Apiary – Build an Interstellar Hive in This Strategic Stonemaier Games Board Game

What happens when honeybees become an advanced spacefaring civilisation?

They explore planets, develop technology, build enormous hives and compete to make their faction the most successful over the course of a single year.

Apiary is a richly themed strategy board game from Stonemaier Games, designed by Connie Vogelmann and illustrated by Kwanchai Moriya. Combining worker placement, hive building, resource management, exploration and tile placement, Apiary challenges you to lead one of 20 unique bee factions as you build your hive and expand your civilisation across the stars.

With support for 1–5 players, a playtime of around 60–90 minutes, and a recommended age of 14+, Apiary offers substantial strategic depth without requiring an enormous campaign or multi-hour commitment.

What Is Apiary?

In the distant future, humanity has disappeared from Earth.

Taking their place is the Mellifera – an advanced civilisation of highly intelligent bees that has developed technology, space travel and the ability to make use of the remnants of human civilisation.

In Apiary, each player controls one of 20 unique factions.

You begin with a hive, some resources and a small workforce of bee workers. From there, you'll need to develop your civilisation by:

• Exploring planets

• Gathering valuable resources

• Expanding your hive

• Developing technologies

• Recruiting new bees

• Building farms

• Creating carvings

• Managing your workers

• Collecting victory points

But there is a catch.

The Dearth is approaching, and your bees can only work for so long before they must hibernate.

That gives Apiary a fascinating built-in timer: you have a limited amount of time to make your civilisation thrive before your workers begin heading into hibernation.

How to Play Apiary

At its heart, Apiary is a worker-placement strategy game.

Players take turns placing their bee workers onto action spaces to perform different actions. The clever twist is that your workers don't remain at the same strength forever.

Place Your Workers

Send your bees to different spaces to carry out actions such as exploring, gathering resources, developing technologies and expanding your hive.

Your workers have different strengths, and managing those strengths is an important part of your strategy.

Build Your Hive

Your hive isn't simply a starting board – it becomes an increasingly important part of your civilisation.

Build and arrange tiles to expand your hive, create useful combinations and improve your ability to generate resources and points.

This hive-building element gives Apiary a satisfying spatial puzzle alongside its worker-placement mechanics.

Explore the Galaxy

Your civilisation isn't confined to its hive.

Send your bees out to explore planets and discover opportunities for new resources, technologies and rewards.

Exploration adds another strategic layer as you decide when expanding outward is more valuable than improving what you already have.

Develop Your Civilisation

Apiary gives you several different ways to improve your faction.

You can develop technologies, recruit new workers, construct farms and create carvings, allowing you to build an engine that reflects your chosen strategy.

Manage the Dearth

The Dearth provides the game's central time pressure.

As the game progresses, your workers become more powerful – but eventually they must hibernate.

Managing when to push your workers further and when to allow them to hibernate is a key part of Apiary's strategy.

Why You'll Love Apiary

20 Unique Factions

Apiary includes 20 different factions, giving players plenty of variety between games.

Each faction provides a different starting position and encourages you to approach the game's strategic puzzle in a slightly different way.

Worker Placement With a Twist

If you enjoy worker-placement games, Apiary offers a particularly interesting twist.

Your workers aren't simply identical meeples that occupy spaces. Their strength changes throughout the game, meaning when and where you deploy each worker matters.

Build Your Own Hive

The hive-building system gives Apiary a strong spatial element.

You're not just collecting resources and victory points – you're constructing a growing civilisation and deciding how its different pieces fit together.

Lots of Strategic Choices

Apiary gives you several routes to develop your civilisation.

You can focus on exploration, resources, technology, recruitment, hive development or scoring objectives, allowing different strategies to emerge from the same basic rules.

A Fantastic Solo Mode

Apiary includes an Automa system, allowing you to play the game solo against an automated opponent.

That makes it a particularly appealing choice for players who enjoy Stonemaier's solo-friendly strategy games but don't always have a group available.

Beautifully Bonkers Theme

Spacefaring bees might sound like a novelty, but Apiary takes its setting seriously enough to build a surprisingly cohesive strategy game around it.

The result is a game that combines a distinctive theme with the kind of strategic depth you'd expect from a Stonemaier Games release.

Apiary Game Mechanics

Apiary combines several board game mechanisms into one interconnected strategy system:

• Worker Placement – Deploy bee workers to perform actions.

• Worker Strength Management – Workers become stronger as they progress.

• Hive Building – Expand your hive using different tiles.

• Tile Placement – Construct and develop your civilisation.

• Resource Management – Collect and spend resources efficiently.

• Engine Building – Develop systems that improve your future turns.

• Exploration – Discover planets and new opportunities.

• Set Collection – Collect resources and elements that contribute to scoring.

• Variable Player Powers – Choose from 20 unique factions.

• Solo Play – Use the included Automa system for a solo challenge.

The combination makes Apiary a great choice for players who enjoy medium-heavy strategy board games with multiple interconnected systems.

Who Is Apiary For?

Apiary is ideal for:

• Fans of Stonemaier Games

• Experienced board gamers

• Fans of worker-placement games

• Players who enjoy engine-building

• Strategy gamers who like resource management

• Fans of tile-laying and spatial puzzles

• Players looking for a strong solo board game

• Groups of 2–5 experienced gamers

• Fans of science-fiction board games

• Players who enjoy games with asymmetric or variable factions

• Anyone looking for a strategic game with an unusual theme

With a recommended age of 14+ and a 60–90 minute playing time, Apiary is aimed more towards experienced family groups and hobby gamers than younger children's gaming.

Is Apiary Good for Solo Play?

Yes.

The base game includes Automa components, allowing a single player to compete against an automated opponent.

This is particularly useful if you're looking for a solo strategy board game with plenty of replayability and multiple systems to explore.

The Automa components include 14 Automa cards, an Automa docking mat and an Automa Gained Worker Strength token.

Is Apiary Good for Two Players?

Absolutely.

Although Apiary supports up to five players, the game scales down to 1–5 players, meaning it can work well as a two-player strategy game as well as a larger group experience.

Two-player games give you plenty of room to concentrate on your own hive while still competing for the game's shared opportunities.

If you enjoy strategic games for couples or two-player board games with substantial depth, Apiary is worth considering.

Apiary for 3–5 Players

Apiary also works particularly well as a group strategy game.

With multiple players competing for action spaces and opportunities across the galaxy, your plans need to adapt as other players take their turns.

That creates an important balance between developing your own engine and reacting to what everyone else is doing.

How Complex Is Apiary?

Apiary is designed as a heavy strategy game, rather than a lightweight family game.

There are several interconnected systems to learn, including worker placement, hive building, resource management, exploration, technology development and the game's hibernation system.

If you're already comfortable with modern hobby board games, Apiary offers plenty to get stuck into. If you're new to heavier strategy games, expect to spend some time learning the systems before your first full game.

The reward is a game with plenty of meaningful decisions and strong replayability.

Games Like Apiary

If you're looking for games similar to Apiary, Stonemaier Games itself recommends Teotihuacan, Honey Buzz, Tzolk'in and Euphoria as games players might enjoy alongside Apiary.

Teotihuacan: City of Gods

A deeper worker-placement and rondel-style strategy game where your workers change in strength as they move around the board.

Honey Buzz

Another bee-themed strategy game, this time focused on building a honeycomb, producing honey and managing a bee colony.

Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar

A challenging worker-placement game famous for its rotating gear system and long-term strategic planning.

Euphoria

A Stonemaier Games strategy game focused on worker placement, resource management and building a dystopian civilisation.

If you're searching for games like Apiary, these are excellent places to start.

Apiary vs Honey Buzz

The two games share a bee theme but offer very different experiences.

Honey Buzz focuses heavily on creating a honeycomb, producing different types of honey and fulfilling market demands.

Apiary, meanwhile, takes the bee concept into science fiction, with space exploration, worker placement, hive building, technology and multiple factions.

If you're looking specifically for a space-themed strategy board game, Apiary is the obvious choice.

If you want a bee-themed economic and tile-laying game, Honey Buzz may be more suitable.

Apiary and Stonemaier Games

Apiary comes from Stonemaier Games, the publisher behind games including Wingspan, Scythe, Viticulture, Euphoria and Tapestry.

The game follows the publisher's reputation for combining polished production with layered strategy and a strong thematic identity.

Apiary is also part of a broader product line that includes the Apiary: Expanding the Hive expansion. The expansion is not required to play the base game and adds additional hive mats, seed cards, a faction, recruits, carvings, developments, farms, dance tiles, dance tokens and explore tokens.

Apiary Game Information

Feature	Details
Game	Apiary
Publisher	Stonemaier Games
Designer	Connie Vogelmann
Artist	Kwanchai Moriya
Released	2023
Players	1–5
Playing Time	60–90 minutes
Recommended Age	14+
Game Weight	Heavy
Game Type	Strategy Board Game
Main Mechanics	Worker Placement, Tile Placement, Resource Management, Engine Building, Exploration
Theme	Science Fiction, Space, Bees
Factions	20 unique factions
Solo Mode	Yes – Automa

The current Stonemaier Games listing confirms the 1–5 player count, 60–90 minute playtime, heavy game weight, 20 unique factions and Connie Vogelmann/Kwanchai Moriya credits. BoardGameGeek independently lists the game as 1–5 players, 60–90 minutes and age 14+.

What's Included in Apiary?

The base game includes:

• 1 teaching guide

• 1 appendix

• 5 player aids

• 1 double-sided game board

• 5 hive mats

• 5 docking mats

• 15 frames

• 20 worker pieces

• 1 QueenShip miniature

• 40 farm tiles

• 30 carving tiles

• 30 recruit tiles

• 29 development tiles

• 20 faction tiles

• 15 planet tiles

• 5 dance tiles

• 45 seed cards

• 15 player tokens

• 35 hibernation tokens

• 25 fibre tokens

• 25 pollen tokens

• 25 water tokens

• 20 explore tokens

• 15 wax tokens

• 12 honey tokens

• 9 dance tokens

The solo Automa system includes 14 Automa cards, an Automa docking mat and an Automa Gained Worker Strength token.

Apiary FAQ

How many players can play Apiary?

Apiary supports 1–5 players, so you can play solo or with up to four other players.

How long does Apiary take to play?

A game of Apiary takes approximately 60–90 minutes.

What age is Apiary suitable for?

Apiary is recommended for ages 14 and up.

Is Apiary a worker-placement game?

Yes. Worker placement is one of the central mechanics in Apiary. Players deploy their bee workers to different action spaces to develop their civilisation.

Is Apiary a strategy game?

Yes. Apiary is a strategic board game with worker placement, resource management, tile placement, exploration, engine building and hive development.

Can you play Apiary solo?

Yes. The base game includes an Automa solo system, allowing one player to compete against an automated opponent.

How many factions are in Apiary?

There are 20 unique factions in the base game.

Is Apiary suitable for beginners?

Apiary is better suited to players who already have some experience with modern strategy board games. Its multiple interconnected systems and heavy game weight make it more demanding than a typical gateway game.

Is Apiary a science-fiction game?

Yes. Apiary combines science fiction and space exploration with a highly unusual bee civilisation theme.

Is Apiary related to Wingspan?

Both are board games featuring birds/bees and come from Stonemaier Games, but Apiary is a completely separate game with its own setting, mechanics and rules.

Is Apiary the same as Apiary: Expanding the Hive?

No. Apiary is the standalone base game. Apiary: Expanding the Hive is a separate expansion that adds additional content and requires the base game.

Why Buy Apiary from Roll The Dice Cornwall?

At Roll The Dice Cornwall, we love board games that offer something genuinely different – and Apiary certainly does that.

It's a beautifully produced strategy game where worker placement meets hive building, resource management and space exploration, wrapped in one of the most memorable themes in modern board gaming.

Whether you're a Stonemaier Games fan, looking for a new worker-placement board game, searching for a challenging solo strategy game, or simply intrigued by the idea of spacefaring bees, Apiary is a fantastic addition to a serious board game collection.

Build Your Hive. Explore the Stars. Survive the Dearth.

Humanity is gone.

The bees have inherited the galaxy.

Now it's your turn to lead them.

Build your hive, explore distant planets, develop advanced technology and guide your faction through the Flow before the Dearth arrives.

Choose your faction and see whether your civilisation can thrive in Apiary.