Awkward starting hand, difficulty with EOR goals and synergy. Thoughts?

[Ceaseless]

https://boardgamearena.com/gamereview?table=689306257

Talk about a crappy opening hand and with nothing to help me in the tray.

Barn Swallow is helpful. If you wanted you could have used it as the Wetland bird, choosing to keep an additional Seed since you no longer needed the bad wetland bird you kept. Though that hand is rough, makes me wince having to consider placing Swallow in the Wetland instead of the Grassland, as well as the 2 for 1 plays for setting up the Forest birds with the situation you were in.

https://boardgamearena.com/gamereview?table=689306257

Talk about a crappy opening hand and with nothing to help me in the tray.

That's a bad hand indeed. Even if you cold-draw the Barn Swallow, you have no forest. Ouch.

I really don't enjoy this game much without expansions. I'm just being stubborn in continuing to play because I have been doing well and I want to see how high I can get my ELo.

Oh, they have a Forest, albeit a painful process to getting there. Quail has a rather nice effect, though that food cost hurts. A more balanced Mourning Dove I suppose.

This won't help:

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=688914856

I'm going to guess I was supposed to keep the migrating bird, Lincoln's Sparrow. Getting the food I needed was a chore throughout the game. And I was one nest short when it came to the goal for that nest.

Yes, Sparrow and Griebe are plenty playable. You have 2 wetland birds and a solid draw effect, which Lincoln's Sparrow can use for fodder as a forest bird if you failed to draw any viable forest birds in the worst-case scenario, though I'd imagine you'll get somewhere at a reasonable pace. I guess you were hyping Grackle as a bowl bird for EOR 1? Or were you really leaning on drawing cards to fodder through with it since your other bird was a solid draw bird in the Wetland? I'd prioritize a card that supports development in the early game when looking at my opening hand.

[SpaOwner]

Frank,

I was looking through old topics and hit on this one. Your starting hand is meh, and I agree with some of the comments that sparrow is probably the only good starter. That said, in your situation, I am tossing all my cards here and picking up either pileated or the mallard.

Mallard would be preferred (given no cards and 5 food), but pileated sets you up for goal 3 and plays more towards lots of food and larger drops.

Just looking at your position mid-way through round one, you kept so many cards that your food situation was perilous. A win is a win; however, tempo was slow so both scores were very low.

A line where you drop all plays:
T1 draw mallard
T2 play mallard (still have worm berry fish)
T3 draw
T4 draw

At this point you have 4 cards and 4 food. That’s some decent tempo. As your opponent, i probably take mallard T1 if you don’t have cards, but pileated is a fine consolation prize. You run the risk of a T1 Wren or Brant, but… that’s a risk one has to take.

If i has taken mallard T1 and he had not drawn pileated after playing flicker, I’d have probably single drawn that too.

[Ceaseless]

Frank,

I was looking through old topics and hit on this one. Your starting hand is meh, and I agree with some of the comments that sparrow is probably the only good starter. That said, in your situation, I am tossing all my cards here and picking up either pileated or the mallard.

Mallard would be preferred (given no cards and 5 food), but pileated sets you up for goal 3 and plays more towards lots of food and larger drops.

Just looking at your position mid-way through round one, you kept so many cards that your food situation was perilous. A win is a win; however, tempo was slow so both scores were very low.

A line where you drop all plays:
T1 draw mallard
T2 play mallard (still have worm berry fish)
T3 draw
T4 draw

At this point you have 4 cards and 4 food. That’s some decent tempo. As your opponent, i probably take mallard T1 if you don’t have cards, but pileated is a fine consolation prize. You run the risk of a T1 Wren or Brant, but… that’s a risk one has to take.

If i has taken mallard T1 and he had not drawn pileated after playing flicker, I’d have probably single drawn that too.

Why keep the fish over Lincoln's Sparrow? As you pointed out, with an empty hand the opponent has an obvious tell for taking Mallard and crippling your ability to play. Pileated isn't much of a consolation prize, the card is great with other birds and an important hate grab, but as your only bird it leaves you lacking. Lincoln's Sparrow leaves you with a Wetland bird that makes it less likely to get Mallard sniped and more secure if you do, since by itself the card is still playable. The 4 food 4 cards situation you describe still requires future payment in terms of using the food to play birds. The other cards they kept were not a cause of endangerment for the food situation, as they were convertible to food themselves.