Honey Buzz

Place the double-sided hive board (matching player count) and woodland board (side A for standard game) in the center. Sort hive tiles by type into stacks on their corresponding spaces on the hive board. Place coin, pollen, and honey resources in a general supply. Sort Queen's Contest cards by color, randomly select one of each color (or use star-marked cards for a first game), and place them face-up on the hive board, adding prize tokens based on player count. Shuffle Small and Large Order cards separately, then deal a specified number of Large Orders face-down to each of the three market spaces, topped with a Small Order card face-up. Place matching colored honey and pollen pieces on the market track, adjusting starting positions for two-player games. Each player takes a player aid, a hive board, 10 worker bees (Beeple), a forage token, a fan token, and four starting hive tiles. Players place one Beeple on their hive board and collect starting coins based on turn order. The first player is chosen, and all remaining Beeple are placed in a shared supply.

Players aim to be the most successful accountant bee by expanding their personal hive, gathering nectar from the woodland, producing different types of honey, and selling it to the market. Fulfilling customer orders and completing Queen's Contests also contribute to victory points. The player with the highest total score at the end of the game wins.

On your turn, you choose one of two main actions: either 'Take a Tile' or 'Recall Workers'. To 'Take a Tile', you assign one or more workers from your player board to an empty hive box on the hive board (or more workers than the previous player if the box is occupied). You then take a hive tile from that box and add it to your personal hive, ensuring at least one yellow side touches another yellow side. If placing the tile creates any empty cells completely surrounded by other tiles, you immediately resolve all adjacent hive actions (Forage, Produce, Market, New Bee, Decree, Accounting) in any order. To 'Recall Workers', you take all your workers from the hive board and place them back on your player board, making them available for future turns. If you cannot take a tile due to insufficient workers, you must Recall Workers.

At the end of the game, players calculate their final scores. First, sum the value of all your collected coins. Add one point for each honey and pollen resource remaining in your personal hive. Add the victory points shown on each of your completed Order cards. Finally, score points from the final Queen's Contests. For each final contest, players compare their achievements (e.g., most orders, most nectar) and award points based on their rank (1st, 2nd, 3rd), with tied players receiving full points for their position and subsequent ranks being bumped down. The player with the highest total score wins. Ties are broken by the player with the most remaining honey and pollen, then by the most completed orders; if still tied, players share the victory.

The game ends immediately when one of two conditions is met: either four of the five resource types in the market have reached the bottom of their respective tracks, or two of the three Order card stacks on the woodland board have been completely depleted. Once either of these conditions is triggered, players continue taking turns until everyone has had an equal number of turns, ensuring the player holding the first player token has taken their last turn. After equal turns, final scoring commences.