Hive FAQ 
FAQ
FAQ for Hive
List of game FAQs
A: Yes. They have no known bugs about the rules.
Update: one obscure bug about Spider movement was noticed at boardspace.net: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/475205. Simply put, if during a move the Spider occupies a space between two other pieces that partially enclose an interior space in the hive, it can continue to move as if crawling around either of the two pieces and thus reach different places in the interior space. Boardspace.net's implementation requires the player to move as if they were never in contact with the other piece, which restricts some moves that should be valid.
Q: Do I have to surround the enemy queen with my pieces to win?
A: No, the color of the 6 pieces that surround the queen are irrelevant. Typically it will be surrounded by some black and some white pieces.
Q: Are ties and draws possible?
A: Yes, if a single move causes both queens to be surrounded simultaneously, or by mutual consent if it is clear that the game will never end due to each players' best move creating cyclical repetition.
Q: Can I make a move that surrounds both queens at the same time?
A: Yes. This causes a draw, and is not an unusual result.
Q: What's the new tournament variant rule to reduce ties?
A: The variant rule is: You cannot place your queen as your first move. This was found to significantly reduce ties in tournaments at http://boardspace.net. Bee/Spider/Ant is a powerful first-player opening; the best answer by the second player was generally to mirror it, which placed the Bees adjacent to each other, likely causing a draw by surrounding each bee on all sides except one shared space.
Q: What if I can move no placed piece nor bring in a new piece?
A: Then your turn is skipped and your opponent in effect gets 2 turns in a row. It is unusual but possible for this to occur. Some players consider this a stalemate, as in chess (when, on a player's turn, their king is not in check but no move can be made that will not put their king in check), but John Yianni's personal ruling, and the behavior of the AI at HiveMania, is a skipped turn.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/795651#795651
Q: Is it possible to place a new piece next to my beetle which is on top of an enemy piece?
A: Yes. The color of a hex is considered to be the color of its top piece.
Q: Is it possible to place a new beetle piece on top of one of my pieces that touches no enemy pieces?
A: No, all new pieces must be placed on the table.
Q: Can beetles climb onto another beetle that is on another piece?
A: Yes. You could even have a stack of 5 pieces (4 beetles stacked on top of some base piece.) With the Mosquito expansion set, you can have a stack of 7 pieces (4 beetles and 2 mosquitoes all stacked on top of some base piece).
Q: Are beetles affected by the Freedom To Move rule?
A: Yes. If a beetle is not climbing up onto or down off of a piece, it moves exactly like a Queen Bee. A beetle cannot move into a space it cannot physically slide into.
The Freedom To Move rule also affects beetles when they're climbing up and down. A beetle attempting to climb up or down the hive can still be blocked by other beetles stacked on top of the hive. The rule is, if the two stacks of pieces that might block the movement are both taller than both the space the beetle is moving from and the space the beetle is moving to, then the beetle is blocked.
Here's a diagram to make it clearer.
>-<
>-< A >-<
< C >-< D >
>-< B >-<
>-<
Let's say the beetle is at B and wants to move to A. Take the beetle temporarily off of B. If the shortest stack of tiles of C and D is taller than the tallest stack of tiles of A and B, then the beetle can't move to A. In all other scenarios the beetle is free to move from B to A.
For those who prefer a math formula:
If
height(A) < height(C) and
height(A) < height(D) and
height(B) < height(C) and
height(B) < height(D)
then
moving between A and B (in either direction) is illegal, because the beetle cannot slip through the "gate" formed by C and D, which are both strictly higher than A and B.
Otherwise, movement between A and B is legal.
For a lengthy discussion on this subject, see http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/332467 .
Q: Can beetles on one piece move directly onto an adjacent piece, or do they have to go down to the table, and then on a later turn climb up onto the different piece?
A: Beetles can move directly from the top of one piece to the top of an adjacent piece.
Q: What's up with spiders just being weak ants?
A: A spider is indeed strictly weaker than an ant. Some people are bothered by this and propose many variants to "fix" the "problem". Others are not bothered by it, and say "A rook or bishop is strictly weaker than a queen in chess, too." While more limited, Spiders are useful in many circumstances, particularly in the early phase while the hive is small.
Q: What's up with the new Mosquito piece?
A: It has its own game entry with info: Hive: The Mosquito. All rules about movement of specific pieces (in the rules and in this FAQ) also apply to a mosquito moving as such a piece, of course.
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