What could I have done better in this game?

[FrankJones]

So I just read this great tip and I have seen many players do this before but I have to admit I am not really a risk taking kind of person and I would always pick from the tray.

I think this is missing the point.

Suppose you have two wetland birds, one with a brown power "Draw 2 and discard one at end of turn" and one that has no brown power. You activate your wetland, and there is one bird in the tray you want.

You are going to be drawing 4 cards before your turn is over, and there is only one in the tray you want. Why draw that bird from the tray right away? Draw 3 facedown. Maybe you get 2 really good ones, and now you no longer need that bird in the tray. Draw the 4th bird from the facedown deck, and avoid exposing a new bird in the tray that might be huge for you opponent.

The advice wasn't to draw a single card from the facedown deck, gambling that you will get a better card than the one in the tray you want.

[WHOOPS. I replied immediately before reading the two subsequent posts, and all 3 of us ended up saying the exact same thing. ]

[kostinen]

An idea with this starting hand ? https://boardgamearena.com/archive/repl ... s=84823043;

[FrankJones]

An idea with this starting hand ? https://boardgamearena.com/archive/repl ... s=84823043;

Wow.

With 4 cards I'd love to keep, I would have to give that serious thought.

Vaux's swift, definitely. It's the only forest bird, and the feeder is not offering worms. Purple Martin, definitely, but it's difficult to see a path that gets that bird in the grassland where I would like it.

So, maybe skip the mockingbird (I really hate not keeping that bird though), and maybe even skip the Canvasback? You can make good use of it though. Extra cards give you a tuck and a worm (From Vaux's Swift). which is obviously preferable to simply discarding a card for food.

I'm grabbing the Painted Whitestart first move no matter what if the opponent does not.

[FrankJones]

My first thought was "draw a random card to use for Vaux's swift."

Why did you take the woodcock? If it was for that reason, just draw from the face down deck and you would have been rewarded with the immediately playable and very useful Nuthatch. Then, vaux's swift, lay eggs, play Nuthatch, and now you have a 2-bird forest set up. By then maybe the feeder has what you need, or, you gain 2 food to sue for one food to play the Martin. Or, you sacrifice the canvasback to get 2 food, a tuck, and a worm.

[kostinen]

This early part was quite difficult for me. It's nice to think about it with a clear head.
I started with the idea of ​​taking these two birds, which go well together, plus the purple martin, which is an excellent bird for grasslands.
From then on, I was hoping a little too much to be able to take the painted whitestart, and I quickly gravitated towards the Woodcock when I saw it appear, making it my second forest bird. And it was good for my bonus card. I actually think now that was a mistake. Two forest birds aren't really an emergency given the setup and the possibility of drawing many cards that will allow me to:
- feed the swift to gain some invertebrates
- keep the cards that interest me (including potentially a second forest bird)

As you pointed out, a random card would probably have been better, to give it to the swift and be able to place all my birds and start drawing and refining my deck for the rest of the game (only theorically because now we know what the deck card is, it changes completely what we want to do with it )