Bee-Siege (2009)

The Bees aren’t happy! For some reason, there’s a poor pollen crop this year and Winter is fast approaching. Reluctantly, Queen Yellow-Tail signals her swarm, “Sneak over to the neighbour’s and seize some of their flowers”. But Queen Brown-Eyes has a few ideas of her own…

Bee-Siege is a two-player game of strategic positioning, lasting eight rounds (allow one hour to play). Players co-ordinate their small swarm of Bumblebees, Queens, Honeybees and Workers by selecting order tiles from a shared pool. The player with the most points at game’s end is the winner.

Note: No Bees will be harmed during the course of play!

The History of Bee-Seige, travelling backwards (all game names mentioned are my own - this has been a long, but highly interesting road!)...

Oct 2009 "Bee-Siege (Mini Game)" re-tooled from "Arctic Meltdown (Mini Game)", inspired by Dogwoof Picture's latest release, The Vanishing of the Bees.

Sep 2009 "Arctic Meltdown (Mini Game)" retooled from "Arctic Meltdown (2-4P version)" for Nestorgames contest.

2008 "Arctic Meltdown (2-4P version)" re-themed from "Iceworld" after viewing the documentary "A Crude Awakening" (the inevitability of Peak Oil).

2006 "Iceworld" re-tooled from "Flashpoint", a current-day war-sim, with Diplomacy-style orders placed behind screens.

Pre-2006 Chess/Diplomacy themes all the way back, pretty much (never been a fan of dice/playing cards), and various names including "Besiege", believe it or not! Scattered periods of design, with establishing a couple of businesses, marriage, having three kids and all the other distractions. :)

1980? Around the time the "designer's bug" kicked in, after playing a video game at the local arcade called Asteroids (about the time of Space Invaders, for you youngn's). First game used chipboard and lego pieces.

Probably 30 to 40 repeat playtesters throughout. Thanks to all for their patience!