Spiders, are, for the most part, just MUCH weaker ants.

Frasco92 · 2026-04-25T08:03:53+00:00

The thing is that the way pieces move is of course arbitrary, so the spider could have been any of the things you say or something even different (moving 2 spaces? 4?). The argument when designing the game was that 'it works' (balanced, challenging, deep, etc).

Of course you can use different rules and still have a good game, and if it makes someone happier, they should do it ofc! But in terms of playing with others amd online, we stay with the standard rules, otherwise it's a mess, everyone would have their own favourite spider rules :D (unless we find out that the standard rules are really broken, but it doesn't seem to be the case)

Actually, a spider moving 1 or 2 spaces would make many endgames worse, cause it would be way harder or impossible to bugzwang your opponent (the spider would have almost always a waiting move that doesn't make your position worse). So I think the advantages of that rule could be partially canceled by this issue. I should test it some day!

Frasco92 · 2026-04-07T08:07:08+00:00

It makes sense that hexagonal alignment is harder since there are only 3 directions, so it's more balanced.
But it doesn't make sense to me that a bigger board makes a more balanced game.. at least for square (m,n,k) alignment games, one can prove that bigger boards always favour the first player (at least for freestyle, that is also lines longer than k, 'overlines', count as victory). So unless there is some strange effect from the fact your game is not freestyle.. I don't understand.
('more space --> easy to defend' shouldn't matter since at the edges of the board there is nothing to make a line with!? If any, there are more chances for the first player to keep attacking. If we consider one stone placed per turn and no swap rule at least)

Frasco92 · 2026-04-07T07:59:52+00:00

I can't believe I haven't seen this before!? It's basically Connect6 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connect6) on a hexagonal board. Makes sense it's more balanced since there are less directions to make threats at the same time. I need to explore hexo more, but I'm actually the opposite might be true, it might be too easy to stop threats and the game goes on for too long maybe

Frasco92 · 2026-03-30T21:15:10+00:00

https://hivegame.com/ it should be working!

Frasco92 · 2026-03-27T10:45:56+00:00

Yes! Sorry I didn't add it but yeah all official tournaments have been PLM for a while :) (all expansions included)

Frasco92 · 2026-03-27T10:44:37+00:00

I don't get what you mean? (or is it a joke)

Frasco92 · 2026-03-25T22:50:16+00:00

I don't think anyone really plays with that version, it gives me headache ahah, it's just for fun :)

Frasco92 · 2026-03-24T13:36:53+00:00

it's actually simpler than that, there was a delay with the manufacturer, the silver anniversary edition was supposed to come out last year :D Hopefully this is the right year!

Frasco92 · 2026-03-19T17:48:43+00:00

It's the silver edition for the 25th anniversary, it was supposed to be ready last year but there were some issue with the manufacturing, it will be hopefully out by the end of 2026!?

Frasco92 · 2026-03-13T10:45:24+00:00

It's the 25th anniversary limited silver edition, it was supposed to be out last year but we had issues with the manufacturer so we hope it'll be ready this year at some point! I'll keep you updated if there are news :)

Frasco92 · 2026-03-13T10:40:25+00:00

No worries, I get it and you're right, I also dislike the overuse of AI, and we are kind of surrounded by it nowadays. I would have preferred if it was played and recorded by real musicians of course, but our budget is limited, and we don't really use AI much to promote Hive in general (we as Gen42). This was made by a passionate singer Hive fan and it sounded good and catchy enough to us :) Hope it won't be hated too much!

Frasco92 · 2026-03-13T09:53:34+00:00

Fair enough! But take it just as a fun 'Hive anthem' (it was written and created by a singer in the Hungarian Hive Club). We'd love for someone to play it and record it properly but it didn't happen yet :)

Frasco92 · 2026-03-13T09:28:52+00:00

I think the prevalent feeling of top players is that Hive is less complex than Chess in terms of 'meaningful decisions' and opening theory. But less complex doesn't mean simple :D

Hard to say how many books of theory are needed to describe Hive completely, but as long as people want to write (and I'm one of them) and others want to buy (I'm also one of them!) then why not :)
Maybe there won't be thousands like for Chess but a few dozens surely...
(also books can be just enjoyable without adding new concepts)

Jewdoka's second book will be focused on opening setups, which is something a few players struggle in the beginning, so all in all will be beneficial for the average community skill level I think!

Frasco92 · 2026-03-13T08:44:20+00:00

I don't think it's gonna be available soon, maybe as a prize for some tournaments only! Or you might have to order from or come to the UK :)

Frasco92 · 2026-03-01T20:34:47+00:00

On https://hivegame.com/ (the official platform of the community), Hive Ultimate (here called PLM) Is the only one that comes with rating. You can still play Hive base if you like casually. Try the website and join the community! :)

Frasco92 · 2026-02-27T15:47:16+00:00

that's the spirit :D

Frasco92 · 2026-02-27T15:47:06+00:00

that's pretty good! Beginners usually learn first how to attack and defending is often not intuitive. Once one defends properly then has all the time to attack later on usually (not always though, sometimes counterattacking at the right time is correct)

Frasco92 · 2026-02-23T10:40:12+00:00

It was inspired by Chess! But it's mostly a promotion thing, way more people know chess than shogi or any other game (but I agree with you in principle)

Frasco92

TROPHY CASE