Speaking of the hive mind, Hive by Gen42 can be played on any generally flat surface. Tiles are sturdy enough to withstand outdoor weather, great for playing on the beach or camping!

I wouldn’t consider being in a hole “cozy,” unless I was next to the enemy queen!

While it’s hard to beat Hive in my humble but biased opinion, Homeworlds by Looney Labs is similar in that it’s boardless, and it’s incredible how much complexity can come out of just 3 copies of 12 colored plastic pyramids.

Check this game out: both players in the first game brought in spiders when they thought it’d be a sacrifice to bring in an ant.

youtu.be/WAV6toBNNic?...

Great question! Sometimes, your opponent also has ants to spare already in the hive, which could easily trap a new ant you want to spawn. A spider is a good piece to spawn if you can spawn it in range of trapping enemy ants, forcing them to use the ant to trap the spider instead of a new ant.

Hive belongs on top for sure!

I stand corrected.
Check out this puzzle I made:
Black to play and win in 2 turns

Hive!