Board Game Designers Forum

This long time lurker has been inspired by your games and I want to try making one. It's a 2-player hex-based game called "Hive Mind." The setup is this: The queen has been killed and the hive is in chaos. Two virgin queens have been hatched but only one will endure. Gather your resources, raise loyal followers, and force the other queen out to rule the hive!

This is my first attempt at a game and it is rough at the moment. (I have uploaded images but can't figure out how to link them into this journal.) Anyway, here are the rules I'm working with right now. I am quite certain that they are flawed but I'm trying to find a balance of strategy and playability.

OBJECTIVE
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Hatch some loyal guard bees and then kill the opposing queen or force her to exit the hive.

BOARD LAYOUT
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There are six groups of seven hex tiles laid out in a larger hex pattern (like a donut). There are six special hexes, one at the center of each group:

Grey - Hive exit. If either queen lands on the grey hex, she leaves the hive and forfeits the game.
Blue - The nectar resource hex
Green - The pollen resource hex
Gold - The honey resource hex
Black - Black Queen chamber
White - White Queen Chamber

MOVEMENT
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The queen must move or perform an action (command another bee, gather a resource, deposit a resource, or pick up another bee) on her turn. If the gray tile is the only move left, the queen must move onto it. The sole exception is the queen chamber. If a queen is on her chamber, she does not have to move or take an action.

A queen can move one hex in any direction as long as the hex is free.

If a queen is adjacent to a worker bee, she may command that bee to move onto any empty tile adjacent to that bee.

A queen may also move onto a worker bee and place it on top of her stinger. This gives the queen a movement range of two. For every additional bee, the queen gains one additional hex to her movement range.

If a queen has loyal guard bees, each gets a turn as well during the round. The queen may choose to move first or wait until after her guard bees move. Loyal guard bees do not have to move every round.

RESOURCES
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If the queen lands on a resource tile and has room on her stinger, she may immediately place the corresponding resource bead on top of her stack.

One pollen (green bead) and one nectar (blue bead) are needed to lay an egg.

One honey (gold bead) is needed to hatch an egg.

The queen may not remain on a resource tile for two turns in a row. She must move off of the tile on her next turn.

HATCHING FOLLOWERS
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An egg is laid as soon as a green and blue bead are placed onto an adjacent free white tile.

An egg is hatched as soon as the queen deposits a honey bead onto the egg. A guard bee immediately replaces the egg and honey bead.

STACK MANAGEMENT
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Queen may place resource beads and worker bees onto her stinger in any order. This is known as her stack.

A Queen may have a maximum of 3 bees on her stack.

If a Queen has a blue and green bead atop her stack, she may immediately place both onto an adjacent free white tile and replace them with an egg.

If a Queen has a worker bee on top of her stack, she may not place the nectar and pollen beads until she removes the worker bee from the top.

If a queen has a worker bee between her green and blue beads, she must take an additional turn to remove the intervening bee. The already placed bead is fair game for the opposing queen.

For example: the Queen has her stack in the following order:

STINGER TOP
bee
green bead
bee
blue bead
QUEEN

The order is as follows:
Turn one: remove top bee.
Turn two: place green bead.
Turn three: remove bottom bee
Turn four: place blue bead and replace both beads with an egg.

If a queen has more than one bead of the same color adjacent in her stack, she may only place one color at a time but may start multiple hatchings at once. The next turn, she may lay as many eggs as she has complimentary beads.

For example: the Queen has her stack in the following order:

STINGER TOP
green bead
green bead
blue bead
QUEEN

The order is as follows:
Turn one: remove green beads and place each one on an empty adjacent white tile. (If there is only one empty adjacent white tile, the queen may only place one green bead.)

Turn two: place blue bead onto either green bead and replace both beads with an egg. the other green bead remains on the board and is fair game for either queen who lands on it.

ATTACKING
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Loyal guard bees may attack opposing guard bees or worker bees. A loyal guard bee attacks by moving onto the tile with a worker bee or guard bee. When this occurs, both bees are removed from the game because a guard bee gives up his life when he stings.

A queen can only be attacked by another queen.
A queen may only attack another queen and may not attack loyal guard bees or worker bees.
The queen attacks by moving on top of the other queen's tile.
The queen may only attack the opposing queen if she has a loyal guard bee adjacent to the opposing queen.
The queen may only attack if she has more loyal guard bees adjacent to the opposing queen than the opposing queen has loyal bees adjacent to her. For example, if the opposing queen is next to two guard bees, the attacking queen must move three guard bees in and then attack.

If the opposing queen has three guard bees, she is safe from attack because the opposing side would need four guards to attack and there are only three guard bees per side. However, the queen must move or perform an action once per round, and three guard bees limits her movement ability.

WINNING THE GAME
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A queen is victorious if she:
1) attacks the other queen
2) forces the other queen onto the gray exit tile
3) traps the other queen so that the other queen may not move or perform an action during her turn.

A queen forfeits the game if she fails to move or act during a round or moves onto the gray tile.