Discussion: least favourite bonus cards

[Archisian]

Seeds birds, small birds and cheap birds are not my least favorite, they are literally unplayable.

?

Small birds is quite literally playable. All that needs to be done is click the mouse and ... the card is played.

Okay, I'm kidding, sort of. I realize you were using "literally" figuratively to actually mean figuratively, not literally. Which has been trending over the last 10-15 years, much to my chagrin, since it makes the word meaningless being that it can mean its actual definition or its literal opposite.

Anyway, there are numerous small birds with very strong brown powers or high point values. This is not a bad bonus card at all.

American Redstart
Anna's Hummingbird
Baird's Sparrow
Baltimore Oriole
Bell's Vireo
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Blue-gnat gnatcatcher
Blue-winged Warbler
Brown-headed Cowbird
Bushtit
Carolina Chickadee
Carolina Wren
Cassin's Finch
Cassin's Sparrow
Cerulean Warbler
Chestnut-collared Longspur
Chipping Sparrow
Common Yellowthroat
Downy Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Grasshopper Sparrow
Gray Catbird
Hermit Thrush
Hooded Warbler
House Finch
House Wren
Indigo Bunting
Juniper Titmouse
Lazuli Bunting
Lincoln's Sparrow
Mountain Chickadee
Northern Cardinal
Painted Bunting
Painted Whitestart
Prothonotary Warbler
Red Crossbill
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Red-Eyed Vireo
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Spotted Towhee
Sprague's Pipit
Tufted Titmouse
Western Tanager
White-breasted Nuthatch
White-crowned Sparrow
Yellow-Rumped Warbler

And 14 other birds that I consider not good birds to play but others might disagree.

Those birds in that list also have good synergy with other good bonus cards such as photographer, omnivore, anatomist.

Yeah, it's a good bonus. It's easier to get than the one with wingspans 65cm or over, in my opinion. Mostly because I find birds with wingspans 30cm or under are usually cheaper and more useful. Yeah, ones 65cm and over often have high point values, but they usually require more food and have abilities that aren't that good. Most of the time, if you are playing birds with wingspan 65cm or over, it's probably going to be ones that give extra bonus cards (Roseate Spoonbill, Wood Stork, Spotted Owl, California Condor, etc.)

[Madlaine]

I know what literally means. You play the small birds bonus, you lose. simple. You play the cheap birds, you lose. You play the bird feeder, you surrend as soon as possible because you will lose. Bird feeder was already the worse of all and Wood Duck got banned on top of that.

[FrankJones]

I know what literally means. You play the small birds bonus, you lose. simple.

It's really not that simple. The Passerine specialist (small birds) is a viable bonus card, and plenty of games have been won with that card.

I did post a list of 40-something good birds that meet the requirement for this bonus card. Are you saying those are bad birds to play?

[Archisian]

I know what literally means. You play the small birds bonus, you lose. simple. You play the cheap birds, you lose. You play the bird feeder, you surrend as soon as possible because you will lose. Bird feeder was already the worse of all and Wood Duck got banned on top of that.

There a few bonus cards with which to go all in on. I don't go all in on the Passerine Specialist since it requires 6 to get the max bonus. But it's one to get easily get since there are really good cards at a low cost that you, theoretically, play at the beginning, like Spotted Towhee and Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher. Spotted Towhee is a 0 point bird, but it gives you one seed every time you activate it. That's why placing it in the Grassland makes it rather powerful. Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher is a 1 point bird that gives 1 invertebrate every time it's activated. It does the same thing as Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker at 1 less food. Both Spotted Towhee and Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher only cost 1 food. Getting food early in the game is vital. The longer it takes to get food, the more like you are to lose.

That being said, should you invest all your resources into low-cost, low-point birds, you will lose. But if you have 4 of these kind of birds that do something very useful for you (food generation, egg-laying, etc.), then Passerine Specialist is a decent bonus to get 3 extra points on.

[Florrible]

I know what literally means. You play the small birds bonus, you lose. simple. You play the cheap birds, you lose. You play the bird feeder, you surrend as soon as possible because you will lose. Bird feeder was already the worse of all and Wood Duck got banned on top of that.

I'm not going to go back through my entire playing history but I feel that I've won plenty of times with either small birds or cheap birds. Perhaps I wasn't playing against very strong or strategic opponents, being that I'm only an average player myself, but it doesn't have such a definite cause and effect relationship as you are describing here.

[Archisian]

I know what literally means. You play the small birds bonus, you lose. simple. You play the cheap birds, you lose. You play the bird feeder, you surrend as soon as possible because you will lose. Bird feeder was already the worse of all and Wood Duck got banned on top of that.

I'm not going to go back through my entire playing history but I feel that I've won plenty of times with either small birds or cheap birds. Perhaps I wasn't playing against very strong or strategic opponents, being that I'm only an average player myself, but it doesn't have such a definite cause and effect relationship as you are describing here.

It could be Madlaine's particular strategy is to go for higher point birds. No problem with that as each person has their own strategies. However, some of the highest point totals I ever had often came from birds with wingspans 30cm or less, so I personally disagree with their assessment of that strategy. Mr. Jones pointed out a lot of really good cards that fit the bonus.

[Madlaine]

Ok, if you have a fantastic staritng hand with gnatcatcher, sparrow, swallowtail and pie duck, you will score 3 point with cheap birds bonus. But guess what, you already won the game anyway. Seed bonus, birdwatcher and cheap birds = i dont even care about the bonus card beacause playing a bad late card is a losing move.
Those bonus cards are poorly designed from the vanilla game and should be reworked, game have been reworked with bans and new cards already. Anyway, we should play Wirmspan.

[FrankJones]

Ok, if you have a fantastic staritng hand with gnatcatcher, sparrow, swallowtail and pie duck, you will score 3 point with cheap birds bonus. But guess what, you already won the game anyway. Seed bonus, birdwatcher and cheap birds = i dont even care about the bonus card beacause playing a bad late card is a losing move.
Those bonus cards are poorly designed from the vanilla game and should be reworked, game have been reworked with bans and new cards already. Anyway, we should play Wirmspan.

If you get a good starting hand with strong birds, you can win with any bonus card.
I don't understand how that is relevant to the point.

In my most recent Wingspan game, I didn't have any bonus cards related to birds' wingspans. At the end, I looked at my tableau and I happened to have 5 birds with small wingspans. So, without even paying any attention to the wingspans, I still just randomly happened to have 5 small wingspan birds in a winning tableau.

In other words, the notion that the small wingspan bonus card is a bad one is not really supported by any actual facts or evidence. I understand that any one player may have personal preferences, but that's all it is: a personal preference.