Greetings, Hive fans!
How do you rate the value of the pieces in Hive?
That has been a current source of discussion on the Hive Discord channel, with players giving their opinions.
Here are some of the comments and ratings:
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Niels: I don't think that you can simply attribute values to pieces like this. You would need to specify the context at least. Are you saying that an ant pinning a mosquito is good because it has "less" value?
Even if you're saying this, you're not taking tempo into account which would disagree with your take in a lot of positions (not even saying anything about the way you pin the enemy piece given the overall hive topology when you do it)
Jabberwakky: Maybe:
Grasshopper:1
Spider:1.5
Ladybug:3
Ant:7
Beetle:7
Mosquito:9
Pillbug:8
Queen:2
This is just some gut numbers, I’m sure others will think differently. context and what stage of the game you are in really matters. Like Grasshopper may even move up to a 2 or 3 in mid-late game.
BeetlePanda: I believe even in chess the "value" of a piece is a matter of context. A game is not a marketplace where one might "buy" each piece. To me these numbers make absolutely no sense (or again, one needs to specify the metric).
Eseila: Why would you value the ladybug so low? I feel like it’s very powerful since it can move far and into tight spaces where the ant or spider can’t
Aenorman43: I would think of the pieces less as numeric values but more in a tier-based manner.
S – Mosquito
A – Ants, Beetles, Pillbug (could be argued S)
B – Ladybug
C – Grasshopper, Spider, Queen
OrdepCubik: Yeah, that has more sense.
In chess they have numbers to say "don't trade this for that", but in Hive since you can not take pieces you can't do it numerically
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The consensus is that, unlike chess, it is very difficult to assign numerical values to pieces. Too much of a piece’s value has to do with circumstances.
What do you think? Please leave a comment.
Randy