I Want To Get Better At This Game But I Don't Know How

[Archisian]

Hello all,

I'm currently at 34% winning percentage and I'm in the middle of a 1/18 streak. I want to be good at this game, but there is something that I'm fundamentally missing about this game that keeps making me lose. Could anyone check my games and tell me what it is I'm doing wrong? Am I bad at knowing card synergies? Do I focus too much on bonuses or ignore them too much?

I'm desperate for help and I'm frustrated at constantly losing.

[FrankJones]

Post a game in which you feel you had a good starting hand but did not win.

[Ceaseless]

Post ag me in which you feel you had a good starting hand but did not win.

*A game

To emphasize what Frankjones is saying, it's much easier to use specific examples. Ideally from games you picked so we don't end up blindly picking games with less than ideal connections to the problem.

https://boardgamearena.com/archive/repl ... s=93357955; I just briefly glance at the opening hand from your last game, and not keeping Woodpecker was a fatal error. The face-up birds actually gave you a scary number of options, but to give just one example if you had drawn the Chickadee (which you did in this game), but with Woodpecker, you'd easily be able to play both early enough and each time you gain food after that you'd grab 2, get 2 eggs from Woodpecker, and 1 point from Chickadee. Given how brutal your food engine would be, you could have even kept one of the wetland birds since you'd get their food easily enough and have some draw fodder capacity. So even just an opening of Woodpecker, wetland bird, wheat for the future chickadee, and the invertebrate + fruit for the Woodpecker would give you a playable hand instead of throwing aside the entire thing.

That's just me glancing at the opening of your last game without really digging into it.

[FrankJones]

I think I managed THREE typos in a span of 6 characters !

Or maybe it should be considered 2 typos: space in the wrong place, omitted the second 'a'.

[FrankJones]

Yeah, Pileated Woodpecker can be very strong, especially in a 2-player game (Increases the chances of not needing to give an egg to an opponent for a few turns). Being able to gain food and lay 2 eggs is huge. After playing the woodpecker, you can choose to either lay eggs (enabling the play of the Chickadee), or, gain food and one egg, enabling you to play the chickadee.

The Wingsplain website [NOT a gaming platform] has the Pileated woodpecker in "turn 1", but that might undervalue the bird.

[FrankJones]

There are a lot of options in that game indeed. I wonder - should the Chickadee be a priority? My concern is getting a good wetland bird down. The Mourning dove is big. Placed in the wetland, it sets up a self-generating 2-card draw until a second wetland bird is found and the egg no longer needs to be given up. The Chickadee is big with the Pileated Woodpecker, but if the opponent draws the Dove and no wetland bird comes out, it could result in a long frustrating slog to get the wetland going.

[Edit - I just played through each player's first turn, and that's exactly what happened.]

[Second edit - without the woodpecker, how important is the chickadee? I think the Mourning dove was the right choice. The Chickadee is no help toward the bonus card and minimally helpful toward the end-round goals. And with an empty hand, a wetland bird should be first priority.

Somewhere around move 74 you gained food, but took no grain, even though you need 5 grain. I'm not sure grabbing all four of those grassland-only birds was wise. It's frustrating drawing two bad bonus cards, and playing inefficient birds (such as the Inca dove) just to meet the bonus will somewhat offset the reward for meeting the high bonus.

I'll refrain from further analysis until the OP responds. In half of these "I need help" posts, the OP is never heard from again.

[Archisian]

Thanks for all the replies, everyone.

So, it seems more that I'm not understanding the certain usefulness of the cards and I'm too focused on bonus cards?

Admittedly, getting bad bonus cards worries me a lot, because I can't be certain of the bonus cards my opponent has. So, I try my best to follow the conditions while trying to be flexible. But, seeing as how it doesn't help me win, it might just come down to me not seeing which cards are more useful that others.

[Archisian]

Here's my most recent game. What could I have done in the game to have improved my odds?

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=678490594

[Archisian]

And here's another one. Another loss like usual. I just get absolutely decimated. My brain is hurting trying to understand what I'm missing. I feel like I'm an idiot because I'm apparently not seeing what others are.

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=678499339

[Archisian]

Post a game in which you feel you had a good starting hand but did not win.

I guess it's more of I don't know what is a good starting hand and what is not. Seems my stupid brain can't parse this out.