Apiary - How To Play

[Music] hi and welcome to watch it played my name is Rodney Smith and in this video we're going to learn the one to five player game apiary designed by Connie vogelman and published by ston Meer games who helped sponsor this video after humankind's departure from Earth and countless generations of evolution The Humble honeybee has evolved in size and intelligence developing their own space travel Technologies you're leading one of these factions of space bees on a quest to create the most successful Hive in the Galaxy so join me at the table and let's learn how to play to set up put the double-sided game board in the center of the play area with the side face up for your number of players four to five on this side and one to three on the other in this video we'll assume that we have two players the pieces with this back are the explore tokens which you'll mix face down randomly setting one face face up into each space of what is known as the planet grid so it looks something like this when you're done you then return any extras back to the box next set this Queen ship onto its starting space here the tiles with this back are the planets which you Shuffle into a face down stack beside the planet grid area of the board Now find separate and Shuffle face down the four types of hexagon tiles which can be distinguished by their backs known as the firms recruits developments and carvings add the farm recruit and development tiles onto the spaces for them here on the board and then to their left deal three of them face up so it looks something like this when you're done the remaining Stacks can be quite tall so I like to split them in two now deal one carving tile into each of the spaces for them in this Central carve area of the board and then when you're done return any leftovers back to the Box these are the dance tiles randomly set one face up into each of these outline spaces for them in this convert area of the board also returning any leftovers back to the box then find the dance tokens which have this shape and set them into this spot you don't need to shuffle these they can just be left face up the cards with this back are the seeds which are shuffled into a face down deck and added to this space of the research area beside the board also create a general supp of what are known as the frames pollen fiber water wax and honey pieces which I'm organizing into some trays that I have that said the game also comes with its own resource tray which you can pop straight out of the box and use in your games instead each player now collects one of these docking mats three cubes four workers and seven hibernation tokens in their chosen color add your hibernation tokens and one Cube into this space of your docking mat then add a cube to the zero space of this Queen's favorite track at the bottom of the board next pick someone randomly to be the first player and have them set their remaining Cube onto this first player space of the score track here each other player in clockwise order around the table now adds their leftover token to the next highest space now have each player gain one of these Hive mats randomly to set face up in front of them themselves then Shuffle what are known as these faction tiles and randomly hand two to each player they each pick one to use returning all other faction tiles back to the box now if it's your very first game they instead recommend finding the faction tiles with these green star symbols and dealing one of them to each player which we'll do here all faction tiles are doubl sided the side that says upgraded starts the game face down set so that the hex showing the name of your faction here is placed on the faction tile space of your hive mat like this now examine this area of your faction tile these symbols represent your workers and you'll now take as many workers as these symbols set to the matching numbered sides shown so 211 in this case then add them onto the active pool spaces of your docking mat any remaining workers are then placed to the left of the main board each players should collect one of these player AIDS and turn it to this side examining the icons in this left column these represent the different types of resources you might find in the game each player now looks for any of those symbols on the dark blue area of their faction tile with a green circle around them and collects the matching resource from the supply to set there if a symbol shows a combination of two different resources like we see here one of them will be brighter than the other and that is the resource that begins in the space fiber in this case and that's the setup in apiary players will be using the their workers to take actions on the main board that will help them explore planets for resources expand their hive gain new workers and a variety of other actions all in an effort to earn the most points by the end of the game your workers are able to improve over time but eventually they'll need to hibernate so as we'll see this is something else you'll be managing the game is played over a series of turns starting with the first player and going clockwise around and around the table and on your turn you'll either place a single worker or retrieve your workers let's start by learning all the different ways you can place workers the board is divided into six main areas where actions can be taken labeled as explore Advance grow curve convert and research placing a worker in an area lets you take its action to do this you need to have at least one worker in your active pool here pick anyone and assign it to an action area by setting it into its action space there which will look like this most areas have a single action space but some will show too and if so always put your worker into the space with an arrow attached to it then either way after placing a worker you resolve the action for that area just know you can't assign a worker to a space if you have no way to use some part of the action there in other words you can't assign a worker to a location and just do nothing some actions will have a further cost and if you can't pay that cost to complete the action you also can't assign a worker to that area also keep in mind action spaces can never be blocked by workers if you want to assign a worker to an action that already has one yours or another players you bump it removing it from the space and adding your new worker there when a worker is bumped off an action its controlling player has a choice to make based on the strength of the worker the strength of a worker is its face up value which goes from one all the way to four if the bumped worker had a value of 1 two or three the controlling player can either choose to increase the worker strength by one and place it into their active pool making it available for them to play on a future turn or instead they can keep the worker at the strength it had when it was bumped but then they must set it into one of these spaces of their landing area why you would pick either of these options when bumped will'll make the most sense once we know more of the rules but let's now cover one other aspect of placing workers as we mentioned earlier when an area has two action spaces you always put your incoming worker into the space with an arrow coming from it now if a worker was already here from a previous turn when a new one would get added to this area you move the previous worker to the other space and then add the new worker here as normal if both spaces have workers when a new one is added here the advancing worker this one bumps the one in the second space and then that one resolves the rules for being bumped that we had just learned with that understood let's go through each of the action areas and learn how they're resolved when they're assigned a worker after adding a worker to the explore area total the strength of all workers in both of these spaces right now we only have one with a value of two so two is our total if this worker was added later the total would be five either way you use the total value to in this case to move this Queen ship up to that number of spaces you can go fewer spaces if you like just keep in mind you can't move diagonally only up down left or right and you must end on a different space than you started from perhaps we'll go here one two if one of these explore tokens is in your final space you collect and add it into this space of your docking mat resolving the symbols it shows you'll find the symbols of the game explained on your player Aid so refer to this as needed many of the symbols relate to resources fiber pollen and water are known as basic resources wax and honey are considered more valuable when you see symbols related to resources on an explore token it means you collect them from the supply to put in front of yourself in this case one Fiber One pollen and one water this symbol means that you gain any one basic resource fiber pollen or water and resources are meant to be unlimited if any run out just use a suitable replacement a value within this symbol refers to victory points anytime you gain points Advance your marker the related number of spaces on the victory track here if you would ever reach the end of the track here just Bank the points you've gained so far and continue from the start again these are Queen's favor symbols each one advances your marker one space on this Queen's favor track you'll earn points for the highest valued Victory point that you reach or pass on this track at the end of the game if you reach the end of the Queen's favor track you ignore any effects that would cause you to advance further when you resolve symbols like this you draw one of these seed cards for each seed cards in your hand can be kept private but if you'd rather place them face up on the table until you're ready to use them that's allowed by the rules as well each player can make up their own mind about how private they wish to keep these but I recommend players decide before the game if they plan to keep seed cards private or public while playing we'll see the benefit of resources and Seed cards in a moment but for now let's go back to resolving the explore action after moving the Queen ship and collecting any explore token in the final space you land on you then draw the top tile of the planet stack and set it face up in the Queen's space now whether you just place this planet or not you check to see if there are any empty outlined boxes here at its top if so pick any one one basic resource from the supply either fiber pollen or water and add it to one of those spaces then whether you added a resource or not you gain resources from the supply equal to what is showing on this planet tile so in this case we'd collect one water and one fiber so just to be clear if it's later in the game and you move to a space that already has a planet tile you add a basic resource of you're choosing to any empty box it may have and then again you gain all of the depicted resources is there so in this case I'd take a pollen and a water from the supply once a planet has no empty resource spaces traveling to it in the future simply gives you copies of the resources it shows from the supply no matter what action on the board you're taking each provides a bonus if you take the action using a strength for worker in the case of this explor area if you had placed a strength for worker and your ship ended on a planet showing one of these strength for benefits you gain that benefit in addition addition to any other benefits the action provides and you can resolve those benefits in any order all right that covers the explore action now let's look at the advance action after placing a worker into the top space you add its strength to any worker that might be below it if the space below is empty just add one so a total of three in this case you can now buy one tile from any column your total value has unlocked which is based on the numbers here our total of three unlocks this two or more column and this three or more column however to take a tile you must also be able to pay the cost it shows along its bottom Edge as an example this one costs three pollen whereas this one would cost one fiber and one water and let's assume we decide to buy this tile anytime you have to pay resources return them either from tiles you have in your hive or just from other resources you have in front of you so in this case again it's one fiber and one water with a tile purchased you must add it to an empty hex on your hive adjacent to an existing tile which can include your faction tile you also gain the benefit showing on the space you cover up so if I go here I would gain a fiber just keep in mind once you've added a tile to your hive you can't move it later Farm tiles have a benefit will learn about later but if you gain a development tile it has a one-time effect that's resolved as soon as it's placed on your mat recruit tiles have effects that will resolve during the game at the indicated time either when resolving the specific action it has listed beside two purple arrows or during the time it describes we're not going to go through every development and recruit tile in this video but this included appendix will explain exactly how each one works if you have any questions while playing and keep in mind if you have no empty spaces on your mat to place a tile into you can't perform this action that said if you did buy a tile at the end of your turn slide all of the remaining tiles of the type that you took to the left and then draw a new tile from the related stack to set face up into the empty space Also as you're reminded here if you used a strength for worker to perform this Advan action you also gain three victory points it's worth pointing out if you're playing on the other side of the board this action has two separate areas for assigning workers here if you want to purchase a Farm tile and here if you're buying either a recruit or development tile that covers the advance action now let's learn the grow action the strength of the worker that you place here is treated like an allowance you can spend on performing these two actions as often as you like as long as you also pay the indicated resources each time for example you can spend one strength and a pollen to gain a strength one worker gained workers must come from the supply beside the board and you only have one of these here at the start of the game but more can end up here later as we'll see when you gain a new worker add it to an empty space in your active pool for use later now keep in mind when I say you spend one strength and one pollen to do this you don't actually change the strength of the worker you assigned here just consider this to be the maximum value of strength you can divide between these actions strength costs this action costs two strength and then you spend any combination of two basic resources to gain a hive frame which is represented by this symbol all Hive frames are the same so you just take the top one from this stack and add it to your hive mat in any orientation as long as at least one of its sides are adjacent to a hex on your mat or a frame you had previously placed just make sure you don't overlap any previously placed tiles or empty hex spaces a frame gives you four new spaces to add hex tiles to too but any tiles placed here must still be adjacent to a tile you already have in play and it doesn't matter if frames extend beyond the edges of your mat adding a frame to your hive also unlocks this slot here we'll see how these slots at the bottom of the mat are used later but if you gain a second frame it'll unlock this other slot here you can add any number of frames to your hive over the course of the game but only the first two unlock new slots below your mat if you had placed a strength for worker to perform the grow action you may upgrade your faction tile along with resolving the effects here your faction tile has a special ability when upgraded simply flip your tile to its upgraded side putting it back where it was along with any resource tokens that it might have had you now have access to the new ability on this side we're not going to go through all the different faction abilities in this video but again the appendix explains how each of them work if you have any questions while playing that's the grow action next let's learn the research action as it says here you'll draw a number of cards from this deck equal to the strength of the worker used keeping one of them and discarding the rest face up into this space any number of cards you have in your hand can be used before or after you resolve any action on your turn even after the action that might have caused you to gain them when playing a card you'll use it in one of two possible mle ways you can either resolve its onetime effect shown at the top ignoring anything else on the card and then you put it into a shared seed discard pile or instead you can always choose to ignore the effects printed on a seed card and discard it to gain one basic resource of your choice which is represented by the symbol found here in its corner and again you can play as many cards as you like in any way you like before and or after the action you take on your turn however if you placed a strength for worker on this action after drawing and keeping a card as usual you may also plant one seed to do this take any one card in your hand and slide it under the leftmost empty seed slot of your hive mat here you ignore its instant effect on the top because that's not covered up and instead this will provide you a new way to score points at the end of the game just keep in mind you only have room for two seed cards until you add a frame to your hive which as we saw unlocks this third slot here once you've added a second frame that will unlock your fourth slot speaking of which if a frame extends past the edge of your board and would cover up cards you have here feel free to move the cards to another area of your board their exact position under your hive mat doesn't matter as long as you don't exceed your current limit once you plant a seed you cannot remove or replace it unless an effect says otherwise and with that we've covered the research action so now let's learn the convert action before explaining the core rules for this area I'm going to start with the bonus that you gain if you assign a strength for a worker here because when you do you resolve this effect first that requires you to teach a dance to do this pick one of these dance tiles that doesn't already have a player Cube on it and move the cube from your docking mat to the space on its far right this indicates that you're going to be the teacher of this dance you then look through these dance tokens in this stack and choose whichever ones you want to put onto the outlined spaces of your chosen dance tile with that you've now taught this dance and that wraps up the bonus for using a strength four worker here you would then resolve the regular actions for this area so let's see how this area would normally work no matter what type of worker you've assigned here for each point of strength on the worker you assign here you can use any of the different listed ways to convert cards and resources and you can repeat options and perform fewer than the full number of conversions your worker would allow if you like for example you can send a seed card you have to the discard pile ignoring any of its effects to draw a new one or pay a basic resource for any other basic resource if you pay a pollen and fiber you can take a wax resource or pay two pollen and one water to gain a honey you can also use any dances that were already taught including one that was just created this turn however each time an opponent uses a dance you created you advance on the Queen's favorite track so if the green player was using this effect then the blue player would gain a queen's favor also be aware each player can create at most a single dance so if I added a strength for worker here in the future I could use it to perform up to four of these actions but I couldn't create another dance that leaves us with One Last Action area to learn about carving this area is different because you can only place a strength for worker here and when you do pick any one of these carving tiles pay its cost and honey shown at the bottom and then collect it you then add it to your hive like any other hex and the symbols at its top will now provide you with a new way to earn points at the end of the game unlike other hexes that are taken from the board these are not replaced as they're taken but like the other hex's every carving ties effect is explained in detail in the included appendix we've now covered all the worker actions and remember on your turn you either place a single worker from your active pool onto an action space to resolve it or you instead perform a retrieve action so let's learn how that works you can only choose to retrieve on a turn where you have at least one worker already on the board and or on a landing space of your docking mat if so you collect all your workers from the board and your landing area and you may take these back in any order but with each each one you'll perform an action as they're taken depending on their current strength value for every worker you collect with a strength of one two or three you pick a different Farm tile in your hive mat and for each resolve its income effect a Farm's income effect is shown to the right of what is known as this income symbol so after retrieving this worker I might pick this income to resolve which would let me collect any one basic resource if I have another worker to take back then I'd have to pick a different Farm ties income to resolve and so on also each work you retrieve then has its strength increased by one and is set back into your active pool so that's what happens to each one two or three strength worker you retrieve if you retrieve a strength for worker it must hibernate instead hibernation also happens any time a strength for a worker would be forced to increase its strength either way to hibernate you first return turn it to the supply beside the board and this means it can be brought back later for example using the grow action to bring it back as a strength one worker after it's put into the supply you then Place one of your hibernation tokens representing the worker that just hibernated onto any empty spaces of this hibernation comb area gaining the benefit of the symbols you covered up just keep in mind on this side of the board these spaces are only available in a three-player game also notice this red X symbol found in some of the spaces along with gaining the benefit shown with it the X means that you must now discard all of the tiles in the row matching the symbol paired with the X for example the lightning bolt represents the development tiles so you would discard all three of these and then replace them with three new ones taken from the top of its stack and that's hibernating but just keep in mind if you hibernate but there's no spaces in the hibernation comb or you've run out of hibernation tokens to place you gain one Queen's favor instead and remember if a strength for worker is bumped off of a space that also causes it to hibernate and you resolve that hibernation right away before the rest of the bumping workers's action is resolved however if a strength for worker is being placed and has its own strength increased through some combination of effects you first finish the action it was taking and then it hibernates with that we've learned how you can either place a single worker or retrieve workers on your turn but there is one other possible situation that might occur if you begin your turn without workers on the main board or on your docking mat in that case and in only that case you can take a single worker from the pool and add it to your mat set to a strength of one and then immediately take a place turn with it I also just want to remind you whether you place a worker or retrieve workers on your turn before and or after that you can play any number of seed cards from your hand either way after placing or retrieving and or playing any seed cards you check your resources it doesn't matter where you put your resources during your turn but at the end of your turn you must Place resources onto Circle spaces showing icons for those resources for example I can store a water piece here I can store or wax here I could store pollen or Fiber in these spaces and so on Farm tiles also provide you with additional storage spaces for resources here I could store any one of the different types of basic resources and here honey or wax at the end of a turn you must discard all resources you could not fit into the spaces of your hive and for each one you discard this way you gain one Queen's favor now be aware you can't just choose use to discard resources to gain Queen's favor if you have spaces that you could store them in that said you can arrange your resources inefficiently on your mat to prevent some from otherwise being stored so they can be discarded for favor and keep in mind you can rearrange your resources in your hive at any time during the game either way after checking and storing your resources your turn ends and the next player in clockwise order takes their turn and turns will continue you like this until either all spaces in the hibernation comb are filled for your number of players or once a single player has added their last hibernation token to the board as soon as that happens each player including the one who triggered the end of the game gets one more turn then it's time for final scoring here you'll take the points you've already earned on the victory Point track so far and add to these any earned from the effects of seed cards you planted along with any points showing on the left edge of farm recruit and development tiles in your hive and for meeting the conditions of any carvings you have if your faction tile has an endgame ability you may also earn some points from that and I just want to mention this one which earns points for adjacent Farm tiles only counts Farms adjacent to this specific faction hex not the entire faction tile in other words the farm here doesn't score extra points from this effect as it mentions here on your hive mat if you fill in all of its original spaces with tiles you score eight points each frame in your hive that has all four of its spaces filled in with tiles earns you eight points as you're reminded of here you also earn the highest valued victory points on the space you're either in or have passed on the Queen's favorite track so the green player here would earn seven points and the blue player would earn six points finally check the hibernation comb you'll you'll notice the spaces here are grouped together into what are known as sectors the player with the most of their hibernation tokens within a sector scores the gold first place value and if there's a second place value that is scored by the player with the second most tokens in that sector you can end up in situations where you might have a tie for first and if so the tied players total the first and second scores and divide them evenly between themselves rounding down and in a case like that no one would score having the second most tokens if you have a situation where there's a tie for second place those players share the second place value evenly rounding down then the player with the most total points wins in the case of a tie the tied player with the most active workers both on the board and their docking mat wins if there's still a tie the tied players share the victory the game also comes with components and rules for solo play but those all leave for you to discover on your own otherwise that's everything you need to know to play aary if you have any questions about anything you saw here feel free to put them in the comments below and I'll gladly answer them as soon as I get a chance you'll also find forums for discussion pictures other videos and lots more over on the games page at Board Game Geek and I'll put a link to that in the description below and if you found this video helpful please consider giving it a like subscribing and clicking that little bell icon so you get notification anytime we post a new video and if you'd like to support us directly you can join our patreon team which I'll have link below but until next time thanks for watching

Channel: Watch It Played

Views: 70,192

Keywords: How To Play, Watch It Played, Instructions, Board Games, Card Games, Tabletop, Miniatures, Play Throughs, Board Game, Tutorial, Tutorials, Rules, Learn, Learn How To Play, Game Rules, Learn To Play, Apiary, Jamey Stegmaier, Stonemairer Games, Connie Vogelmann, instructional

Id: KdzNSPQlML0

Length: 29min 33sec (1773 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 03 2023