Beez Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Aim of the Game
• Game Setup
• Gameplay
  • Phase 1: Flight plan
  • Phase 2: Flying and collecting nectar
  • Phase 3: Storing nectar and making honey
• Game End
  • Scoring example
• Alternative Setup
• Rules for Two Players
• Rules for Experts
• Credits

Contents

• 4 honeycombs
• 4 bees with beehives in the player colors
• 1 start tile
• 15 flower tiles (3 of each color)
• 4 player markers in the player colors
• 5 leaf tiles
• 45 small nectar (9 of each color)
• 18 objective cards (6 of each type of honey)
• 1 appendix "Card overview"
• 1 scoring pad
• 10 large nectar (2 of each color)

Aim of the Game

Use your bee to collect nectar from the flowers in the flower field. Keep a careful eye on your objective cards in order to collect the most nectar, which allows you to make the most honey drops. The player with the most honey at the end of the game wins.

A flower field in spring: when the flowers open, they exude a fragrance that magically attracts bees. The honeybees fly from flower to flower, collecting pollen and nectar while pollinating them. Bees are extremely important to our ecosystem, as over 75% of all crops rely on bee pollination.

Game Setup

1. Each player takes a honeycomb, a player marker and a bee with beehive in matching color. Put the player marker on space "0" of the counting track on the honeycomb.
2. Make the flower field as follows (for a game with 2 players, see the modification under Rules for Two Players):
   • Place the start tile in the middle of the table.
   • Place one leaf tile and one flower tile in each color in any order around the start tile.
   • Place all other flower tiles and two leaf tiles in any order around these to make the flower field as symmetrical as possible, making sure that there are no gaps and no flower tiles of the same color next to one another. Place the remaining leaf tiles back into the box.
   • Now populate the flower tiles with nectar. On every flower tile, place three small nectar on the three matching-colored spots. Then on every flower tile on the edge of the field, place a large nectar matching the color of the center of the depicted flower. The five flowers which border the start tile receive no large nectar.
3. Whoever last ate a honey sandwich becomes the starting player. The player sitting to the right of the start player places his bee first, onto a free outer space of the start tile, so that the black head of the bee is facing in the direction of the arrow. This is repeated in counterclockwise order until all players have placed their bees on the start tile.
4. Sort the objective cards by type of honey according to the color of the lids. Shuffle each pile separately and place them in three face down piles on the table. An overview of the objective cards may be found on the appendix "Card overview."
   • Draw the top card of each pile and place these three cards face up next to the flower field. These three cards are the common objectives that everyone may fulfill.
   • Then each player draws one card from each of the piles so that everyone has 3 cards in their hand. Take a good look at these cards and choose two cards to keep face down in front of you as your secret objectives. Discard the third card face down into the box.
   • Place the remaining three piles face down back into the box. They are no longer needed for this game.
5. Place the appendix "Card overview" and the scoring pad on the table ready to be used.

To make one 500 g jar of honey, a single bee would have to make 40,000 trips to and from the hive and collect 1.5 kg of nectar. In doing so, it would cover a distance corresponding to three orbits around the Earth.

Luckily for the bee, it isn't working alone, but spends its life in the company of tens of thousands of other bees working in the miniature community of the hive.

Gameplay

Each turn consists of the following three phases:

• Phase 1: Flight plan
• Phase 2: Flying and collecting nectar
• Phase 3: Storing nectar and making honey

The starting player begins. Turns are played in clockwise order.

Phase 1: Flight plan

In this phase, you plan your flight with the help of your bee and its beehive, determining in which direction your bee will fly and how far.

Note: every flower tile, every leaf tile, and the start tile show 7 hexagonal spaces, on which one bee may land.

The hive has 6 sides, 5 of which are facing the possible directions of flight for your bee in the flower field. They also show values representing the corresponding possible flight distances. The 6th side, towards which your bee is facing, shows the "not allowed" symbol. Your bee can never fly in this direction!

The hive's five flyable sides show, going around from the "not allowed" side: 1 space or 5 spaces in this direction; 2 or 4 spaces in this direction; 3 spaces in this direction; 2 or 4 spaces in this direction; 1 space or 5 spaces in this direction.

Planning:

1. Have a look at your hive, to see in which directions and how far your bee can fly in the flower field. Now decide on a direction. If there are two options (e.g., 2/4), choose one.
2. Then you must rotate your bee in the direction that it will fly in Phase 2. Not rotating the bee is not allowed.

Example: Martin's hive indicates which flight directions are possible for his bee. The red arrow marks the direction that's not allowed. He decides that it can fly 2 spaces towards the blue flower and turns his bee accordingly.

Phase 2: Flying and collecting nectar

In this phase, the bee flies off and collects nectar.

Rules for flying:

• Move your bee as many spaces as the hive allows you to move in this direction according to your flight you planned during Phase 1.
• Your flight must always end on a space on which there are no other bees.
• Your bee always flies in a straight line, never curved.
• Your bee may fly over other bees.
• Your bee must never leave the flower field, not even for example as a shortcut, between two tiles.
• If your planned flight would end on a space occupied by another bee or outside the flower field, you cannot carry out the flight. Return to phase 1 and plan another flight.
• In the rare event that your bee cannot make a legal flight, it may instead fly to an adjacent space regardless of your original planning by turning it in a new direction first.

Collecting nectar:

• If your bee lands on a space with a small nectar on its edge, you may immediately take it and place it in front of you.
• If your bee lands in the center of a flower containing a large nectar, you may take this together with one adjacent small nectar.
• If you land in the center of a flower whose large nectar has already been collected, you may take one of the adjacent small nectar, if there are any still available.
• Your flight is now over and go to phase 3.

The complex interplay of workers, queen and drones is perfectly organized. The workers perform many different tasks, from care of the brood to foraging. The only reproductive female in the bee colony is the queen and the male drones have only one task: to mate with the queen on her wedding flight.

Example: Martin moves 5 spaces in his flight, landing in the center of the pink flower. He takes the large white nectar together with a small pink nectar and places them in front of him.

If you are unable to reach a flower tile containing nectar, you will go empty-handed this flight. In this case, your flight is over and you skip Phase 3 entirely. It is the next player's turn.

Exception: Spaces with water drops. If the flight of your bee ends on a leaf tile, on a space with a water drop, it refreshes itself and may immediately plan and take another flight.

Hint: It's not always possible or reasonable to collect nectar on every flight. For tactical reasons, it can be an advantage to avoid collecting nectar on some flights, in order to allow the bee to be better positioned for a later flight, e.g., to collect certain colored nectar.

Phase 3: Storing nectar and making honey

Now it's time to store the collected nectar and to make honey! If you managed to collect nectar in Phase 2, you must now store it in your honeycomb. Each honeycomb has 19 chambers, arranged in 5 rows. The rows are numbered, indicating the possible flight distances.

The nectar must be stored in an empty chamber, in a row with a number corresponding to the flight distance just completed. During storage, large and small nectar are treated identically. Once placed, nectar cannot be moved.

For each nectar placed, move your player marker one space to the right on your honeycomb.

The number of chambers is limited! If you no longer have a suitable free chamber available, you won't be able to store your nectar in the honeycomb and will have to put it back on its original place on the flower. If you were able to collect 2 nectar but only have space to store one of them, choose which one to store and which to put back. In the event that you do not store the large nectar, put it back on the center of the flower and place your bee on top of it.

Example: Martin has flown 5 spaces to the center of the pink flower. Because of his flight over a distance of 5 spaces, he must put both nectar in a "4/5" row. He places the small pink-colored nectar in the upper row and the large pink nectar in the lower row of his honeycomb. Then he moves his player marker 2 spaces to the right on his counting track.

Game End

The game ends as soon as one player has stored 12 or more nectar in their honeycomb and has moved their player marker to the last space on the track of the hive. Continue playing until a complete round has been played, so that all players have had the same number of turns. Now the scoring begins, in which you will determine how many honey drops you will make with your nectar. Reveal your secret objectives. Starting with the start player, add up the honey drops you have made for the three common objectives and your own secret objectives.

Note: Each nectar may only be scored once per objective card. However, a nectar can be used to score more than once on different objective cards.

Note on the scoring pad how many honey drops you have managed to produce. Whoever has produced the most honey drops wins. In the event of a tie, the tied player who has collected more large nectar wins. If there is still a tie, the tied players share the victory.

Scoring example

Martin's honeycomb has both "4/5" rows filled, and the middle of the honeycomb is not completely filled.

• Martin has filled both 4/5 rows = 12 honey drops.
• Martin has not filled all chambers in the middle of the honeycomb = 0 honey drops.
• Martin receives 2 honey drops for each differently colored nectar in his honeycomb = 10 honey drops.
• Martin receives 3 honey drops for each of the 3 nectar of different colors, which are arranged in a straight horizontal and diagonal line = 6 honey drops.
• For the white and pink nectar that can be arranged as a bow in one color, Martin receives 4 honey drops per bow = 8 honey drops.

In total, Martin receives 36 honey drops (10 + 8 + 12 + 0 + 6 = 36).

Alternative Setup

Once you are familiar with the game, you may also build the flower field according to your own ideas, using all the leaf tiles. Start the setup in the same way as in the game for 3 and 4 players, using the start tile, one leaf tile and one flower tile of each color. Then arrange the flower and leaf tiles as evenly as possible around them, avoiding gaps and with each flower/leaf next to at least 2 other flowers/leaves (whenever possible).

Rules for Two Players

In the two-player game, the setup of the flower field is done as follows: Start the setup of the flower field in the same way as the game for 3 and 4 players, placing 5 flower tiles of different colors and one leaf tile around the start tile. Then, unlike the base game, use only 5 flower tiles of different colors and 1 leaf tile to complete the flower field. Divide these 6 tiles into two sets of three and place them on opposite sides of the flower field, making sure that flowers of the same color are not next to each other and that there are no gaps (see example).

All other rules are identical.

Rules for Experts

For an advanced game use the following rule changes:

1. Setup, step 4: Sort the objective cards into the three honey types. Find the card illustrated here in the pile of objective cards with a pink lid and place it next to the flower field as the first common objective card. Shuffle each pile separately and place them in three face down piles next to the flower field.

   To complete the common objective cards, draw the top card from each of the other two piles and place them face up next to the first objective card. Then continue with the setup from the game for 3 and 4 players and draw your secret objective cards.

2. Phase 3 — rules for storing nectar: As soon as you have placed the first nectar, all other nectar must be placed adjacent to previously stored ones. You still may not move the nectar once placed.

Example: Martin moves 5 spaces in his flight, landing in the center of the pink flower. He must store both the pink and white nectar in 2 chambers in the "4/5" row. Although 4 of the chambers are still free, he can only store one nectar. The lower three "4/5" chambers are not adjacent to the other nectar that he has already stored, so he cannot store anything there. He places the small pink nectar in the top row. He must put the large white nectar back on the flower, placing his bee on top of it.

All other rules are identical.

Credits

Designer: Dan Halstad Producer: Sophie Gravel Development: Martin Bouchard, Katja Volk, Moritz Thiele, Sarah-Ann Orymek, André Bierth Art Direction: Sophie Gravel Illustration: Chris Quilliams Graphic Design: Maryse Hébert-Lemire, Stéphane Vachon 3D Modeling: Tarek Saoudi Editing: Katja Volk

© 2020 Plan B Games Inc. All rights reserved. Retain these rules for your records as they contain important information. This product may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express permission of the publisher.

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