Top Beginner Mistake

[fifthnephi]

I agree, this mistake is one of the most common (and decisive).

The example mentioned is quite good, especially regarding the loss of food, which is often an important resource at the start of the game.

But there are much more obvious examples, like when some players spend the first 8 turns aiming to win the first EOR goal :
- Playing birds that are too expensive,
- keeping certain birds over others because they fit the objective (even though another bird is good for a good start),
- etc...

The beginning of the game should be dedicated to building a coherent strategy that will pay off later. So yes, if the effort is very low, it can be worthwhile, but most of the time it's not worth it.

Personally, I choose my starting birds solely based on the 5 cards I have in hand (of course), the 3 cards in the tray (especially if I'm playing first), and the available food. When faced with a difficult decision, I start looking at the end-of-round objectives (including the first one) and bonus cards. I deliberately choose to hide certain parameters because they could cause me to mess up my start to the game.
With a coherent set built from the start of the game, it's not just about scoring a lot of points in the future, but also about greatly increasing my chances of winning the next 3 EOR goals.

THIS. Could not agree more. I will frequently pick my starting hand before looking at the EOR goals. The EOR goals can be useful though when I'm on the fence between two decisions.

[illy831]

In this case, your final move when you lay the eggs also gives you two points less. Relatively nothing has changed, but I would rather count as 6, because relative to other moves, for example, going into the forest, it's 6 points, not 4. I hope I was able to convey my point.

Why two points less, sorry? In isolation I agree it's a 6-point move — well, 7 actually, in order to tie the round goal. But for me choosing lay eggs over gain food here means likely you are doing the same forest move later, so same moves different order, rather than spending N->N+1 of your 26 moves on laying eggs. So relatively the choice seems to be: lay the eggs now and catch up (+0), play the bird now and drop to zero on EOR1 (-4), or do something like gain food or draw birds and stay in second place (-3).

That said, even 4 points feels like a lot to spot an opponent (to me). The cost-benefit analysis would be all about how much sacrificing one food hurts, and how important it is to get that extra bird played now versus one turn later. Actually I can't imagine too many circumstances where the latter is a clearly better option at the cost of 1 extra point (-4 versus -3). Is it just me?

So, the obvious conclusion here is, "Don't fight for the first round EOR goal unless you can do so without costing yourself more value than you gain."
All of which is situational.

What if there is no better play? Drawing cards might be bad if nothing good is in the tray and we go first next round with 3 new cards. Maybe Gaining food is sub-optimal because of the bird feeder. And maybe we cannot play a bird because we don't have a good one to play or we do, but lack the food and the correct food is not in the feeder.

Sometimes I end up laying eggs there even if it does NOT help for the EOR goal.

I agree with this.