Hive: Pillbug Standard

The pillbug is a defensive piece which allows you to move other pieces using its special ability. This even includes the possibility of "rescuing" your queen bee when it is almost surrounded. In my opinion it adds a ton of strategy to the game, and heavily reduces the snowball effect that some Hive games have.This piece is the same high quality as the base game pieces. The design and paint is flawless. At $10 it's a bit pricy for 2 tiles, but you can have a complete Hive set for under $50 (game plus all 3 expansions) so I didn't think the price was too big of a deal.

Perfect piece love the game

Very good product!

Same material and quality as the original Hive pieces. The new moves of the expansion pieces keep the game interesting. Make sure you don’t buy the travel size pieces unless you have the travel size game. Kind of expensive, but I felt the added complexity it added to the game was worth the price.

This has a special ability that makes it the most powerful defensive piece in the hive. Brilliant concept for a pillbug!Well-made. Same high quality and feel as orig pieces.

The pillbug expansion is a great addition once you have learned the base game. It makes you think a little more than what you already had to do before and allows you to escape sometimes if your opponent does not understand its power!

Hive has become my favorite new game (Even though it's been out for years, I just discovered it). I like that the Gen42 has added expansion pieces to an already great game to add new elements of depth. The Pillbug is pretty cool in that it has the ability to move an adjacent piece (yourself or your opponent) two spaces: up onto itself and then down into another empty space adjacent to itself. There are restrictions, however, which makes understanding how to use it less intuitive in gameplay and less user-friendly to commit to memory than other pieces:1. cannot move a piece that was just moved by another player in their previous turn2. cannot move a stack of pieces3. cannot move a piece that splits the hive (violating the 1 hive rule)4. cannot move a piece through a narrow gap of stacked pieces (violating the Freedom to Move rule)5. a piece moved by the Pillbug may not move again on the next turnTruthfully, I often forget I have one in my options/gameplay, and when I want to bring the Pillbug into play, it's usually deliberate vs. a natural strategic move. For that reason, though, it can catch your opponent off guard and raise havoc.

A bit on the expensive side. But the game will last for generations.