A Solo Taste of Autumn with Honey Buzz: Fall Flavors

Sep 4, 2024 | Sessions | 0 comments

Expand a buzzing hive into the delightful market of selling delicious honey to adorable woodland animals with Honey Buzz.

After I tried out the base game of Honey Buzz, it only seemed fitting that the impending turn of the seasons would usher in a taste of Honey Buzz: Fall Flavors! With all sorts of modules and expansions available, I decided to use my multiplayer experiences to face it all at once… Talk about very busy bees! Onward with a visit to the friendly forest.

Game Overview

Game Name: Honey Buzz
Publication Year:
 2020
Designer:
 Paul Salomon
Artists:
 Anne Heidsieck and Jason D. Kingsley
Publisher: Elf Creek Games

Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game

The goal is to collect nectar to produce honey and make a successful hive. Orders can be fulfilled, yet there are a lot of moving pieces to keep in mind. Actions are formed by creating empty cells in the hive, allowing for a lot of neat choices and planning to become an economic queen bee!

A Very Thorough and Full Experience with Fall Flavors and All the Expansions for Honey Buzz
R

First Play

December 3, 2020

Complexity

3

Latest Play

September 1, 2024

Expansions

3

Setup Time

20 Minutes

Lifetime Plays

6

Play Time

30 Minutes

:

High Score

153

1

Game Area

34" x 22"

;

Low Score

8

Retirement Parties

I ended up mixing in all of the expansions and modules after playing a few times with my gaming group. That gave me a sense of vaguely knowing what I was doing!

One my favorite elements is the way workers can retire. This reduces the number of available bees later in the game, yet they can take advantage of powerful bonuses.

An extra action might be triggered, or a special toast card can be claimed for plenty of additional victory points.

Don’t forget the token bonuses, too! I added these to the bee spaces to make retirement even better. Celebrate!

Setting Up a Lovely Place for Worker Bees to Retire with Honey Buzz

Counting Down Time

Rather than using the original end game triggers, a sunset board provides a way to slowly track events that tick down the time until the end. Much better and complete!

I wasn’t sure if it made sense to stick with the random solo dice variant, and I would caution about using it with so many modules. It didn’t work out well for me.

Yet these components are absolutely beautiful! I got lost in the artwork and gorgeous dice many times.

Silly me couldn’t figure out some of the dice icons for the longest time, but I matched them up eventually.

A Lovely Setting Sun and Solo Dice to Expand Honey Buzz

Every Kind of Flavor

Even though I was comfortable with most of the rules, I wasn’t quite prepared for the sheer scale of the solo mode.

Solo contests went from juggling a total of 3 up to 7, and some of these came with hefty negative victory point penalties to balance the inclusion of the modules.

Maybe I was distracted, but the initial play setup time clocked in at around 40 minutes. Yeah… I blame myself for probably moving slowly, yet the insert did me no favors.

Whereas the base game has a couple of removable trays, I had to fish out and sort a lot of expansion components.

A Simply Beautiful Autumn Area and Lots of Solo Contests with Honey Buzz

Collecting New Fruit

How adorable! The fruit pieces were a joy to use, although I had to find a random spot to put them on the board to cut down on the amount of required table space.

The advanced variant is my preferred way to play, but the expansion doesn’t have a clear map to the original tiles. And I got confused about removing tiles in solo a lot.

This is one of the most beautiful games I’ve seen on my solo table, and it confused me more than I could handle.

Even if setup could be cut down to around 20-30 minutes, the solo play time was much too quick to justify that time.

Delightful Animal Artwork and Fruit Pieces to Add to the Experience in Honey Buzz

The Frustration of Getting Confused

I know that there might be the opinion that I simply didn’t understand the game and should keep trying until I figure out the strategies. This is a piece of advice I see sometimes when a new game doesn’t quite work out. Although a big part of me understands it, I’m also of the mind that life can be stressful enough. And I don’t need to master every game.

One part of this is sometimes the overlooked feeling… I don’t like being confused. Most of the time, I take the blame! Learning new games all the time can be difficult, and I want to have fun with everything that comes to my solo table. In reality, some concepts don’t fall into place and I end up almost feeling guilty for not liking a game due to confusion.

At the same time, I have dozens of other game choices I know by heart and can cozy up with. No judgments. Nothing but a relaxing time. I’m sure this means I miss out on some excellent game experiences, but this ties into board game emotions: Do I want to work through those negative emotions to get to a good place eventually? Or move on?

Board games are a hobby, and a very fun one at that! How I play isn’t going to be the best out there, yet if you’re struggling, know that you’re not alone in not enjoying those moments of confusion. Here’s to hoping we all can get away from those experiences and get to the core of playing… Finding the fun moments and having a great time!

Building Cell Actions

The neatest element of gameplay surrounds the actions themselves. Turns involve building out the hive, but taking actions is only triggered by making an empty cell.

In this way, I had a great time planning for some lucrative turns when I might chain together 5+ actions. Awesome!

Yet in the multiplayer game, I always feel like I have a grasp of the game state. Here, I had some amazing turns, but otherwise felt lost with the sheer number of choices.

The end didn’t sneak up on me, yet the negative victory points felt way too punishing and my score didn’t matter.

The Fun of Building a Hive and Custom Actions with the Tiles of Honey Buzz

Fantastic Artwork

I adore animals, and the artwork here is nothing short of absolutely stunning! I wanted to make friends with all of these animals after I completed their orders. Ha ha!

The original base game order cards can still be used, too, and can be mixed with these autumn-themed visitors for even more variety. So many animals… Nearly endless!

Plenty of enjoyable elements can be found here, but I was left feeling utterly unsatisfied and frustrated.

Maybe I’m just terrible at working out the strategies. At least I had a great time admiring the illustrations, though!

Completing All Sorts of Honey and Fruit Orders for the Forest Animals of Honey Buzz

Session Overview

Play Number: 5 & 6
Main Expansion: Honey Buzz: Fall Flavors
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Advanced Variant with All Modules
Outcome: 55, 8 (2 Losses)

Perhaps it was too much to try out all of the expansion content at once, although it worked out multiplayer. The second play was far too random, and I had no chance to do much of anything. I guess I was lucky to even end up with a positive score… Ha ha! Absolutely beautiful game, yet sadly, this is not one that works for me solo.

Too Few Opportunities to Build a Hive with Random Solo Actions in Honey Buzz

%

1 Play

Affordability

Price & Value

5

Functionality

Challenges & Mechanics

7

Originality

Design & Theme

7

Quality

Components & Rules

9

Reusability

Achievement & Enjoyment

7

Variability

Distinctness & Randomness

6

+ Pros (Positives)

  • All of the artwork is simply beautiful with adorable animals and bright colors that are welcoming and lovely.
  • The component quality is phenomenal and everything feels like it was upgraded to the best possible option.
  • Various modules offer different ways to play, and choosing just a couple can greatly improve the base game.
  • Creating custom actions by building empty cells is a very neat and thematic concept that works really well.
  • Planning how to chain together actions and completing multiple orders at once feels very exciting and fun.
  • Managing a market where honey and fruit prices slowly go down over time introduces some neat decisions.

– Cons (Negatives)

  • Setup is exceptionally lengthy with the expansion, which features an insert with mixed components or solid wells.
  • Figuring out how to use the advanced variant with the expansion and solo mode is overly confusing for too long.
  • There is way too much going on with all of the modules in play, even though there are no setup recommendations.
  • Using the solo dice variant seems to be far too random at times, reducing play time to feel way too short.

More Honey Buzz

Explore related posts about Honey Buzz!

Victory Conditions

Score 140+ Points

  • Overall Goal Progress 100% 100%

Goals and Milestones

R

End with all 10 bees in play.

R

Score at least 150 points.

R

Win at least 1 game at the easy difficulty level.

Continue the Conversation

What do you enjoy about Honey Buzz? Have you tried out the different modules present in Honey Buzz: Fall Flavors? I was excited to introduce this content after having a great time with the multiplayer game. Unfortunately, this is just not one that aligns with my tastes. Yet it looks amazing and I’m still glad I had a chance to check out the lovely artwork!

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