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

[Ceaseless]

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.

Woodpecker wipes out Dove's value in sustaining the egg payment as a solo wetlander by making the eggs themself, not to mention the awkward issue of Dove only giving the gg after the wetland, meaning it won't work the first time unless you get an egg elsewhere. At that point even if you got Dove it's better in the forest where it would make more eggs than in the wetland, and using one of the wetland birds in the opening as your wetlander, the strong forest justifying the expense.

Without Woodpecker Dove is still a better forest bird, again even a meh wetlander is better here, especially in light of how much food gets kept. At this point you could even choose to draw the Wren and accept that even if the opponent hard drew dove that getting Chickadee and another card still left you with 2 forest birds, whatever wetlander you kept, and a spare card to boot, which is a passable opening, though you may prefer getting Dove and snatching your other forest bird later.

Though I suspect your "without Woodpecker" wasn't actually just no Woodpecker but picking up where the OP left off in having no hand, in which case Dove is who you get to carry the hand as a standalone wetlander. Ideally, you'd get Wren and draw into Dove and Chickadee, but your opponent is likely to hard draw Dove and possibly leave you stranded in the wetland if you tried to pull that.

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.

Bonus cards are nice, but they're an endgame concern you worry about as the game is progressing. While they can be helpful in scoring, there's a lot of stuff you should worry about first.

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

That is not my favorite hand, to say the least. Grasshopper Sparrow is the only good card. However, the best card in your hand is actually the Great Egret, which is actually a really good mid to late game card but in this case is going to serve as a trashy wetland starter with no effect. We are dealing with the surreal situation that it trumps the Warbler because unlike Warbler it doesn't overlap with your Sparrow, so you can open with a wheat for Sparrow and a fish+rat for Egret, using your gain foot to grab fish #2. So it takes less time than any other wetland option to get both birds played, which trumps Warbler being worth 1 extra point, having 1 extra egg slot, and its cavity nest being superior due to round 2's goal. Golden Eagle doesn't have the food overlap, but it being triple rodent poses a similar food issue that trumps it actually having an effect. Alternatively you might give up on sparrow for one extra bit of food, which would let you play either Eagle for the effect or Warbler for the nest/extra speed instead of Egret.

In the early game, you need to make sure you can actually play. That means having birds to play, food to play them with, and eggs that are used as payment to play birds and draw extra cards in the wetland instead of being used for points in the end game. The first priority is having birds, meaning setting up a wetland to draw birds, since with that you might draw into birds for the forest and grassland. In this case, that means you had to pick at least 1 wetland bird, which you then play, adds eggs to, then use those eggs as payment to draw 1 extra card using the wetland exchange option of 1 egg for 1 card when you have an odd number of wetland birds. Sparrow helps with the egg quantity, but you're basically just praying to draw something. Not ideal, but it means you have a chance. Your goal from there is to get a food system set up, most commonly getting forest birds, the first forest bird might even result in you discarding from hand for 2 food using any dead draws. I would not blame you for losing this game, but not ensuring you have a draw engine at the start of the game when available is something you do not let happen in all but the most extreme scenarios.

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

There are many variations of acceptable opening hands I could live with, but they all require that you not only immediately draw American Crow like you did, but also that you keep Lincoln's Sparrow. As I mentioned for the other replay, you need a way to get cards, which is usually a wetland bird's job. Lincoln Sparrow not only does that, but since it can move between rows, it can go into the grassland with American Crow and let you lay 3 eggs instead of 2 before going back to the wetland. American Crow can actually let you go without the forest for food at all, but there's a world where you keep the Red-Bellied Woodpecker anyways and move Lincoln's Sparrow into the forest so you can use it to gain 2 food in a turn plus a potential wheat or point when you need to speed up your food play to support your slow but steady American Crow option in the Grassland. Lincoln's Sparrow ability to keep moving between rows is essential to your options. It also helps your round 1 goal of birds in grassland and round 2 goal of egg containing ground nests.

To repeat this again, you absolutely must prioritize having a way to draw more cards as the #1 thing to accomplish in the early game 99% of the time. 1 wetland bird to enable paying an egg to draw 2 cards instead of 1 is key. If you only draw 1 card per wetland play, then you're at a severe handicap where your opponents will keep drawing more and better cards game after game, making it impossible for you to keep up. There are several other skills involved in Wingspan, but if you don't get a basic draw engine going you won't get the chance for these things to even matter because you won't have the cards for it. You don't have to actually play said wetland bird first, if you already have both forest birds and wetland bird you can play the forest birds first and use them to get the food for the wetland bird, but making sure the wetland bird is in your hand first is key.

[Archisian]

That is not my favorite hand, to say the least. Grasshopper Sparrow is the only good card. However, the best card in your hand is actually the Great Egret, which is actually a really good mid to late game card but in this case is going to serve as a trashy wetland starter with no effect. We are dealing with the surreal situation that it trumps the Warbler because unlike Warbler it doesn't overlap with your Sparrow, so you can open with a wheat for Sparrow and a fish+rat for Egret, using your gain foot to grab fish #2. So it takes less time than any other wetland option to get both birds played, which trumps Warbler being worth 1 extra point, having 1 extra egg slot, and its cavity nest being superior due to round 2's goal. Golden Eagle doesn't have the food overlap, but it being triple rodent poses a similar food issue that trumps it actually having an effect. Alternatively you might give up on sparrow for one extra bit of food, which would let you play either Eagle for the effect or Warbler for the nest/extra speed instead of Egret.

In the early game, you need to make sure you can actually play. That means having birds to play, food to play them with, and eggs that are used as payment to play birds and draw extra cards in the wetland instead of being used for points in the end game. The first priority is having birds, meaning setting up a wetland to draw birds, since with that you might draw into birds for the forest and grassland. In this case, that means you had to pick at least 1 wetland bird, which you then play, adds eggs to, then use those eggs as payment to draw 1 extra card using the wetland exchange option of 1 egg for 1 card when you have an odd number of wetland birds. Sparrow helps with the egg quantity, but you're basically just praying to draw something. Not ideal, but it means you have a chance. Your goal from there is to get a food system set up, most commonly getting forest birds, the first forest bird might even result in you discarding from hand for 2 food using any dead draws. I would not blame you for losing this game, but not ensuring you have a draw engine at the start of the game when available is something you do not let happen in all but the most extreme scenarios.

So, I had the right idea at first with the Grasshopper Sparrow? I just needed to have another card to put in the wetland that allowed me to draw extra cards?

There are many variations of acceptable opening hands I could live with, but they all require that you not only immediately draw American Crow like you did, but also that you keep Lincoln's Sparrow. As I mentioned for the other replay, you need a way to get cards, which is usually a wetland bird's job. Lincoln Sparrow not only does that, but since it can move between rows, it can go into the grassland with American Crow and let you lay 3 eggs instead of 2 before going back to the wetland. American Crow can actually let you go without the forest for food at all, but there's a world where you keep the Red-Bellied Woodpecker anyways and move Lincoln's Sparrow into the forest so you can use it to gain 2 food in a turn plus a potential wheat or point when you need to speed up your food play to support your slow but steady American Crow option in the Grassland. Lincoln's Sparrow ability to keep moving between rows is essential to your options. It also helps your round 1 goal of birds in grassland and round 2 goal of egg containing ground nests.

To repeat this again, you absolutely must prioritize having a way to draw more cards as the #1 thing to accomplish in the early game 99% of the time. 1 wetland bird to enable paying an egg to draw 2 cards instead of 1 is key. If you only draw 1 card per wetland play, then you're at a severe handicap where your opponents will keep drawing more and better cards game after game, making it impossible for you to keep up. There are several other skills involved in Wingspan, but if you don't get a basic draw engine going you won't get the chance for these things to even matter because you won't have the cards for it. You don't have to actually play said wetland bird first, if you already have both forest birds and wetland bird you can play the forest birds first and use them to get the food for the wetland bird, but making sure the wetland bird is in your hand first is key.

Mkay, so the highest priority is to get Wetland birds first, or at least within the first few turns. Grassland birds are more for the mid to late game?

[Archisian]

There are many variations of acceptable opening hands I could live with, but they all require that you not only immediately draw American Crow like you did, but also that you keep Lincoln's Sparrow. As I mentioned for the other replay, you need a way to get cards, which is usually a wetland bird's job. Lincoln Sparrow not only does that, but since it can move between rows, it can go into the grassland with American Crow and let you lay 3 eggs instead of 2 before going back to the wetland. American Crow can actually let you go without the forest for food at all, but there's a world where you keep the Red-Bellied Woodpecker anyways and move Lincoln's Sparrow into the forest so you can use it to gain 2 food in a turn plus a potential wheat or point when you need to speed up your food play to support your slow but steady American Crow option in the Grassland. Lincoln's Sparrow ability to keep moving between rows is essential to your options. It also helps your round 1 goal of birds in grassland and round 2 goal of egg containing ground nests.

To repeat this again, you absolutely must prioritize having a way to draw more cards as the #1 thing to accomplish in the early game 99% of the time. 1 wetland bird to enable paying an egg to draw 2 cards instead of 1 is key. If you only draw 1 card per wetland play, then you're at a severe handicap where your opponents will keep drawing more and better cards game after game, making it impossible for you to keep up. There are several other skills involved in Wingspan, but if you don't get a basic draw engine going you won't get the chance for these things to even matter because you won't have the cards for it. You don't have to actually play said wetland bird first, if you already have both forest birds and wetland bird you can play the forest birds first and use them to get the food for the wetland bird, but making sure the wetland bird is in your hand first is key.

Here's a game where I followed your suggestion. It was my first win in a while. However, it was extremely close. Did I play this the right way? Could I have done something different to make it less close?

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=678521515

[Ceaseless]

That is not my favorite hand, to say the least. Grasshopper Sparrow is the only good card. However, the best card in your hand is actually the Great Egret, which is actually a really good mid to late game card but in this case is going to serve as a trashy wetland starter with no effect. We are dealing with the surreal situation that it trumps the Warbler because unlike Warbler it doesn't overlap with your Sparrow, so you can open with a wheat for Sparrow and a fish+rat for Egret, using your gain foot to grab fish #2. So it takes less time than any other wetland option to get both birds played, which trumps Warbler being worth 1 extra point, having 1 extra egg slot, and its cavity nest being superior due to round 2's goal. Golden Eagle doesn't have the food overlap, but it being triple rodent poses a similar food issue that trumps it actually having an effect. Alternatively you might give up on sparrow for one extra bit of food, which would let you play either Eagle for the effect or Warbler for the nest/extra speed instead of Egret.

In the early game, you need to make sure you can actually play. That means having birds to play, food to play them with, and eggs that are used as payment to play birds and draw extra cards in the wetland instead of being used for points in the end game. The first priority is having birds, meaning setting up a wetland to draw birds, since with that you might draw into birds for the forest and grassland. In this case, that means you had to pick at least 1 wetland bird, which you then play, adds eggs to, then use those eggs as payment to draw 1 extra card using the wetland exchange option of 1 egg for 1 card when you have an odd number of wetland birds. Sparrow helps with the egg quantity, but you're basically just praying to draw something. Not ideal, but it means you have a chance. Your goal from there is to get a food system set up, most commonly getting forest birds, the first forest bird might even result in you discarding from hand for 2 food using any dead draws. I would not blame you for losing this game, but not ensuring you have a draw engine at the start of the game when available is something you do not let happen in all but the most extreme scenarios.

So, I had the right idea at first with the Grasshopper Sparrow? I just needed to have another card to put in the wetland that allowed me to draw extra cards?

There are many variations of acceptable opening hands I could live with, but they all require that you not only immediately draw American Crow like you did, but also that you keep Lincoln's Sparrow. As I mentioned for the other replay, you need a way to get cards, which is usually a wetland bird's job. Lincoln Sparrow not only does that, but since it can move between rows, it can go into the grassland with American Crow and let you lay 3 eggs instead of 2 before going back to the wetland. American Crow can actually let you go without the forest for food at all, but there's a world where you keep the Red-Bellied Woodpecker anyways and move Lincoln's Sparrow into the forest so you can use it to gain 2 food in a turn plus a potential wheat or point when you need to speed up your food play to support your slow but steady American Crow option in the Grassland. Lincoln's Sparrow ability to keep moving between rows is essential to your options. It also helps your round 1 goal of birds in grassland and round 2 goal of egg containing ground nests.

To repeat this again, you absolutely must prioritize having a way to draw more cards as the #1 thing to accomplish in the early game 99% of the time. 1 wetland bird to enable paying an egg to draw 2 cards instead of 1 is key. If you only draw 1 card per wetland play, then you're at a severe handicap where your opponents will keep drawing more and better cards game after game, making it impossible for you to keep up. There are several other skills involved in Wingspan, but if you don't get a basic draw engine going you won't get the chance for these things to even matter because you won't have the cards for it. You don't have to actually play said wetland bird first, if you already have both forest birds and wetland bird you can play the forest birds first and use them to get the food for the wetland bird, but making sure the wetland bird is in your hand first is key.

Mkay, so the highest priority is to get Wetland birds first, or at least within the first few turns. Grassland birds are more for the mid to late game?

The Grasshopper Sparrow was just a generically good card, there wasn't any real plan for keeping it beyond that. Getting the wetland bird was pretty much the idea of that hand, and Sparrow would just be grassland support. Generally the Grassland is a mid to late game effort, so unless it's changing roles like with American Crow turning it into a food engine or even a bit of tuck and draw hand control, you don't tend to have a lot of strategic worries about it in the first few turns. A cheap egg layer might slip in as a really good card, but largely as support to your priorities of getting birds and food to play it early on.

There are many variations of acceptable opening hands I could live with, but they all require that you not only immediately draw American Crow like you did, but also that you keep Lincoln's Sparrow. As I mentioned for the other replay, you need a way to get cards, which is usually a wetland bird's job. Lincoln Sparrow not only does that, but since it can move between rows, it can go into the grassland with American Crow and let you lay 3 eggs instead of 2 before going back to the wetland. American Crow can actually let you go without the forest for food at all, but there's a world where you keep the Red-Bellied Woodpecker anyways and move Lincoln's Sparrow into the forest so you can use it to gain 2 food in a turn plus a potential wheat or point when you need to speed up your food play to support your slow but steady American Crow option in the Grassland. Lincoln's Sparrow ability to keep moving between rows is essential to your options. It also helps your round 1 goal of birds in grassland and round 2 goal of egg containing ground nests.

To repeat this again, you absolutely must prioritize having a way to draw more cards as the #1 thing to accomplish in the early game 99% of the time. 1 wetland bird to enable paying an egg to draw 2 cards instead of 1 is key. If you only draw 1 card per wetland play, then you're at a severe handicap where your opponents will keep drawing more and better cards game after game, making it impossible for you to keep up. There are several other skills involved in Wingspan, but if you don't get a basic draw engine going you won't get the chance for these things to even matter because you won't have the cards for it. You don't have to actually play said wetland bird first, if you already have both forest birds and wetland bird you can play the forest birds first and use them to get the food for the wetland bird, but making sure the wetland bird is in your hand first is key.

Here's a game where I followed your suggestion. It was my first win in a while. However, it was extremely close. Did I play this the right way? Could I have done something different to make it less close?

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=678521515

There's definitely a part of me leaning towards keeping Wilson's Snipe instead and using it to try drawing into forest birds. It being 1 food instead of 2 and scoring more than Bushit are heavy advantages, though the lack of invertebrate messes with its food advantage and I can't deny the star nest has a lot of synergetic value. The rodent bonus is also usually stronger than the 4 egg one, easier to meet requirements of just playing birds instead of committing many eggs, though your hand isn't the worst at supporting it either. At this point I won't say your hand is necessarily off the mark.

However, after playing Bushit, your first draw choice is definitely off. You should instead get around to laying eggs, using them as fodder for drawing more cards. Likely blind draws, Inca Dive is not a good card, even with your star nest support the card needs much more set-up and your goal should be finding forest birds anyways. You drawing 1 card back to back is slower than laying 2 eggs one turn then next turn paying 1 egg and drawing 2 cards. With the latter method you still have 1 extra egg to spend on something else.

You are lucky your opponent is giving you food, especially after they set up their forest. Without that, your food engine would be extremely handicapped. Warbler and Vireo should have gotten into your forest sooner to help get food to play the other birds faster. Cards like Hawk and especially a tuck and draw like Martin end up stronger in the Grassland where they are activated more often and score more points. Martin even more so since drawing by using an area that doesn't draw like the Grassland is way more flexible than it being a spare draw in an area that already draws like the Wetland. (As a general rule of thumb, cards that let you do things that area normally can't do are really good. If you can draw cards in the gain food area, or gain food in the egg laying area, etc. that is really handy.)

After you know you can make the grassland, you should make sure you can make your forest. I would say the order of priority goes something like this.
1. Have wetland bird #1
2. Have forest birds #1 and #2
3. Play forest birds #1 and #2
4. Play wetland bird #1 (move to 2. if you don't have the forest birds for 2. and 3.)

The reason playing the forest birds comes before the wetland bird is that the forest birds can get the food you use to play the wetland bird. The reason having access to the wetland bird first is key is that the wetland bird can be used to get the other birds. So if for some reason you only drew the wetland bird, you can move playing it from #4 to #2, then use the wetland bird to try drawing into the forest birds. The reason wetland bird #1 is key is that you can pay the egg to get the second card. As for forest birds, it's harder to have the cards in hand to keep tossing, so you usually want to have 2 forest birds to not do that. Having 2 wetland birds is nice, but the eggs can be spent if needed, so the second wetland bird isn't as essential to the early game as a second forest bird. After all, you can lay 2 eggs at the start of the game, but can only draw 1 card, meaning eggs are an easier early resource to acquire for fodder than cards in hand.

[FrankJones]

Though I suspect your "without Woodpecker" wasn't actually just no Woodpecker but picking up where the OP left off in having no hand, in which case Dove is who you get to carry the hand as a standalone wetlander. Ideally, you'd get Wren and draw into Dove and Chickadee, but your opponent is likely to hard draw Dove and possibly leave you stranded in the wetland if you tried to pull that.

Correct; as played, I think the Mourning Dove was an important grab.

[Kakapogoglu]

Hello ! If you struggle with your starting hands and if you don't know which birds are the best for building your engine and your game, I recommend you to check on YT the video : "The Ultimate Wingspan Tier List: Early Game Strategy Guide & Bird Rankings". It's long but you have passionate and great Wingspan players discussing which birds are good for the early game, could be helpful for you.

Don't be too focused on the bonus cards, they are only few additional points for your end game score. They can be decisive at the end, but it's not that often actually. By building a good engine, you can score way more points than following "blindlessly" your bonus card. About end-round goals, they are important because they can make a 6-point difference each round with your opponent (if you play 1vs1). But personally, I sometimes sacrifice the first end-round goal to build my engine if it's worth it.

In the base game here, the main technique would be to gain fast access to food and card drawing, then in round 2 and 3, to switch progressively to a good grassland engine that you can activate often in the late game (eggs + points generated by brown powers). At round 4, you should count the points that every move will earn you. If laying eggs earns you more points than playing a bird for a bonus card, then lay eggs. I can't enumerate all the subtile ways to play a bird or another at the right time, Wingspan offers many possibilities. But I think if you choose wisely your starting hands, that's the first way to go for better scoring at the end, and potential victories. Good luck

[UnexpectedKea]

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.

I'm not an expert player, but from my experience my go to cards in my starting hand/ draw in the first round are those that will either a) get you more of the resource you play the card in (like extra food with a forest bird), or often even better: b) get you a resource from a different habitat (like eggs with a forest bird). B seems harder to come by. Food and cards are a priority for this, and out of the two I go for food first because it can be hard to collect early on. Both help you to get cracking early on without wasting turns grinding 1 habitat over and over again.

[FrankJones]

Ceaseless has the recipe here:

"
After you know you can make the grassland, you should make sure you can make your forest. I would say the order of priority goes something like this.
1. Have wetland bird #1
2. Have forest birds #1 and #2
3. Play forest birds #1 and #2
4. Play wetland bird #1 (move to 2. if you don't have the forest birds for 2. and 3.)
"

Ashas been discussed, you need cards to win this game. Without a wetland bird, it's not realistically possible to win. Actually playing the wetland bird does not need to be the priority though - as noted by the above sequence and by what UnexpectedKea wrote. In a 2-player game, a stagnant bird feeder with the wrong food can be a major hazard. Getting those two forest birds down early will set up a strong forest food draw, allowing you to get 2 food without giving up a card (which you likely will not yet have to spare anyway), ideally getting 2 useful food, but if not, one useful food and a second food to be used later. And activating (we hope) at least one good brown power, maybe 2.

Then you can get your wetland bird down, and lay eggs, preparing for 2 turns of drawing 2 cards. If you get a good second wetland bird, excellent. You can play it and save one of your eggs.

Laying eggs with an empty grassland isn't too bad in this version without expansions and without the modified player board. You still get 2 eggs.

At that point, I try to transition to setting up my grassland for points. This is the only habitat that inherently scores points, and again, since we are playing the base game, it's difficult to set up a scoring engine in the other habitats. It's also difficult to convert extra food and cards into points. No chiffchaff, chaffinch, No Eagles that eat cards, and no board activations to easily convert cards and food into points.

I always try to get a tuck-and-draw bird in the grassland so I can lay eggs while swapping a bad card for a good one in the tray, gaining that card without taking a mostly empty wetlands turn. I also like to get a "tuck-and-lay-egg" bird in the grassland so convert those extra cards into 2 points each.

The end-round goals are usually more important than your bonus card. As has been noted, each one is potentially a 6-point swing. That's a lot better than putting down 2 mediocre birds just to add 3 points to your starting bonus card.

I will say, I'm not a big fan of playing this game without expansions. For me it gets boring rather quickly. I find the early game very frustrating and highly dependent on the starting hand. The limited number of end-round goals starts to get repetitive too. These concerns might not apply to anyone who has only played the base game. But after so many plays with the expansions, I find this version very limited. 2 forest birds, 2 wetland birds, fill the grassland row, and spam it for points.

And sometimes, the bird feeder will not cooperate, or, you'll draw garbage cards and at some point you'll just have to start playing what you have.

[Florrible]

I sympathise with this. I played I think 5 games today and lost every single one. I feel I maybe had bad luck with my starting hand and the bonus cards that I picked up along the way. I feel a lot of the regular players have the entire card deck memorised and know the good combos but I feel that I certain cards that I just prefer regardless what the general consensus might be on this birds (for example I quite like having mourning dove as a starting bird in Wetland). I feel like certain techniques cannot possibly apply to every game because where I see players suggesting to build up the grassland last, I’ve had games where I started off with 2 grassland birds and nothing else because those were the cards that I had that worked well with the end of round goals / my bonus goals. I think the main suggestion is that if the first end of round goal is birds in grassland or eggs in grassland then probably the more expert players would just ignore it and concentrate on other things.

Funnily enough I just checked to see if we had ever been opponents and we haven’t. With such a history of losing on both sides it would be interesting to see what happens if we played against each other lol

[FrankJones]

I think the Mourning Dove is great in the wetland. Or the grassland. I love having it in my starting hand.

In general, having a bird in the wetland and forest is important, and getting a second one there is important. There may be situations where other paths are better, but at some point, drawing cards and gaining food needs to happen, and only being able to get one resources when doing those actions creates a very difficult path to victory.