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I seem to be setting myself back in some games because of a reluctance to use 2-for-1 with food.

I got lucky in a lot of ways. My opponent had 2 terribly unlucky bonus cards; and seems to have had a bad starting hand.
And drawing the game-winning hummingbird on literally my final draw was crazy lucky.

I thought hard about keeping the Bittern, but it seemed like a tough sell because of the high food cost, mostly useless ability, and my concerns that I would struggle to Get the Juniper titmouse in play.

But, my workaround did not exactly work either.

FrankJones wrote: ↑03 June 2025, 16:09 I seem to be setting myself back in some games because of a reluctance to use 2-for-1 with food.

I got lucky in a lot of ways. My opponent had 2 terribly unlucky bonus cards; and seems to have had a bad starting hand.
And drawing the game-winning hummingbird on literally my final draw was crazy lucky.

I thought hard about keeping the Bittern, but it seemed like a tough sell because of the high food cost, mostly useless ability, and my concerns that I would struggle to Get the Juniper titmouse in play.

But, my workaround did not exactly work either.

I think the biggest issue was completely forgetting about the relevance of Mourning Dove. Thanks to it you were going to gain food a lot, and you were going to like it. Any food concerns after that are gone when compared to how much you were getting from gaining food in the first place. Despite a few potentially awkward issues to resolve, you had a fairly strong opening hand because of Dove.

Ceaseless wrote: ↑03 June 2025, 16:37

I think the biggest issue was completely forgetting about the relevance of Mourning Dove. Thanks to it you were going to gain food a lot, and you were going to like it. Any food concerns after that are gone when compared to how much you were getting from gaining food in the first place. Despite a few potentially awkward issues to resolve, you had a fairly strong opening hand because of Dove.

I did consider putting the dove in the forest. I should have. I'm still stuck in my old meta of playing all point-scoring cards in the grassland.
And, the Dove is strong enough to just grab it immediately on the first turn, right? I think you already covered that.

I put myself in a very awkward position: Not enough space to lay eggs on my final 6 turns, but no way to avoid it, since taking 3 turns to draw cards, gain food, and play bird would have been a lot worse.

FrankJones wrote: ↑03 June 2025, 16:56

Ceaseless wrote: ↑03 June 2025, 16:37

I think the biggest issue was completely forgetting about the relevance of Mourning Dove. Thanks to it you were going to gain food a lot, and you were going to like it. Any food concerns after that are gone when compared to how much you were getting from gaining food in the first place. Despite a few potentially awkward issues to resolve, you had a fairly strong opening hand because of Dove.

I did consider putting the dove in the forest. I should have. I'm still stuck in my old meta of playing all point-scoring cards in the grassland.
And, the Dove is strong enough to just grab it immediately on the first turn, right? I think you already covered that.

I put myself in a very awkward position: Not enough space to lay eggs on my final 6 turns, but no way to avoid it, since taking 3 turns to draw cards, gain food, and play bird would have been a lot worse.

1 point per gain food like Chickadee's are already scary enough for getting 8+ points by effect when dropped super early. Dove is basically a better version of that, because it lets you skip weak egg laying turns that you'd normally need to play birds exchanging the would-be points for development. It's one of the most terrifying early game cards to see hit the table.

Makes sense. I think I laid eggs at least twice with an empty grassland. Better would be gaining food and gaining one egg from the Dove.

So, the Bittern isn't a great starting wetland bird, but, it's a wetland bird; it's 7 points, and I wouldn't have needed to waste time with the Tree Sparrow.

FrankJones wrote: ↑03 June 2025, 17:20 Makes sense. I think I laid eggs at least twice with an empty grassland. Better would be gaining food and gaining one egg from the Dove.

So, the Bittern isn't a great starting wetland bird, but, it's a wetland bird; it's 7 points, and I wouldn't have needed to waste time with the Tree Sparrow.

Yes, Bittern's problem in the opening hand is that it costs too much food, which your forest strong hand can accommodate. You could try for Sparrow if you're willing to keep only Juniper and hard draw Dove and Sparrow, but you do risk them counter drawing one of them and cutting you off. Probably not the biggest risk that they'll cut you off of Sparrow, not knowing if you're needing the second forest bird or the wetland bird, but it is a risk. If you're willing to take it, then you can still do a 2 forest 1 wetland play with Sparrow instead, where you started with 1 extra food and a cheaper wetland bird at the cost of having to throw in an extra draw and risk a counterpick.

Maybe the Dove could be considered as Wetland bird backup, in the case the opponent takes the Tree Swallow? Not sure it's better. I like the ability of Tree Swallow to
- See more cards
- Gain approximatively the same number of points than Bittern (by tucking)
- Be better for the first and last round goals
The counterpart is
- The risk to be taken by the opponent which leads us to a path with the Dove in the Wetland and the need to draw something else to gain food
- The inefficient one card draw on turn 2

kostinen wrote: ↑03 June 2025, 21:41 Maybe the Dove could be considered as Wetland bird backup, in the case the opponent takes the Tree Swallow? Not sure it's better. I like the ability of Tree Swallow to
- See more cards
- Gain approximatively the same number of points than Bittern (by tucking)
- Be better for the first and last round goals
The counterpart is
- The risk to be taken by the opponent which leads us to a path with the Dove in the Wetland and the need to draw something else to gain food
- The inefficient one card draw on turn 2

Dove in the forest is leagues beyond Dove in the wetland. On top of that, losing it in the forest leaves you with only one forest bird and two birds that need seed, an awkward clash. When you had a strong forest, such awkward issues could be fixed, but without it, you're in much more trouble. Tree Swallow does have a bit of a food advantage, you can keep 1 extra food and its food quantity cost is lower, so it's a bit smoother to play. I'm not sure if it will really dig more cards, with your stronger forest, you may end up going for Bittern's effect expecting to be able to use the extra cards more effectively than your opponent while even, so there's some unknowns on that front.

I did use the "gain food" action a lot more than "draw cards". The Mourning Dove would have been more useful to me in the forest than in the wetland.

It's time for me to ask what I did wrong in the game. In my opinion, my card draw was not very good- not one useful grassland bird, but the situation was slightly improved by suitable bonus cards.

https://boardgamearena.com/gamereview?table=683723799

I reviewed the beginning of the game and saw a more promising starting line, which I considered but did not choose, because I thought Loon would work in first round: keep Woodpecker and King rail, play Woodpecker , gain food, lay eggs and hope for good cards or even Common loon if it is still there.

Now I see that it would be better, but what should I do next if I pretend that I didn't have a king rail? I definitely struggle in no grassland games