Honey Wars Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Introduction
  • Contents
• Setup
• Playing the Game
  • Step 1: Defend
    • Threat card anatomy
  • Step 2: Harvest
  • Step 3: Spend
    • Hive card anatomy
    • Attacking an Opponent's Hive
    • Building a Hive
    • Hiring a Beekeeper Buddy
  • Step 4: Draw
• Winning the Game
• Turn Summary

Introduction

Victory never tasted so sweet!

You and your fellow players control hives of honey bees. Defend your hives, harvest honey, and use cards to attack your opponents.

The first player to have 3 Hives and at least 12 Honey is the winner.

Contents

• 18 Hive cards
• 48 Threat cards
• 8 Beekeeper Buddy cards
• 1 Defense die
• 50 Honey cubes

Setup

1. Give each player 1 Small Hive card and 3 Honey cubes which they place directly in front of them, with the Small Hive card face up.
2. Shuffle the deck, then deal 4 cards face down to each player. This is their hand and they should not let other players see it.
3. Place the rest of the deck face down in the center of the play area, within reach of all players.
4. Place the remaining Honey cubes in the middle of the play area. This is the "Honey Pot."

The rulebook's illustration of a play area labels the Discard Pile, the Honey Pot, and the Deck in the center, with each player's Hives, Honey cubes and cards shown in front of them.

Playing the Game

The person who most recently ate honey takes the first turn, with play continuing clockwise. There are 4 steps to your turn, taken in this order:

DEFEND - HARVEST - SPEND - DRAW

Step 1: Defend

NOTE: If there are no Threats attacking your Hives, skip to the Harvest step.

Starting with the leftmost Hive and moving to the right, roll the Defense die once for each of your Hives that is being attacked by a Threat (see Attacking an Opponent's Hive, p. 8). Fully resolve each roll before moving on to the next Threat.

If the number you roll is equal to or higher than the Threat Level (shown in the upper red hexagon) on the Threat card attacking your Hive, discard that Threat card.

If you roll less than the Threat Level, you suffer the effect shown. Discard the Threat card, unless it has a Continuous Threat symbol on it. If it has this symbol, leave the card in place. You must attempt to Defend against this Threat again on your next turn, and must continue to do so each turn until you roll high enough to defeat it.

NOTE: If an effect calls for you to lose or give away more Honey than you have, you do not go into any sort of debt; just carry out the effect as far as possible.

Threat card anatomy

The rulebook labels the parts of a Threat card as follows, using the Varroa Mites card as the example:

• Title - the name of the Threat (Varroa Mites).
• Threat Level - the red hexagon at the upper left. Your Defense roll must equal or beat this number.
• Cost - the yellow hexagon below the Threat Level. This is the amount of Honey you turn in to the Honey Pot to play the card as an attack.
• Continuous Threat symbol - the circular-arrow symbol. A card with this symbol stays in place after a failed defense.
• Effect - the text box describing what happens to you if you roll less than the Threat Level (for Varroa Mites: "Do not Harvest your Honey Bonuses").
• Fun Fact - the small italic text at the bottom of the card. It has no rules effect.

Step 2: Harvest

During this step, you will gain 2 Honey plus any Honey Bonuses granted to you by your Hives.

Each time the deck is played through and the discard pile is shuffled, the base number of Honey gained will increase by 1 (i.e., 3 plus Honey Bonuses on the second time through the deck, then 4 plus Honey Bonuses on the third time through the deck, and so on).

Step 3: Spend

You can spend Honey to play any number of cards from your hand (Hive cards and Beekeeper Buddy cards have some restrictions, see p. 8-10). You can attack opponents' Hives, build a new Hive, and/or hire a Beekeeper Buddy. The cost to do so is shown in the lower yellow hexagon on each card.

Hive card anatomy

The rulebook labels the parts of a Hive card as follows, using the Small Hive card as the example:

• Type of Hive - the name of the Hive (Small Hive).
• Cost - the yellow hexagon. This is the amount of Honey needed to build the Hive.
• Honey Bonus - the amount of extra Honey you gain during each Harvest step while you control this Hive (Small Hive: +1).
• Fun Fact - the small italic text at the bottom of the card. It has no rules effect.

Attacking an Opponent's Hive

To attack an opponent's Hive with a Threat, turn in the indicated number of Honey to the Honey Pot and place the card face up in front of an opponent's Hive. When it is their turn, they must attempt to Defend against this Threat.

NOTE: Each Hive may only be attacked by 1 Threat at a time.

Building a Hive

To build a new Hive, turn in the indicated number of Honey to the Honey Pot and place the Hive card face up and to the right of any Hives that you already have.

NOTE: You may not build more than 1 Hive per turn, and you may not have more than 3 Hives.

Hiring a Beekeeper Buddy

To hire a Beekeeper Buddy, turn in the indicated number of Honey to the Honey Pot and place the Beekeeper Buddy card face up in front of you. You may utilize the Beekeeper Buddy's ability on any of your turns aside from the turn on which they are first hired. Once you have done so, discard the Beekeeper Buddy card.

There are 2 types of Beekeeper Buddy cards, indicated by the following symbols:

• Shield symbol - you must declare your intent to use the Beekeeper Buddy's ability prior to rolling to Defend any 1 of your Hives. (If you have multiple Hives that are being attacked, you can roll to Defend some Hives normally, and then later declare you want to use the Beekeeper Buddy's ability on a different Hive.)
• Honey dipper symbol - the Beekeeper Buddy's ability can only be used during the Harvest step.

NOTE: Each player may only have 1 Beekeeper Buddy in play (in any fashion) at any given time.

Step 4: Draw

At the beginning of this step, you may discard 1 card from your hand. Alternatively, you may turn in 3 Honey to the Honey Pot to discard your entire hand; doing so does not count as a Spend action. Then, (whether or not you just discarded cards) if you have fewer than 4 cards in your hand, draw back up to 4. If the deck runs out of cards, shuffle and reuse the discard pile.

Once you have completed the Draw step, it is the next player's turn.

Winning the Game

At any point in the game, as soon as one player has 3 Hives and at least 12 Honey, the game ends and that player is the winner.

Turn Summary

DEFEND Roll the Defense die once for each of your Hives that is being attacked.

HARVEST Gain Honey (starting at 2) plus Honey Bonuses from your Hives.

SPEND Attack your opponents' Hives, build a new Hive, and/or hire a Beekeeper Buddy.

DRAW Discard, then draw until you have 4 cards in your Hand.