An introduction to the Hive map
Hive is a pretty straightforward map. Every territory, conveniently named A1 - S20, resembles a cell in a beehive. In addition, there are several Honey Storage Cells which connect large pieces of the map.
Classification
Size: Large – 350(!) regions.
Complexity: Low. Though the map is very chaotic, basic strategy applies.
Maximum amount of players: 12.
Features
- Starting neutrals
- Maximum number of troops for the amount of territories held, being +12 for 36.
Borders
- In addition to their normal borders, Honey Storage Cells all border eachother.
Bonuses
- Cluster of 3 cells (+1)
- Cluster of 6 cells (+3)
- Cluster of 9 cells (+5)
- Cluster of 12 cells (+7)
- Cluster of 15 cells (+10)
Basic strategy
While strategy differs a lot between trench and no trench, the small clusters of 3 cells are always relatively easy to take and hold, and supply a nice +1 to your bonus. Keep in mind that with 8 players, every player starts with over 36 territories but it's fairly easy to get specific people under 36 territories. Sometimes, it'll be possible to defend clusters of 6 cells, however this is not something you should look for in the early stages of the game.
Settings
Fog of War
Fog of war is mostly a matter of preference, Though all bonuses of the same size aren't "recognizable", it is very easy to read the map from snapshots. If you're playing with trench, I would recommend fog instead.
1 v 1
Every player starts with a gigantic amount of territories, exceeding the 36 required for max territories by a huge amount. You should focus on small bonuses and bonuses which contain no neutrals. As always with 1v1 games, try to evade attacking neutrals as much as possible. It is mostly about troop placement in 1v1s, so the question to ask yourself are always "What do I gain by doing X" versus "What does my opponent lose if I do X". For example, if you have to break through a neutral 3 in order to break a 3 cell cluster, you lose on average ~3 troops to break through the neutrals in order to reduce a +1 bonus of your opponent, which can fight it if you're unable to conquer the whole bonus.
In short, identify the key points of the map and fight over them.
Doubles, triples, quadruples
Doubles goes very well with fog trench. All players still start with a huge amount of territories, but because of trench other bonuses also become important. For example, a cluster of 6 cells has 2 entry points. Those territories can be attacked from 3, sometimes 4, other cells. It is very easy to lock your opponent out of a cluster and secure a steady +3 per turn. However depending on the drop, larger clusters are also available starting turn 3. I wouldn't recommend playing this with unlimited, as it gives a very big advantage to the player to start. 'No forts' is also something I wouldn't recommend, whereas chained, adjacent and even parachute work well.
Triples is also available with trench, but changes the dynamics a small bit. While in doubles it is often doable to conquer a few territories of your teammate to secure a bonus, this simply takes more turns in triples and might cause you to lose too much tempo. Because of this, I feel like going for the smaller bonuses is the way to go.
NB: Never played the settings, but this is what I think would happen. Please give feedback on this section if you're an experienced player,
Quadruples is, just like doubles, a common setting in Hive games and the one most often used in clanwar-fashion. Every player starts with a measly 43 territories, meaning it is easy to reduce one's territory bonus before his turn even started. Because of this additional way of 'breaking' bonuses, the common strategy is to target a single player from the opposing team and reduce his territory count till it hits 11, while trying to keep the territories of your own teammembers fairly even. Base your target selection mostly on number of territories which are difficult to reach, i.e. behind enemy lines, and the amount of territories in the 3-cell clusters. In addition to this primary objective, it is possible to take some small clusters. As mentioned before, which clusters to take depend mostly on where the enemy team is located. Killing 6 red troops while your target is green, is in most cases not recommended. After your primary target is below 11 regions, your team should decide on a secondary target. In most cases it is quite clear who their secondary target is likely to be, so your choice of target should also depend on that. E.g. if they target yellow and yellow borders a lot of pink territories, this would allow you to drop mainly on yellow with your other players while still focusing a target, thus having an easier time balancing your regions.
A common misconception for first-timers is to hunt a target until elimination. This is not recommended, as it simply takes too much time. While you finish off your target, the opposing team will be ahead in the race for secondary targets.
For unlimited fortifications, the strategy is a tad different since you can fort around 70 units in the first turn. I asked Hive specialist josko.ri, since I haven't played unlimited nearly enough and forgot a bit about the strategies used. At the bottom of this guide, I will post his unedited reaction, but I've taken some time to rephrase his answer.
The focus in unlimited fortification shifts to using attackers advantage as much as possible, and attacking the player who is playing after you. The reason you do this, is because it's easy to take more regions a few rounds after if you were able to get a numbers advantage through attackers dice. To do this, create as many stacks of 4 as possible and tap everything around you. 'Tapping' means you attack a territory without meaning to conquer it. Conquering the territory would force you to advance at least 1 troop, which causes you to lose attackers advantage. Quite simply: by conquering less territories you are able to destroy more units. Sometimes you will want to conquer a few territories in order to set up fortification lines. This is often more important than tapping, as you gain more from it than you potentially deny your opponent.
In the fortification phase, aim to fort as many troops to the next player or the player after, if the next player is not adjacent to you. This allows them to do precisely what you did - tap around. Later on, if you have fresh stacks ready by either forting or dropping, you can decide to let the targeted player conquer regions to balance territories rather than just letting a player of choice take it. This also means you target a player, even 2 in this case (contrary to chained). The reason you target 2 players is because if you only target one, soon or later his territories will be hard to reach or in places you don't really want to go, for example when only a single player has access to these territories and it's hard balancing your regions already. You should always leave behind defensive stacks of 2 in regions which you want to keep, but don't commit too many resources to it. Last but not least, in unlimited bonuses, even small ones, are secondary to targeting specific players and letting your targeted players survive.
While using attackers advantage and tapping plays a huge role in both unlimited quads and chained quads, in chained it's less important to tap every player since armies aren't as mobile as in unlimited hence you should aim to tap your primary target and sometimes around their target in order to regain territories.
No Spoils
Due to the big amount of territories and the way Hive tries to reduce the luck-factor, no spoils is almost always the way to go.
Flat Rate
When playing flat rate, it is important to keep your whole team alive if you're playing teamgames. This is pretty much only a thing for quadruples. I heavily dislike this setting, but might throw your opponent off guard.
Escalating
Escalating FFA games play like normal FFA games, except you have to remember that honey storage cells connect all eachother. It'll take a long time before you're able to sweep, but being bonusmonkey is still frowned upon. If either of those terms are uncommon to you, I'd like to refer to this escalating guide written by Scorba.
Nuclear, Zombie Spoils
The map is too big for these spoils to matter, so the No Spoils strategy applies.
Reinforcements
Covered mostly above.
- Chained: The usual setting. Provides a tough decision on what fort out of 1000 you should choose.
- Adjacent: Can replace chained, as it often does not change much.
- Unlimited: While it plays very differently compared to chained, this setting is the preferred for quite a few quad teams/players. You should focus on keeping your troops agile, meaning you should try to fort as many troops to the player next to you. By doing this, you can utilize the attackers advantage in a much better way than playing chained would. Keep stacks of 2 at key points or territories you want to keep, like chokepoints. The way of playing should be similar to the movement of waves. The whole wave (troops) should slowly progress from player 1 to player 2 to player 3 to player 4 to player 1 etc.
- Parachute: Possible, but not very interesting. Due to the amount of forts, safe forts and good forts parachute doesn't change much.
- None: I hate it. It causes you to have a harder time in taking bonuses, and especially for 2v2/3v3 this hurts to way this map is suppoed to be played.
Trench
Identify which bonuses you can easily take and which your opponent can easily take. It should almost always be possible to end your turn with a bonus of +3 after the first turn, but sometimes you will concede another bonus. Don't be afraid to take bonuses your teammate has regions is, he will be able to fort it over time while you can hold the 'walls' due to the way trench works. With chained, adjacent or no fortification settings, it is often desirable to suicide troops in order to help your teammate gain the bonus. This is most often applicable in dubs, where your team owns a lot of bonuses but the majority of those bonuses aren't yet owned by a single player. Trench is very fun to play, and is recommended for dubs and quads.
Trench quads adds another incentive: territory count. Not only do you have to manage what the opposing team is able to do in the following turns versus what your own team is capable of doing, you also have to keep an eye on territory counts. Focusing somebody down purely on territory count will however not win you games, since bonuses are defended very easily once held.
