Apiary Review

There are few games as unique as Apiary – who else but Stonemaier Games would publish a game about space bees! I love worker placement games, and Stonemaier does them just about as good as anyone else. Viticulture is one of my favorite games of all time!

I had really high hopes for Apiary when I saw Jamey Stagemier showing off some of the components and systems in some of his videos, and honestly, the game did not disappoint. I love the various game mechanics, and there is just enough going on to make it well balanced, but not too complicated!

If you want to read our components review and game unboxing article, you can check it out here!

In Apiary, players will be using their bee ‘dice’ to take actions around the board. Each bee has 4 numbers printed on it’s 4 sides, from 1 to 4. The number on the bee represents a value, and in many instances that value represents how you take specific actions (i.e. the higher the value, the more you can do for that action).

This isn’t how to play, but for example, when exploring space and looking for new planets, players get to move the traveling bee the number of spaces indicated by the bee they place, plus the value of the bee placed by the previous person! The value of your bee matters!

Once you really begin to understand the concept of the numbered bees, you quickly realize how much strategy there is in this game. Where you use each bee and when is SO important, and too many mistakes throughout the game can make winning pretty hard.

See, when you collect your workers from the board – generally when you don’t have any more to play – or when another player bumps your bee and takes your spot, you can, if you choose, increase the value of that bee by 1. So a 2 bee becomes a 3 bee, and a 3 bee becomes a 4 bee. A 4 bee, when bumped or taken back, is returned to the general supply and players will need to take an action to put it back in their hive at value 1 for future use.

I have learned that this concept isn’t technically brand new, but it’s the first time that I’ve played with this mechanic, and I absolutely love it! Trying to decide which spot to place your bees is pretty hard, and there are spots on the board where you get bonuses if you place a level 4 bee there! That means you might be trying to get your bees increased quickly so that you can get those 4-bee spots. Geez, there is so much strategy in this game I cannot even explain it all!

Building out your hive is also really satisfying. Your player board will have a number of empty cells that you can fill with buildings (farms, production, etc) and these buildings can be triggered to get you more resources, store resources, and so much more.

You’ll want to place tiles to maximize your points, and when things get full, you can buy additional cells to add to your hive! There are also seed cards that can be planted below your board, and these will give you end game scoring opportunities as well. What I didn’t like about these cards, however, is that they are meant to be slid under the player board, which, when covered in cardboard tiles, isn’t as easy as it should be. A better mechanic here would be a welcome change, because this really just doesn’t work.

Overall, though, Apiary is one of my favorite games of 2023. It was high on my list before it came out, and is still high on my list after half a dozen plays! This is one that stays in the collection, mostly because I keep all my Stonemaier Games, but also because it’s one I see coming out on the table at least once or twice a year (which, if you’ve seen my collection, is a pretty good compliment). If you love worker placement games and you want something that feels just a bit different, I think Apiary is going to give you that!

This is one of the best strategy, worker-placement games of 2023!

Trailer