Jun 19, 2026

Queen Bee

Queen Bee is a 1974 game by Keith Budden, published at Clipper.

The game is played on the intersections of this hexagonal board:

Each player has one Queen, four Workers and three Warrior bees.

The rules:

  • Initially player position their pieces on opposite board edges: the Queen is placed at one of the six markers, the Workers at the Queen's left and right, and the Warriors at the remaining intersections around the Queen's hexagon:
  • On his turn, the player moves one friendly bee
    • The Queen moves to an adjacent empty intersection
    • The Worker moves exactly two intersections
    • The Warrior moves exactly three intersections
    • A bee cannot move forward and backward passing twice in the same intersection (one consequence is that players cannot pass their turns)
    • The center of the board (the hive) can only be entered by a Queen; the hive is the only board position that is not an intersection
  • Bees capture enemies by replacement, and cannot jump over other bees
    • Captures can occur in any of the intersections within the bee's move range
  • Wins the player that moves his Queen into the hive, or by capturing the adversary Queen

The game allows three or four players. In those situations, after a Queen is captured, the remaining bees of that army remain immobile and can be captured by the other players. Since in matches with 3+ players, some enemy bees will start very close together, the rules don't allow captures in the game's first turn.

Here's a review from Games & Puzzles:

The publisher did a rebranding in 1976, changing the game's theme to medieval Japan, and renaming it to Kendo (a Japanese martial art):

Here are the rules of Kendo (in German).

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