Board Game Arena

Hello I keep thinking I am playing well, I often lose quite badly I have tried switching it up by playing higher point birds as I lost a few games with weak point birds. Not sure what else I can do. Do I rush trying to play birds constantly?

Do you have example games in mind?

I posted on here a while ago asking for advice and some of the advice I got has really helped. Before I asked for help, I only had like 50 wins to 150 something losses. Now, I'm at 97 wins to 278 losses. Not a big jump in my winning percentage, but it's improving.

One thing that I've noticed, and I'm happy for someone to correct me, when I win games is this:

1. You either must have two Forest birds or have a way to draw food consistently in your very first few turns. If you don't have forest burns and have something like American Crow, Fish Crow, The Hummingbirds, etc., then it's fine to put them in habitats like the Grassland or Wetland.

2. You must have at least one bird from your hand that can go into the Wetland. You don't need to play it immediately, but you need to have one. The reason is that, if you have one bird in the Wetland, you only need to pay 1 egg to draw and extra card. You can lay 2 eggs per turn, so this is very helpful. Without that one bird in the Wetland, you can only draw one card per turn.

3. From my experience, you can't totally ignore the End-of-Round bonuses, however, you don't need to win them all. What matters most is what someone told me was "control". In that, you have to push to make them competitive, either by outright winning them or by forcing your opponent to play cards to win them that they otherwise wouldn't play.

4. If you have a decent bonus card, like the one that gives you points based on birds that eat cherries, birds with a predator power, eat any kind of food, etc., you can focus on them until you fulfill their requirements to get their point rewards (the predator power and the any food birds don't have a number requirement, while the ones that eat cherries require 2-3 to get 3 points and 4+ to get 7). However, you shouldn't put your sole focus into them, because if you do, you'll miss out on some great cards.

5. Place cards with good abilities where you can activate them the most times. For example, the House Finch has an ability that lets you tuck a card in your hand for one point and then lets you draw another card. It's a very powerful ability because it gives you free points AND lets you draw a new card. I use the House Finch in the Grassland most of the time, because in the final round, you want to be laying eggs. And with 5 turns for each player in the last round, it's a free 5 points. Unless you have a bonus card where you are one bird away from fulfilling it's maximum point reward output, then the House Finch is useful for those 5 free points and increasing the amount of eggs you can lay per turn. Same with predator power birds like the ones that let you tuck a card from the deck if the bird's wingspan is under a certain length.

6. You also want cards where they have abilities that let you do certain actions and place them in a habitat that also lets you fulfill another action. For example, there's a bird called Chipping Sparrow that lets you lay an egg on any bird. If can be placed in either the Forest or Grassland habitats. Seeing how it grants a free extra egg, you'd think it's best use would be in the Grassland, right? Wrong. Most of the time, you play it in the Forest. Why? Because when you draw food, you also get to lay that extra egg. So, you are basically doing two actions for one. It's a pretty good card, I think. So, it's a matter of recognizing which cards are going to be useful for a given situation.

7. Back to the End-of-Round goals, there are times when you know for sure you can't win it (Ex. your opponent has many more birds with a certain kind of nest than you, has like 3 birds with a Star nest, etc.). If you know there is no way you can win that particular End-of-Round goal, then just let it go and prepare for the next one or try to fulfill your bonus cards. Otherwise, as I mentioned, keep it competitive.

In the end, it's not a matter of low point value cards and high point value cards. It's a matter of devising a strategy and being flexible to the given situation. Sometimes, you get bad hands, which at that point, you have to have luck on your side or just concede and peace out (if it's a two player game).

Everything you said is correct.

I am not sure why you aren't winning more; you seem to have a firm grasp of the strategy.

As Ceaseless said, post a game or two in which you lost but you think you could have won. People are generous with their time, but they aren't likely to go digging through your games history when you can more easily provide a link to a game or two that you think would be most helpful to evaluate.

In this game I spent most of the time behind in points however feel like my issue might have been mid game choices. I often find I have no resources (cards or food to play):
https://boardgamearena.com/archive/repl ... s=97262294;

This was an incredibly close one:
https://boardgamearena.com/archive/repl ... s=97262294;

This was where I used my new strategy of bigger point birds and cared less about their power as I have done in the past:
https://boardgamearena.com/archive/repl ... s=97262294;

I try and always play a forest bird and one wetland round one. Thanks for the tips so far though I will try them soon. I have also been playing solo. It seems the bot whole different from a player scores highly on medium difficulty at least. I like to aim to get a score of 80+ for my own self satisfaction.

I feel I fail to make the best use of round 4 and even may I suggest round 3. I rarely do more than 2 (often 1) laying eggs action. I definitely recognise the importance of “off habitat” birds. However what you said about laying eggs for an extra card is a move I forget to do. I also take at least until round 2 to have 2 forest birds and not having food access hurts and makes everything so slow. Again on the end of round goals I will remember not to push to hard especially on ones I will not win. It’s good to know they aren’t the reason for an overall victory.

hey I would love to play together with someone else who is practicing to get better at this game like me.

If you wanted to play a slow game where maybe we can give each other feedback during, I'd be up for that. I find fast turn-based to be ideal for that because sometimes I'm in meetings and I might be able to play in "almost real time" but not quite. We seem to be in the same time zone so let me know if that would work.

Hexploer wrote: ↑11 June 2025, 06:48 In this game I spent most of the time behind in points however feel like my issue might have been mid game choices. I often find I have no resources (cards or food to play):
https://boardgamearena.com/archive/repl ... s=97262294;

Spotted Towhee is the only bird I'd be happy to see in that opening, but Hooded Merganser is a must keep as your only Wetland bird. American Woodcock is optionally keepable as a generically passable bird you can work with. The food you'll keep is Seed and Rodent, (Invertebrate for the third food is you don't keep Woodcock.) Your first turn should be to Draw Broad-Winged-Hawk (it even helps with end of round goal 1) with the plan of playing both it and Towhee to set up your forest. From there you can easily gain food to get Merganser down for Wetland set-up and drop Woodcock in the Forest or grassland depending on how things play out. Prairie Manager is far better than Large Bird Specialist since it needs much less set-up as a bonus.

Since you only kept Towhee, you did need a wetland bird, and the underwhelming Bushit will do that I guess. However, upon seeing Eastern Phoebe, that should have been a must grab, a 1 food slot in whichever area you choose is huge.

Move 19, drawing 1 card is pointless, better to lay eggs to be able to pay 1 and draw 2 next turn. You ended up tucking Bell's Vireo and only getting 1 egg and a point when you could have just laid 2 eggs from the start, which are worth the same 2 points but have better development since eggs can actually be used for plays. You were incredibly lucky to draw 2 excellent cards later on.

Instead of drawing cards on the last turn of round 1, you could have laid eggs again and won the end of round goal with the egg on Grebe, letting the tray reset before doing any serious drawing. Tree Swallow is a weak card you could have thrown away, and I'm not sure why you didn't use Bushit's tuck power to do that, but Atlantic Puffin is an amazing late game bird you had no reason to get rid of.

That was from round 1 alone. The early game was a major issue for you.

Hexploer wrote: ↑11 June 2025, 06:48 This was an incredibly close one:
https://boardgamearena.com/archive/repl ... s=97262294;

This opening feels rough. I'd likely keep Rose-Breasted Grosbeak and Tree Swallow. Tree Swallow being a Wetland bird is a waste, but that's the role it has to play. Keep the 3 food to play Rosebeak and play it turn 1 to get the food going. There is a nonzero chance you'll end up wanting to grab Clark's Nutcracker from the tray down the line as Forest bird #2. Not my favorite card given its price, but at least everything will get set-up. Forever is probably the best bonus with Rose.

When you only kept Tree Swallow I can see why you'd play it turn 1, though gaining Invertebrate to not have to 2 for 1 was also acceptable given your nonexistent forest. However, drawing only 1 card is a huge mistake, you ended up drawing the amazingly helpful Turkey Vulture and throwing it away for what ended up a garbage blind draw. There was no reason not to lay eggs first to draw 2 the following turn.

Again, you destroyed yourself in the early game, with no Forest set-up round 1 despite it being available and a very slow play into the Wetland.

Hexploer wrote: ↑11 June 2025, 06:48 This was where I used my new strategy of bigger point birds and cared less about their power as I have done in the past:
https://boardgamearena.com/archive/repl ... s=97262294;

Gnatcatcher is the only great card in this opening, but Stellar's Jay as forest bird #2 and a Wetland bird is critical. Spoonbill is the better card, though Double-Crested Cormorant is a bit cheaper and synergizes with bonus card Anatomy. This game, you do get around to setting up the forest and Wetland at a basic level. Not a perfect round 1, but one I can understand.

I didn't realize you were playing with the banned birds in deck. Chihuahuan Raven came out on the tray. You didn't immediately draw it. They did. You lose. There's nothing else to say, the game at this point is if they know how to play that card or not.

FrankJones wrote: ↑11 June 2025, 05:04 Everything you said is correct.

I am not sure why you aren't winning more; you seem to have a firm grasp of the strategy.

The OP of this thread hadn't made any real comments about the game for you to analyze. The person whose post you likely read about Wingspan tips is not the OP of this thread. They were the OP of https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=42938