Ursa Miner Review: Digging Deep for Honey & Glory
Adorable meeples meet take-that card play
💎 BGG rated 7.4/10 w. just 111 ratings 💎
Last time, I reviewed Katmai — a game about bears bickering over Alaskan salmon.
This time, it’s bears again. Except now they are battling underground for Royal Jelly. Can the game live up to the incredible pun*?
* in my day-job I’m an astronomy writer and Ursa Minor is a constellation (The Little Bear, home to the North Star)
📊 Quick stats
💡 Designers: Michael Batista & Eli Kosminsky
🎨 Artists: Anthony Amato & Michelle Ran
🖨️ Publisher: Room and Board Games
📅 Released: 2017
🧑🏻🤝🧑🏿 Players: 2-4
🎂 Age: 8+
⚖️ Weight: 1.60/5
⏱️ Time: 30-40 minutes
🧩 Game Overview
In Ursa Miner, the battleground is Mount Honeycomb — a three-layer stack of hex tiles loaded with sweet rewards. Each player begins with two bears, placed on a single stack, ready to dig.
On your turn, every bear can move to an adjacent tile and/or mine one. You can forego mining completely to move that bear two spaces. Mining isn’t a solo job, though. Each tile demands a specific number of bears working together from adjacent tiles.
The catch? You can’t mine a tile that already has bears on it. No “undermining” allowed (the rulebook missed a golden pun there). Nor can you ever cut the mountain in half. That means careful positioning can block or derail an opponent’s plans.
Mine a tile and you’ll harvest either honey (the in-game currency) or the coveted Royal Jelly (victory points). The deeper you dig into Mount Honeycomb, the better the rewards, but the higher the bear-power required.
Once per turn, you can also play a card from your hand. These are where the chaos creeps in, letting you shift bears, swap tiles or otherwise stir the pot.
After moving, mining and maybe playing a card, you can recruit another bear for three honey, expanding your furry workforce for future turns. Then you draw a new card to end your go.
The draw deck doubles as the timer. When the last card is pulled, everyone gets one final turn. Then it’s simple: the bear clan with the most Royal Jelly takes the crown.
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🧠 G.A.M.E. Analysis
🎲 G - Gameplay
(pacing, downtime, intuitiveness)
Turns are simple in principle, but less so in practice. Move, mine and play a card are all optional and can be done in any order, so the flow takes a couple of rounds to click.
Recruiting a new bear with honey, however, only happens once you’ve moved past those main actions, which can trip up new players.
Fortunately, your reserve bear card doubles as a clear player aid.
The main pitfall is remembering to draw a card at the end of your turn. Forget that just once and the game’s timer drifts, which we discovered the hard way on our first play.
⭐ Score: 17/25
🎨 A - Art & Theme
(visual appeal, thematic coherence, component quality)
It’s a charming package. Once built, Mount Honeycomb looks striking on the table and the shaped, screen-printed bear meeples — honey bears, red pandas, black bears & brown bears — are irresistible.
The cartoony style makes it look like a kids’ game, but the level of “take that” and the text on the cards put it firmly in family-plus territory.
Component quality is mixed. The hex tiles scuff quickly and the cards, while vividly illustrated, feel cheaply printed. Off-centred text boxes in particular drag down the finish.
⭐ Score: 18/25
⚙️ M - Mechanics
(design elegance, balance, novelty)
What I like most is the freedom to chain actions in any order. When a turn clicks and you spot the sequence — play a card, move here, mine there — it’s genuinely satisfying.
The more chaotic cards (shifting bears, swapping tiles, blowing up a tile with TNT) create real swing. I’m fine with that because the take-that spikes fit the tone. If you hate that style, it may not be for you.
Balance feels decent for a first-time publisher. The advanced mode (no moving a bear after it mines/extra cards played cost honey) adds just enough tension, so I prefer it.
I don’t own another game that plays in quite the same way, which is a plus.
⭐ Score: 18/25
😄 E - Enjoyability
(fun factor, replayability, emotional response)
The game makes people smile as soon as the bear meeples hit the table. It’s interactive and often mischievous.
It’s short enough that most of the time people want to play again immediately, which speaks for itself.
Longevity is the main weakness. The same tiles and cards appear every time. Without asymmetry between bear species, it risks feeling samey over several repeated plays.
The design feels like it’s begging for an expansion to keep it fresh.
⭐ Score: 18/25
🔨 Final Verdict
There’s a lot to like here. It’s a light-hearted game that makes you smile, with just enough bite to keep seasoned gamers interested.
But it’s also a game that stops one step short of greatness. Without added variety, it struggles to stand out in a crowded collection. Sweet, fun, memorable in the moment, but not the kind of game you’ll keep on reaching for indefinitely.
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