Honey Buzz is a surprisingly intriguing worker placement. There isn't anything too revolutionary, but the combination of mechanics works well, and it's wrapped up in an inarguably delicious presentation. Fall Flavors ramps things up and adds more variety than I thought, turning Honey Buzz into a more robust experience. At first, the mini-modules seemed a little tedious to learn and integrate, but they're actually pretty intuitive and my first test play used all of them (which I recommend). Victory isn't dependant on exploiting the new content, but instead, this expansion does what all expansions should and just opens new avenues for strategic possibilities.
What's disappointing about the release is how it teases the other additional content, namely the Cornucopia promo pack and the Fall Player Piece add-on. There's practically enough materials in Fall Flavors to have a whole additional copy of game to replace base base Honey Buzz with -- which I think would be great -- but the only thing holding consumers back is the lack of those 2 aforementioned packs. Instead, I'm left with materials I need from both base Honey Buzz and Fall Flavors, with too much that can fit into one box, with even some of it being made redundant (once you add the new foliage tiles in, you'll basically throw away some of the old ones as part of the reintegration). This of course is only a problem UNLESS you purchase the additional packs, thus making a new fall edition of the game and rendering ALL of the base stuff obsolete. It's a bit of a conundrum which I think ultimately comes down to cash grabbing from already loyal fans of the design. One additional note: anyone who upgraded the coins in base Honey Buzz to the official wooden ones will be frustrated to find that even the deluxe copy of Fall Flavors only includes cardboard 50 value coins. If consistency is as important to others as it is to me, then the Cornucopia box is almost necessary just for the wooden coins.
If all of the new contents were released together in one box as a Honey Buzz 2.0, I'd probably gripe less and be happier. Alas, I will likely continue to throw money at the company that intentionally planned their release to optimize profits from those who appreciate cohesion and consistency.
12% off
