How to Win at Hive
- 1). Lead with the spider or beetle. Neither has the mobility to move large distances at once, so you may as well start them in the thick of things.
- 2). Play your queen bee towards the edge of the mess; you don't want it to get surrounded early.
- 3). Slide your queen bee backwards a hex whenever it starts to get surrounded. Doing this early on will prevent you from getting into a bad situation.
- 4). Get at least one of each piece onto the board by the mid-game, to give yourself some options.
- 5). Save at least one ant and one beetle for the late game. Don't add those last two to the board until you need them.
- 6). Move your ants to the end of any line of multiple opposing pieces in a straight row. This will immobilize all of the pieces in a line.
- 7). Jump your beetle atop the opposing queen bee to prevent it from moving, then bring your other pieces to surround it.
- 8). Attack any newly arrived enemy ant, otherwise it will soon attack you.
- 9). Position your fourth surrounding piece such that the two remaining unoccupied hexes around the queen are not next to each other, when surrounding the queen bee. This prevents your opponent from escaping.
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