simple rules also makes it easy to teach.
• The objective cards provide variability in the gameplay. Because every game is slightly different, you’ll be less likely to tire of the game.
• The components are great. I love the hive boards in particular. They are double-layered so both the big and small nectar pieces fit perfectly on them!
• The insert for Beez is fantastic. There are imprints in each of the compartments that tell you where everything goes. There’s nothing more annoying than a big elaborate insert that leaves you puzzled how to use it.

Cons:

• Beez is a bit fiddly to setup. You have to lay out each flower in a particular way, and then you have to populate the petals with the corresponding nectar pieces.