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

[Andrei3009]

I just finished game where i made outrageous blunder that almost lost me the game. I think i played good overall but this one move was so bad it outdone all my previous good plays.

I posted it to showcase why some players (not me) winning in bad positions and others lose in good ones and that even expert player make mistakes.

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=848223316

I am ready to any feedback both on my mistake and on the game as a whole.

I just watched the whole game, waiting for that bad move to happen. It never happened, haha
Maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention, I don't know

My biggest surprise is that you didn’t take the Red-Winged Blackbird. For me, it’s a card I’d take without a second thought in this situation.
It’s cheap to play (in grasslands). No need for a prior turn in the forest. I can then draw at least 6–9 cards blindly to fine-tune the rest of my game.

Thank you for reply.

The mistake was discarding the Osprey in the middle of the third round. It gives 5 points for 1 food, i.e., 4 points with crow. Grossbeak gives 6 points for 3 food, i.e., three points with crow. Moreover, it can be played earlier and 1) not lose one egg due to lack of egg space in r4, 2) tie 3rd EOR.
Net loss: 1+1+3 = 5 points.

I made this mistake because I had planned all my moves at the beginning of the second round, but then I found a small improvement and forgot to recalculate the remaining moves after that change. And i miscounted when rechecked everything in r3

Regarding the Red-winged Blackbird — both times I could have taken it, other cards seemed better to me (I wanted to take point bombs and platform nests for the 2nd EOR). After that, I didn't need more cards. And in general, I don't like that type of birds , but I agree that sometimes I take them later than I should have.

[Ceaseless]

I just finished game where i made outrageous blunder that almost lost me the game. I think i played good overall but this one move was so bad it outdone all my previous good plays.

I posted it to showcase why some players (not me) winning in bad positions and others lose in good ones and that even expert player make mistakes.

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=848223316

I am ready to any feedback both on my mistake and on the game as a whole.

Seeing you discard Chimey Swift instead of Quail for your second move was curious. Swift's Star nest and general movability would make it seem more valuable than the more expensive Quail. You could have used it to tie up EOR 1 and avoid having to further discard for the occasional Forest. It's usable for all 4 EORs. It just keeps adding up in small ways. With the saved hand fodder you probably could make the Bird Countered 4-point Red Wing generate some solid points down the line, though you wouldn't have known that at the time.

Why did you even go into the Forest, let alone discard Osprey, move 112? You could easily lay eggs, get the Invertebrate, and play Grosbeak. At which point not only would you be able to get the 2 food you want without discarding a bird, but you can also do it with a food gaining effect on top of that. You're pretty much guaranteed to be able to play a bird after that, whether it's Osprey or Wild Turkey, adding 3 points for your EOR improvement. I don't see what you even wanted the 1 additional blind food for in the position you were in.

[Andrei3009]

I just finished game where i made outrageous blunder that almost lost me the game. I think i played good overall but this one move was so bad it outdone all my previous good plays.

I posted it to showcase why some players (not me) winning in bad positions and others lose in good ones and that even expert player make mistakes.

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=848223316

I am ready to any feedback both on my mistake and on the game as a whole.

Seeing you discard Chimey Swift instead of Quail for your second move was curious. Swift's Star nest and general movability would make it seem more valuable than the more expensive Quail. You could have used it to tie up EOR 1 and avoid having to further discard for the occasional Forest. It's usable for all 4 EORs. It just keeps adding up in small ways. With the saved hand fodder you probably could make the Bird Countered 4-point Red Wing generate some solid points down the line, though you wouldn't have known that at the time.

Why did you even go into the Forest, let alone discard Osprey, move 112? You could easily lay eggs, get the Invertebrate, and play Grosbeak. At which point not only would you be able to get the 2 food you want without discarding a bird, but you can also do it with a food gaining effect on top of that. You're pretty much guaranteed to be able to play a bird after that, whether it's Osprey or Wild Turkey, adding 3 points for your EOR improvement. I don't see what you even wanted the 1 additional blind food for in the position you were in.

Discarding Chimney Swift was a bad decision, I thought about it right after I did it , definitely a mistake. However, I didn't want to play it if possible, as there wasn't a good opportunity to play it in the first round.

Originally i wanted to play grossbeak and gain food too (altought going to forest in discarding it still better) but there was a problem: if bird feeder is bad and i cant get food to play 5egg space bird i can get stuck and be forse to gain food again. That's why i gained good food when possible.

Second think is that it preventing me playing one more bird in r3 (line that i took did it too because i can't count)

[Ceaseless]

I just finished game where i made outrageous blunder that almost lost me the game. I think i played good overall but this one move was so bad it outdone all my previous good plays.

I posted it to showcase why some players (not me) winning in bad positions and others lose in good ones and that even expert player make mistakes.

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=848223316

I am ready to any feedback both on my mistake and on the game as a whole.

Seeing you discard Chimey Swift instead of Quail for your second move was curious. Swift's Star nest and general movability would make it seem more valuable than the more expensive Quail. You could have used it to tie up EOR 1 and avoid having to further discard for the occasional Forest. It's usable for all 4 EORs. It just keeps adding up in small ways. With the saved hand fodder you probably could make the Bird Countered 4-point Red Wing generate some solid points down the line, though you wouldn't have known that at the time.

Why did you even go into the Forest, let alone discard Osprey, move 112? You could easily lay eggs, get the Invertebrate, and play Grosbeak. At which point not only would you be able to get the 2 food you want without discarding a bird, but you can also do it with a food gaining effect on top of that. You're pretty much guaranteed to be able to play a bird after that, whether it's Osprey or Wild Turkey, adding 3 points for your EOR improvement. I don't see what you even wanted the 1 additional blind food for in the position you were in.

Discarding Chimney Swift was a bad decision, I thought about it right after I did it , definitely a mistake. However, I didn't want to play it if possible, as there wasn't a good opportunity to play it in the first round.

Originally i wanted to play grossbeak and gain food too (altought going to forest in discarding it still better) but there was a problem: if bird feeder is bad and i cant get food to play 5egg space bird i can get stuck and be forse to gain food again. That's why i gained good food when possible.

Second think is that it preventing me playing one more bird in r3 (line that i took did it too because i can't count)

You could play Swift in the first round instead of Kite, though even outside of the first round it puts in work.

Stuck? Grosbeak opens up enough space for laying eggs once, and your hand has birds that can take any food type. The chances of not getting seed of all things is pretty low considering it's 2 sides of a die, and between the birds in your hand there's no dead food type. Seed alone is low enough odds, but throw in fruit and that's half of the die options that would need to be dead just to avoid getting 3 food instead of 2 food that's still live.

[Andrei3009]

Seeing you discard Chimey Swift instead of Quail for your second move was curious. Swift's Star nest and general movability would make it seem more valuable than the more expensive Quail. You could have used it to tie up EOR 1 and avoid having to further discard for the occasional Forest. It's usable for all 4 EORs. It just keeps adding up in small ways. With the saved hand fodder you probably could make the Bird Countered 4-point Red Wing generate some solid points down the line, though you wouldn't have known that at the time.

Why did you even go into the Forest, let alone discard Osprey, move 112? You could easily lay eggs, get the Invertebrate, and play Grosbeak. At which point not only would you be able to get the 2 food you want without discarding a bird, but you can also do it with a food gaining effect on top of that. You're pretty much guaranteed to be able to play a bird after that, whether it's Osprey or Wild Turkey, adding 3 points for your EOR improvement. I don't see what you even wanted the 1 additional blind food for in the position you were in.

Discarding Chimney Swift was a bad decision, I thought about it right after I did it , definitely a mistake. However, I didn't want to play it if possible, as there wasn't a good opportunity to play it in the first round.

Originally i wanted to play grossbeak and gain food too (altought going to forest in discarding it still better) but there was a problem: if bird feeder is bad and i cant get food to play 5egg space bird i can get stuck and be forse to gain food again. That's why i gained good food when possible.

Second think is that it preventing me playing one more bird in r3 (line that i took did it too because i can't count)

You could play Swift in the first round instead of Kite, though even outside of the first round it puts in work.

Stuck? Grosbeak opens up enough space for laying eggs once, and your hand has birds that can take any food type. The chances of not getting seed of all things is pretty low considering it's 2 sides of a die, and between the birds in your hand there's no dead food type. Seed alone is low enough odds, but throw in fruit and that's half of the die options that would need to be dead just to avoid getting 3 food instead of 2 food that's still live.

More detailed about round 3: If I lay eggs on turn 122, then I have 3 food and three more actios . After the Grossbeak and taking the food, there is only one action left, and the chance that I will be able to play one of the 8 or 9 point birds is not that big, and playing osprey is unprofitable compared to them. I think stuck was the wrong word, but the situation can be unpleasant.

[Ceaseless]

Discarding Chimney Swift was a bad decision, I thought about it right after I did it , definitely a mistake. However, I didn't want to play it if possible, as there wasn't a good opportunity to play it in the first round.

Originally i wanted to play grossbeak and gain food too (altought going to forest in discarding it still better) but there was a problem: if bird feeder is bad and i cant get food to play 5egg space bird i can get stuck and be forse to gain food again. That's why i gained good food when possible.

Second think is that it preventing me playing one more bird in r3 (line that i took did it too because i can't count)

You could play Swift in the first round instead of Kite, though even outside of the first round it puts in work.

Stuck? Grosbeak opens up enough space for laying eggs once, and your hand has birds that can take any food type. The chances of not getting seed of all things is pretty low considering it's 2 sides of a die, and between the birds in your hand there's no dead food type. Seed alone is low enough odds, but throw in fruit and that's half of the die options that would need to be dead just to avoid getting 3 food instead of 2 food that's still live.

More detailed about round 3: If I lay eggs on turn 122, then I have 3 food and three more actios . After the Grossbeak and taking the food, there is only one action left, and the chance that I will be able to play one of the 8 or 9 point birds is not that big, and playing osprey is unprofitable compared to them. I think stuck was the wrong word, but the situation can be unpleasant.

Osprey being a bird alone is enough to make it a great play given the EOR. I will note that if eggs were that big of a concern, while I consider Grosbeak the better play, Wild Turkey was an option too just by using the eggs to get seed, then gaining 2 food that way.

Either way, I guess you did answer the question on the timing, regarding the nature of wanting specific food while it was guaranteed to be up. So while I still think the rationale was flawed, I at least see what it was you were aiming for in the first place, which was what I asked for.

[FrankJones]

I just finished game where i made outrageous blunder that almost lost me the game. I think i played good overall but this one move was so bad it outdone all my previous good plays.

I posted it to showcase why some players (not me) winning in bad positions and others lose in good ones and that even expert player make mistakes.

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=848223316

I am ready to any feedback both on my mistake and on the game as a whole.

Yeah, that's a rather severe blunder. What exactly was your thought process at the time?

[Andrei3009]

You could play Swift in the first round instead of Kite, though even outside of the first round it puts in work.

Stuck? Grosbeak opens up enough space for laying eggs once, and your hand has birds that can take any food type. The chances of not getting seed of all things is pretty low considering it's 2 sides of a die, and between the birds in your hand there's no dead food type. Seed alone is low enough odds, but throw in fruit and that's half of the die options that would need to be dead just to avoid getting 3 food instead of 2 food that's still live.

More detailed about round 3: If I lay eggs on turn 122, then I have 3 food and three more actios . After the Grossbeak and taking the food, there is only one action left, and the chance that I will be able to play one of the 8 or 9 point birds is not that big, and playing osprey is unprofitable compared to them. I think stuck was the wrong word, but the situation can be unpleasant.

Osprey being a bird alone is enough to make it a great play given the EOR. I will note that if eggs were that big of a concern, while I consider Grosbeak the better play, Wild Turkey was an option too just by using the eggs to get seed, then gaining 2 food that way.

Either way, I guess you did answer the question on the timing, regarding the nature of wanting specific food while it was guaranteed to be up. So while I still think the rationale was flawed, I at least see what it was you were aiming for in the first place, which was what I asked for.

There are a problem in that I think your version is definitely better than what I did, but slightly worse than the ideal play I was aiming for.

Your option: lay eggs, taking a worm, play the grosbeak, take three foods, play the osprey. There may be problems here if there is no fish and no ideal food for the turkey, but we'll ignore that.

We have 0 food left and 10 eggs out of 19 spaces.

In the last round, two options remain:

take food once more to play the turkey, and take eggs three times, play the black‑crowned night heron;

or take eggs three times, play the black‑crowned night heron, and then more eggs.

a) Total: 17 eggs and 56 points for birds (5 more than me, because of the osprey), plus +3 for the 3rd End of Round. That's 5 points more than me. But one fewer activation of the grassland, which loses 1.3 points on hunting.

b) 21 eggs, 48 points for birds. Bad outcome.

Note that if instead of the osprey I manage to play the turkey, taking eggs 4 times and playing the heron in the 4th round, we get 23 eggs and 51 points on birds. One point more.

Now the version like mine, but instead of the osprey, discard the grosbeak: take eggs, play the osprey, play the turkey.

At the start of the 4th round we have 1 food, 10 eggs out of 21 spaces.

In the 4th round we take eggs twice, play the heron, take eggs two more times. Total: 50 points for birds and 23 eggs, +3 End of Round. +5 points.

Final conclusion: my play was terrible, your suggestion is much better and would have given 6 more points if I got lucky with food, and 5 minus one point for hunting if food is average (and one point less if I have to overpay for food in the 3rd round). Not discarding the osprey and playing it instead of the grosbeak guarantees 5 more points without food problems – that's why I went for that line. In my opinion, the last play was better than both previous ones.

I hope I've made my thoughts clear.

I also agree that a swift would have been a decent play instead of a kite in the first round.

[Kreator6573]

Anyone know if they plan to add any of the expansions?

Also I'd love it if they added Wyrmspan!