What could I have done better in this game?

[Florrible]

About the turn 0 : I think in this game I would have also kept the Hummingbird. Giving you the opportunity to gain food when you need it all along the game. Good also for your bonus card.
First turn Hummingbird. Then I lay eggs and gain the cherry to play the forest birds on turn 3. I gain food on turn 4 and play Ruddy Duck on turn 5. I would maybe take the sparrow early on, especially if the food I need for the duck is not already in the birdfeeder. With a second grassland bird, you have something very solid for the rest of the game to gain food, cards and eggs. In the turn 7 I could play the Sparrow (with low probability) + lay eggs on turn 8, if not just draw cards without paying too much attention about the EOR goal, especially if there are good birds to take.

I look now what happenned next in the game. I think you have to take the american crow on turn 3. It's a very very powerful bird that almost give you the opportunity to not paying too much attention on developping the forest.

I didn't go further but that's what I could say about the early game

thank you!

[kostinen]

On the other hand, you could play Heron right now, taking the egg off of Grackle for the last Grassland push. The 2 for 1 for the fish does not matter, if you play Puffin, then you will make that trade anyways.

Omg how can I miss that. I think my pattern was "I have this two birds to play and I can't now, then I have to gain food before play them". The fact this is the same food I search for the two birds allows this move. Very strange I didn't consider this better option. Thanks !

Blind food is usually playable. At bare minimum it will 2 for 1 into something if you play a bird, but this early in the game, you'll probably have something that it can be used for normally. Just pick the most generic looking food and it will probably go somewhere. Dead birds, on the other hand, only work if you can tuck them.

In a game, you will gain food a certain number of times and draw cards a certain number of times. On turn 8, the question for you was whether you'd rather use one of those gain foods down or draw cards. Whichever you took care of now meant you'd probably have to deal with the other later. So which one was more immediate and which one was better to put off?

Normally I prefer seeing my birds first to have a better idea of which food will be live. However, because this is the last turn of the round, you will dig through several cards just by going to the next turn and watching the tray get refilled. If you have nothing you want from the current tray, delaying your card draw 1 turn gives you more digging than actually drawing will. So by taking your food a little bit earlier, you expand your drawing range into the deck by 3 cards. In this case, the two dead cards you pulled would have been ruled out as duds when they ended up face-up on the tray instead, and you could have intentionally decided if Hummingbird was worth it. The turn you spend on gaining food in round 2 could instead be spent on your drawing, since the turn you spend on drawing on round 1 was used on gaining good. You pretty much flipped them.

It makes sense. I think I already planed to draw cards two times, to take advantage of the tray getting refilled. And grab food later, when I had the advantage to know what food I need. With the cards I already had in hand, know what card is good for me in the tray is also easier. Blind food would also have helped me about this.
Well, that's interesting anyway, especially to "expand my draw range" as you said and I will definitely explore this path the next time !

[Florrible]

I did not just look up from the game I was playing to realise I picked the wrong bonus card. I picked Food web expert over Bird counter. I got confused because with my starting hand either card would have given me 2 points. but Bird Counter has so much more potential. I'm so mad at myself.

worse still that the Painted Whitestart who only eats invertebrates was then hunted by one of my birds with a killing power. I'm fuming.

[FrankJones]

Food web expert is a good bonus card.

[FrankJones]

Pileated woodpecker! With a target in opening hand.

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=689994643

Unfortunately, my opponent's first bird had a cavity nest, but I feel as though I executed my plan well.

I drew one card I did not need, and I nearly ran out of egg spaces, but it all worked out in the end.

[kostinen]

Pileated woodpecker! With a target in opening hand.

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=689994643

Unfortunately, my opponent's first bird had a cavity nest, but I feel as though I executed my plan well.

I drew one card I did not need, and I nearly ran out of egg spaces, but it all worked out in the end.

Nice!

I've just watched the start of this great game and I saw a move that reminded me about a little tip I like. This is not a big secret, I saw lot of player doing this, but I first saw it done by a very good player and I try to apply it most of the time.

When I decide to draw cards, I know how many I can draw (including bird powers), how many I should discard/tuck, and how many cards from the tray I want to have.
So I can deduce how many cards I'll take from the deck. If this number is greater than 0, then I always start by taking from the deck. Sometimes I'll draw a bird that's better than the ones I originally wanted to take from the tray (or an equivalent bird that would serve double duty). I can then adapt more easily by leaving a bird in the tray
- either because I no longer need it
- or because I'll have to discard it if I want to keep the good card I've just drawn (and save it for the next turn)
This gives me greater control over events by first revealing the only thing I don't know (the first cards in the deck).

[FrankJones]

Exactly. Drawing unnecessarily from the tray is a major error. I am pretty sure I made that mistake in round 1, only to discard the cad I took from the tray because I got something better. Which means I could have left that card in the tray and seen one additional face down card and avoiding putting a potentially dangerous card into the tray for my opponent.

[Florrible]

Nice!

I've just watched the start of this great game and I saw a move that reminded me about a little tip I like. This is not a big secret, I saw lot of player doing this, but I first saw it done by a very good player and I try to apply it most of the time.

When I decide to draw cards, I know how many I can draw (including bird powers), how many I should discard/tuck, and how many cards from the tray I want to have.
So I can deduce how many cards I'll take from the deck. If this number is greater than 0, then I always start by taking from the deck. Sometimes I'll draw a bird that's better than the ones I originally wanted to take from the tray (or an equivalent bird that would serve double duty). I can then adapt more easily by leaving a bird in the tray
- either because I no longer need it
- or because I'll have to discard it if I want to keep the good card I've just drawn (and save it for the next turn)
This gives me greater control over events by first revealing the only thing I don't know (the first cards in the deck).

So I just read this great tip and I have seen many players do this before but I have to admit I am not really a risk taking kind of person and I would always pick from the tray. So I started a new game and I said to myself, I'm going to do this! And then chickened out. TWICE in the same game. And as you can absolutely guess, both time the face down card was better than what I took, either because I needed it more (as in, it was a wetland bird, because I did the first one and a half rounds of the game without a wetland bird!) or because it had a better power. I think I'm really going to have to force myself to do this and I will become a better player if I do, but it feels so unnatural.

[kostinen]

Nice!

I've just watched the start of this great game and I saw a move that reminded me about a little tip I like. This is not a big secret, I saw lot of player doing this, but I first saw it done by a very good player and I try to apply it most of the time.

When I decide to draw cards, I know how many I can draw (including bird powers), how many I should discard/tuck, and how many cards from the tray I want to have.
So I can deduce how many cards I'll take from the deck. If this number is greater than 0, then I always start by taking from the deck. Sometimes I'll draw a bird that's better than the ones I originally wanted to take from the tray (or an equivalent bird that would serve double duty). I can then adapt more easily by leaving a bird in the tray
- either because I no longer need it
- or because I'll have to discard it if I want to keep the good card I've just drawn (and save it for the next turn)
This gives me greater control over events by first revealing the only thing I don't know (the first cards in the deck).

So I just read this great tip and I have seen many players do this before but I have to admit I am not really a risk taking kind of person and I would always pick from the tray. So I started a new game and I said to myself, I'm going to do this! And then chickened out. TWICE in the same game. And as you can absolutely guess, both time the face down card was better than what I took, either because I needed it more (as in, it was a wetland bird, because I did the first one and a half rounds of the game without a wetland bird!) or because it had a better power. I think I'm really going to have to force myself to do this and I will become a better player if I do, but it feels so unnatural.

Yes, I can understand the unnatural side ^^ We always want to take the card we see in front of us first! The one we need and had planned to take

However, just to clarify, I don't see this as a "risk", because as I said, it's all about taking cards first that you've already planned to take from the deck in this same turn.
For example: I have a deck capacity of 3 and I need to discard one at the end of the turn. I'm only interested in one card in the tray. I therefore know 100% that I will draw 2 cards from the deck in ths turn. I start by taking these two cards, and then I can think about whether I still want the card in the tray.
On the other hand, if I have the capacity to draw one card, and a card is good for me in the tray, then there's no hesitation in taking it!

[Ceaseless]

Nice!

I've just watched the start of this great game and I saw a move that reminded me about a little tip I like. This is not a big secret, I saw lot of player doing this, but I first saw it done by a very good player and I try to apply it most of the time.

When I decide to draw cards, I know how many I can draw (including bird powers), how many I should discard/tuck, and how many cards from the tray I want to have.
So I can deduce how many cards I'll take from the deck. If this number is greater than 0, then I always start by taking from the deck. Sometimes I'll draw a bird that's better than the ones I originally wanted to take from the tray (or an equivalent bird that would serve double duty). I can then adapt more easily by leaving a bird in the tray
- either because I no longer need it
- or because I'll have to discard it if I want to keep the good card I've just drawn (and save it for the next turn)
This gives me greater control over events by first revealing the only thing I don't know (the first cards in the deck).

So I just read this great tip and I have seen many players do this before but I have to admit I am not really a risk taking kind of person and I would always pick from the tray. So I started a new game and I said to myself, I'm going to do this! And then chickened out. TWICE in the same game. And as you can absolutely guess, both time the face down card was better than what I took, either because I needed it more (as in, it was a wetland bird, because I did the first one and a half rounds of the game without a wetland bird!) or because it had a better power. I think I'm really going to have to force myself to do this and I will become a better player if I do, but it feels so unnatural.

It's not a risk, it's the opposite. If you're going to draw 2 cards and only 1 of them is from the tray, you get to choose the order you draw them. By choosing the unknown card from the deck first you can check if that card will cause you to no longer want the card in the tray or not. For example, if the card you drew does what you wanted the card in the tray for, you may find the role already covered and rather take another blind card.