Honey Buzz Review

Honey Buzz is a game for 2-4 players ages 10 and up, although there is a solitaire variant in the instructions if you feel like going solo. Full disclosure, this game’s kind of complicated, so we are just going to go over the absolute basics!

The goal is to earn as many points as possible before the game ends. The main way to earn points is by making honey and either selling it on the market for coins, or fulfilling and collecting order cards. On each turn, you can take a tile by assigning worker beeples to a hive box, then play the tile on your hive, and perform any of the 5 hive actions, OR recall your workers from the hive boxes and advance your scout token 1 space along the foraging path. You will need to carefully balance these two basic turn types, since you need to create empty hive spaces with hive tiles to make honey, but you ALSO need the correct corresponding nectar from foraging to actually make the honey. An empty slot alone does you no good. However, expanding your hive does allow you to create new bees, forage, and earn coins. You can use your coins to fly your scout further and secure the correct nectar, or save your coins and hope for a lucky break. There are Queen’s Contests that are randomly chosen at the top of the game, which award coins based on who completes a certain task first, so your strategy might adjust slightly at the start of each game. There is a level of detail we are glossing over, but broadly, its a resource management game, where you must produce honey and either sell it on the market or fulfill honey orders for the woodland animals. Sell the most honey and fulfill the most orders to increase your chances to win it all!

While Honey Buzz is complex, (the word “orthogonally” appears in the instructions for crying out loud) once you read through everything, it clicks really fast. And for anything that doesn’t, you can reference helpful player aid cards for reminders on what you can do on a turn. It’s complex, but fun! The fun factor is aided tremendously by the fact that this game is simply gorgeous. Gaze upon the vibrant, wholesome illustrations and relish in the delightful visual design of the pieces. The honey pieces in particular look delicious but don’t eat them! Don’t. Seriously, the lovely artwork and friendly animals will pull you into the world and give you a heartwarming feeling.