Songbirds (Kickstarter Special)
Board Game Geek Avg Player Rating: 7.15
Players: 1 to 4
Published: 2018
Content Notes: Kickstarter Edition of Songbirds card game by Daily Magic Games. Includes Core Game, Owl and Shrike promo cards, and all unlocked stretch goals. Please note: unless otherwise stated paid add ons from the Kickstarter Campaign are not included.
Songbirds (originally “ことりファイト!” (Birdie Fight)) is a card game about birds trying to achieve dominance in the forest. Each bird is a different colour in the game.
Players are forest spirits, trying to secretly guide their chosen bird to success. The cards are numbered 1 to 7 in red, blue, green and white. The players lay a card from their hand to a 5×5 grid after nut tokens (points) are laid out for each row and column.
When the grid is full of cards, the rows and columns are checked. The colour with the highest total in a line takes the nut token for that bird. Colours with tied totals are ignored, so a low value card can win the nut token for that bird.
When the nuts are totalled up for the birds, the players reveal their final hand card. That card is the bird they favoured (so more than one player might be helping the same bird), and for each player, the number on the card is added to the nut total to identify who has the dominant bird.
Since the players choose which bird they favour by leaving it as their final hand card, they can delay this choice until they see how the game is panning out.
The game rules come in Japanese and English, the game itself being language free. The game includes rules for 2-4 players or a solitaire/co-op mode for 1-2 players.
With the rising sun, the songbirds begin to sing. In this magical forest, the loudest songbirds claim the ripest berries and prime nesting spots.
As a forest spirit, you help your favorite songbird color prosper in secret. Each turn, you’ll place one songbird with a specific volume into the forest.
The volume of each songbird will add to those of the same color in rows and columns. The songbird color with the loudest volume wins the berry token in the respective column or row.
If there is a tie, the songbird color with the next loudest volume wins.
When the whole forest is filled with songbirds move on to end-game scoring.
At the end of the game, you reveal the last remaining songbird card in your hand. This is your favored songbird and you score the points that the songbird color collected in berry tokens and add in the volume of your favored songbird. The player with the most points wins the game!
Publisher’s summary
It is a game on the theme of battle forces of small birds. The same number of cards are dealt to each player, and cards with color and strength are placed one by one in the 5 × 5 area. Play finishes as soon as there is no more room. Looking at each of the vertical and horizontal lines, the small bird who took the majority gains the nuts (points) of that line. Each player is supposed to have one hand left at the end, and it becomes his favorite small bird. The score you earned by your favorite bird will be your score. This is repeated 2 rounds, the player with the highest score wins.
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