Apiary Review - Apparently You Catch More Bees With Spaceships

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In a far-distant future, humans no longer inhabit Earth. The cause of their disappearance (or perhaps their demise) is unknown, but their absence left a void ready to be filled by another sentient species.
Over the span of untold generations, one species of the humble honeybee evolved to fill that void. They grew in size and intelligence to become a highly advanced society. They call themselves Mellifera, and they have made substantial technological advances in addition to the technology they adapted from human ruins, up to and including space travel.
In Apiary, each player controls one of twenty unique factions. Your faction starts the game with a hive, a few resources, and worker bees. A worker-placement, hive-building challenge awaits you: explore planets, gather resources, develop technologies, and create carvings to demonstrate your faction's strengths (measured in victory points) over one year's Flow. However, the Dearth quickly approaches, and your workers can take only a few actions before they must hibernate! Can you thrive or merely survive?

TimeStamps:
0:00:00 - Overview
0:06:52 - Ease of Play
0:07:44 - What I Like
0:10:52 - What I Don’t Like
0:12:11 - What I Can See Others Not Liking
0:13:22 - Final Thoughts
0:14:50 - Recommendations

5.0 - My absolutely favorite games. You can pry them out of my cold dead hands.
4.5 - Love this game! At the same time missing something that would make it a 5. Could be hard to table, lacking variability, a little light, etc.
4.0 - Really great game, almost always keeping, although has meaningful complaints as to what takes away from the experience.
3.5 - Really enjoyed, don't love it, may lose out to better games but the idea of never playing again is a bit sad.
3.0 - A good game, would play and suggest with the right people, if I never played it again wouldn't lose any sleep.
2.5 - A game I'd play again , but will never suggest it myself
2.0 - A game I don't want to play again
1.5 - A game I can't find any reason to recommend
1.0 - A game that is just bad.

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[ZakuBoardgames]

Thanks for this review! We played Apiary on Essen and it was so good we bought it, despite of bumped price there.

[bryanwinston]

Thats pretty high praise sir, 4.5? Wow. Glad I pulled the trigger on this already.

[layoutss]

Just ordered this, this looks right up my ally :D

[nathansutterfield]

Thanks for highlighting the game and the through review- it helped me get a more full picture of the game and the experience. All the best.

[Chris-yllz]

Like the theme, like worker placement, looking forward to this one. Would like to see a non solo play through of this one.

[rawkyle]

I’d be interested to hear your opinion on other themes that would have worked, I’m just not sold on bees in space.

[kumanight]

I'm very excited for this! I love Space games and I like the wacky twist on the theme here

[HexStarDragon]

Thank you for taking the time to play Apiary and share your thoughts and experiences with the community! Really appreciate it!

[boardgame_buzzz]

1000% agree with everything you said Alex!

[JJ_TheGreat]

6:43 Sounds like Dwellings of Eldervale! 😉

[Darthcarp]

Great video. Would you recommend solo?

[MichaelSillion]

Great review. I love Feast for Odin as well and I'm really looking forward to Apiary! 🚀🐝

[ScytheNoire]

Hot Take: Jamie Steigmaier is a better game developer and publisher than designer.
I think Apiary may end up being very popular, it does a lot of things right.

[Flipide]

I guess I'll have to try it, the theme does absolutely nothing for me.

[luis]

I would say Hybris is a good alternative

[sidneyleejohnson]

Once you get past your what are bees doing in space you can embrace this game. Focus on hyper-intelligent bees that grew in size (not necessarily in that order) and you can get your mind wrapped around it. Thankfully they are bees as most of us have grown to respect a good bee. Had it been about any other insect we might have wanted to destroy them all... but I digress as I think that is another science fiction story/plot altogether...

[ArmchairAdmiral-]

I've been looking at a few reviews of this b4 I buy it cause it's SM and I don't want to get caught by the hype on one of their misbegotten children, but you have put my fears to rest.

[TheTabletopFoundry]

Just ordered it off the Stonemaier website! Pretty excited for this one!

[jorgedawsonwetto]

its cool.. looks good.. but.. no battle at all? no soldiers bees??? seems like something missing!!

[samiamagaimagain]

What a dud! Random resource gathering, clearly unbalanced tiles some of which I imagine no one ever takes. Sounds a lot like Wingspan. Prefer less luck, and more brain…