It's been long stablished that controlling and limiting your opponent's pieces is the main concern in Hive, otherwise White always win because they got the uphand when it comes to Tempo. If Black doesn't try to limit White, Black always loses, and if White doesn't try to overcome Black's complications by creating some of their own, limiting one or two of the Black pieces, White will lose the Tempo advantage and ultimately lose the game.
Hive is a game that revolves around control/limitation and tempo.
It doesn't have a board, so it doesn't have the same strategies/mechanics as in chess, such as:
- Limiting opponent's pieces mobility to certain squares (usually by pawn moves)
Attacking a specific "side of the board"
No discovered checks or attacks
No forks
No double check
No pawn promotion
No skewer
No whatever other mechanic inherent to chess apart from:
Turn-based game, checkmate, pins, and constriction, that's it.
Even the pin concept is different in Hive than it is in Chess. Pinning a piece in chess refers to attacking a certain piece in a way it cannot move otherwise it would open a direct attack to one own's king. In Hive, pinning a piece merely means attaching one of your own pieces to the enemies so they can't move as not to break the "one-hive" rule. (the hive can never be parted) If you are the one making the pin, then you got the freedom to decided when you want to move that piece away, your opponent on the other hand, doesn't.
I myself have complained about playing against stronger players on this Website (given the fact that the amount of players here is not that many, you will most likely than not face stronger opponents who are addicted to the game, I'm almost becoming one), because I don't feel like I learn much when playing against someone who is too much better than me. I feel like I learn the best when I play someone who is slightly better than I am or slightly worse or even about the same level.
But all in all, I never complained about what strategy they used to win. I know that if I lost it is simply because my opponent is better than I am, there is no secret in that.
It's funny how it is usually newer and weaker players who always complain about how a certain game should be played (it doesn't matter if it's Hive, checkers or even tic tac toe)
If you feel limited in what you can do creativity-wise in your games, it is simply because your opponet is outplaying you.
