Not All Animals Are Equal

[RivaRain]

Does anyone else feel that some animals are better value than others?

Duck is my favourite (and seems to be drafted by other players whenever it appears). Flexible tile placement. Easy to complete. Relatively high scoring (creature tokens plus habitat tiles).

What is your go-to first pick? Which animals do you usually avoid?

As for me...

#1: Duck
Almost never: Penguin, Stingray, Desert Fox, Mouse

(NOTE: I mostly play 3 players, Side A, no Nature Spirits)

[firetail_fox]

Kinda hard to pick one favorite so I’ll just list one or 2 from each color.
Green: parrots, pretty flexible since you can put them wherever on your river
Grey: condors
Yellow: raccoons
Red: squirrel/ mice, but none these really stand out to me
Blue:I’ll go with fish for this, since you already mentioned ducks, but I think both are quite good and serve a similar purpose

Cards I don’t like are everything else that has a grey background

[pahakuukkeli]

I don't think there can be a go-to first pick because it depends on what tiles are available, what other cards are available, what spirits you and your opponent have, etc. So, I'll do the same as the previous poster and list a card or more from each color I (feel like I) tend to pick more often than the others.

Blue: Duck, Fish (Otter and Manta are often good, too)
Green: Rabbit (Bees if either me or my opponent has Lion Spirit)
Grey: Macaque, Fennec Fox
Red: Mouse, Hedhehog (red ones are often quite hard to finish, but they also have a high scoring potential)
Yellow: Crow, Raccoon, Llama

Cards I tend to avoid the most are the ones where the cubes are placed on height 3. Other than those, I rarely take Alligator (it would be good if it was only 2 cubes and 5-11 or 4-10 points), Gekko (it's fine with Lion but otherwise there's usually better places to put yellow tiles), and Flamingo (again, quite awkward for yellow in many cases).

At the end of the game, any animal that lets you place 1+ cubes is solid