Propolis: When Bees Build an Empire

I've always had a soft spot for games that surprise me. You know, those boxes you open thinking "well, here's another colorful family game," and that end up keeping you awake reflecting on your strategic mistakes while doing the evening dishes. That's exactly what happened to me with Propolis. The first time I opened the box, I smiled seeing these little wooden bees with their antennae. "A cute game about bees," I thought. Three games later, I was scribbling strategies in my notebook, obsessed with optimizing my permanent resource engine. And that's when I knew: Alderac Entertainment Group and Flatout Games had achieved something special.

Technical Information

• Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) / Flatout Games

• Designers: Molly Johnson, Robert Melvin, Shawn Stankewich (the Flatout Games collective)

• Illustrator: Dylan Mangini

• Player count: 1-4 players

• Recommended age: 10 and up

• Duration: 30-60 minutes (allow 45-60 minutes for your first games)

• Availability: Launched via Kickstarter in 2025

  
  

Colors That Sing, Mechanics That Sting

When you take Propolis out of its box, you're immediately struck by its colors. Dylan Mangini, the illustrator, created a palette that mixes soft pastels with bright hues – vibrant magenta, royal blue, vibrant turquoise. It has nothing to do with the usual color schemes of board games. It's fresh, it's spring, it's exactly what you'd expect from a game about medieval bees building structures for their queen.

The "beeples" – these adorable bee-shaped meeples – are pure joy to handle, even though I must admit their little antennae are a bit fragile. I broke one during my second game (moment of silence). But honestly, even mutilated, these little bees have incredible charm. The individual player boards are solid, well-designed, with six resource tracks clearly identified by symbols AND colors – an accessibility choice I greatly appreciate.

And then there are these double-sided cards. Landscape on one side, structure on the other. This simple design decision creates incredible variability from one game to another. Each new game of Propolis feels like a different puzzle to solve.

The Bee Dance: Standing, Lying Down, and Why It Changes Everything

Let's talk about the heart of the game now, because this is where Propolis reveals its true nature. At first glance, it's a classic worker placement game: you place your bees on Landscape cards to collect resources, then you spend those resources to build structures. Simple, right? Except it's not.

The genius of Propolis lies in a seemingly trivial but absolutely central mechanic: your bees can be standing or lying down. And believe me, this difference changes EVERYTHING.

When you place your bees on a Landscape card, they're standing. That's your initial deployment. You choose an empty card, put as many bees as you want on it (on available spaces), and you collect the corresponding resources. So far, nothing revolutionary.

But here's the thing: you can choose to "fortify" your bees. It's a separate action that allows you to lay down up to two of your already-placed bees. When you do that, two things happen: you collect the resources from those spaces again, AND those lying bees now count double for area control.

And that's where I made my first big mistake. During my three-player game, I was so focused on my building strategy that I completely forgot to pay attention to my bees' positions. At a critical moment, I lost control of a row because I'd forgotten that my bees were standing while my opponent had fortified theirs. A few seconds of distraction, and boom, my strategy collapsed. Pay attention to your bees – that's the most important advice I can give you. Standing or lying down, it's not just aesthetic, it's mechanical.

The area control system itself is elegant. When a row of Landscape cards is completely occupied by bees (regardless of which players), we check who has the majority. The winner retrieves ALL their bees from that row, while the losers leave theirs in place. It's frustrating when you lose, but it's also what creates this delicious tension each turn. Do I fortify now or wait? Do I block this space or focus on my own strategy?

Building Your Kingdom, Resource by Resource

Propolis is fundamentally an engine-building game, and that's where it really won me over. You collect five different types of resources (plus golden wild resources), and you spend them to buy Structure cards from a market of 10 visible cards.

But here's the genius part: some structures give you permanent resources. These permanent resources aren't consumed when you use them – they stay there, game after game, effectively reducing the cost of your future purchases. It's exactly the same satisfying feeling as in Splendor, that moment when your engine starts running and you can suddenly afford structures you couldn't even consider three turns earlier.

I tested several strategies. In solo, I rushed cheap structures to get an engine going quickly. With two players with my colleague, we engaged in psychological warfare over control of Landscape rows. With three players with my students (yes, I'm lucky enough to test games during my lunch breaks), the dynamic was completely different – more chaotic, more spoiling, more "oh no, I needed that resource!"

And that's where another brilliant aspect of the design comes in: the player count changes the game, but not the feel. How? Because the card set automatically adapts. At 1-2 players, you have 2 rows of Landscapes. At 3 players, 3 rows. At 4 players, 4 rows. Same for the Queen's Palaces (those ultra-expensive structures that only require permanent resources): 5 for 1-2 players, 6 for 3 players, 7 for 4 players. The game breathes differently at each configuration, but remains balanced.

There's also a nice tension in timing. When do you stop building your engine to focus on points? Structures give either direct points or multipliers based on other structures you own (identified by banners A, B, C, D). I lost a game because I was so obsessed with my permanent resources that I forgot to... score points. A costly but instructive lesson.

From Solo to Group: A Hive That Adapts

I started playing Propolis solo, as I often do with new games. That was smart of me, because the rules, as elegant as they are, require careful reading. The deployment action in particular is oddly difficult to understand the first time – you can never have bees from two different players on the same card, and once a bee is placed on a card, no other bee (even your own!) can be added to it. It sounds simple written like that, but in practice, it takes a little while to adapt.

Solo mode uses a small deck of cards to simulate an AI opponent. Unlike many solo modes where the AI generates its own points (which I usually prefer), here it's "beat your own score" with challenges. But you know what? It works. The AI plays fast, you don't spend three hours managing its turn, and it's very good at blocking you at the most annoying moments possible. I spent an hour the first evening refining my strategy, and it was exactly what I needed to understand the game before teaching it.

With two players, the game becomes more direct, more confrontational. We fight for the same spaces, we watch each other out of the corner of our eyes. "You're going to fortify there? Ah, interesting..." It's tense, but perhaps a bit too linear for some. I would have liked a little something to spice up two players – maybe a dummy player or some randomly placed bees.

But at three? At three, the magic really happens. Players who don't have the majority leave their bees in place, which affects subsequent area controls. You can be a "spoiler" – you're not going to win that row, but you can prevent someone else from completely dominating. It's more dynamic, more strategic, more unpredictable. And frankly, more fun.

The Pebbles in the Shoe

Propolis isn't perfect, and we need to talk about it. The most glaring problem is the lack of market refresh for structures. The 10 Structure cards are permanently visible, and the only way to see new ones is to buy them. If you're desperately looking for a specific structure (say, one with banner B to complete your collection), and it simply doesn't appear... well, too bad for you. It's frustrating, especially when your starting cards give you objectives that depend on these specific structures.

Let's also talk about those starting cards. They give you scoring objectives based on pairs of structure types. The problem? These objectives benefit players "essentially randomly" depending on what appears in the market. If the structures you need come out early, great! Otherwise, you're stuck pivoting to a different strategy. It's not game-breaking, but it adds a dose of luck that can feel unfair.

And then there are the small details. The guild banners (A, B, C, D) use fancy calligraphy that isn't always easy to read. The bees, though cute, are fragile. Some resource markers can be difficult to distinguish for colorblind players – fortunately, the symbols are there to compensate, but I wish those symbols were also on the physical markers.

Oh, and really pay attention to your bee placement. I can't repeat this enough. In the heat of the action, when you're juggling your resources, your engine, your plans for the next turn, it's so easy to forget whether your bees are standing or lying down. One second of inattention, and you make a decision based on false information. It happened to me, it will happen to your players. Get in the habit of scanning the board regularly.

My Verdict: A Buzzing Hive

Propolis surprised me. Really. I started with the impression of having a light, colorful family game, and I ended up with a strategic puzzle that tickles my brain with each game. It's short (really, you can easily fit into 30-45 minutes once you know the rules), but dense. Every action counts. Every bee placed is a decision.

The balance between accessibility and depth is remarkable. I could play it with my 10-year-old niece who's discovering modern games. I could also play it with my group of experienced players who will immediately see the combos and possible blocks. It's "easy to learn, difficult to master" in all its splendor.

The fact that the game comes from the team behind Calico, Cascadia and Point Salad is felt in every design decision. There's that same elegance, that same economy of means to create depth. Nothing is there by chance. Every mechanic serves the whole.

Is it a masterpiece? No. The lack of market refresh and the dependence on starting cards bother me a bit. But is it an excellent game that deserves its place on your shelf, perfect for opening or closing a game night, ideal for a lunch break between colleagues? Absolutely.

For a first partnership with Alderac Entertainment Group, I'm delighted to have discovered Propolis. It's exactly the kind of game I'll bring out regularly, that I'll continue to explore, and that I'll recommend without hesitation.

My rating: 8/10

An excellent accessible strategy game that achieves the feat of being both family-friendly and cerebral, quick and deep. The few flaws don't spoil the pleasure of optimizing your engine and placing your bees in the right places (standing or lying down, remember?).

Strengths

✓ Magnificent artwork and original color palette by Dylan Mangini

✓ Ingenious fortification mechanic that creates real tactical depth

✓ Perfect balance between accessibility and strategic depth

✓ Smart scaling system – the game adapts to player count without losing balance

✓ Functional solo mode that plays quickly

✓ Satisfying engine building with permanent resources

✓ Short game duration (30-60 min) for the depth offered

✓ Clear iconography and well-thought-out accessibility (dual color/symbol coding)

✓ High replayability thanks to double-sided cards and variable setup

Weaknesses

✗ No structure market refresh – can become frustrating

✗ Dependence on starting cards that can create unfair situations depending on draw luck✗ Initially slightly confusing rules (especially the deployment action)

✗ Fragile components – bee antennae break easily

✗ Player color distinction by color only – problematic for colorblind players at 3+ players

✗ Guild banner typography not always easy to read

✗ Constant attention required to not confuse standing and lying bees – easy to forget in the heat of action

Propolis is a game that deserves your attention. It won't revolutionize the board game world, but it does exactly what it promises: offer you 30 to 60 minutes of strategic pleasure in a colorful and elegant box. For a teacher like me who's constantly looking for games that are both accessible and stimulating, it's a rare gem. And those little wooden bees? They've definitely found their place in my game library.