by ephont
(disclaimer: I'm the game's co-designer)Thanks for your thoughtful post. I would have been interested to hear any ideas you might have in modifying the game more to your liking.
In a sense, the reason we do not share your concern about the balancing issues of fighting is given away in the end-part of the title you chose for the post: you have to fight. If not for hives, then at least for nectar or being able to carry out the aggressive action you want. Since not everyone can lose, the player to win is the one who chooses his fights best.
This is not to say that we didn't grapple with the issue during game development. Most changes done to the game mechanic were done to balance the fighting element of the game. In early versions, moving around actually cost nectar, which really cemented game play and made it difficult to challenge other players. The aggressive honey action was also gradually made stronger to enable a quick takeover of a hive with sufficiently few honey.
BTW, back when we first designed Hornet in 2008, we were very fresh to the boardgaming scene and did not know "area-majority" was a well-established genre of boardgames. Now it feels great to get lumped together with games like El Grande (even if in an unflattering light like here).