Songbirds
You start your morning the same way every day – watching your favorite birds. Then you notice something – your favorite bird isn’t the only one around, and there’s a chance they might be forced out, or lose out on some of the ripest berries and nesting locations. The birds in this area tend to decide dominance based on how loud they are. It’s too bad you can’t really help… oh wait, you’re a Forest Spirit – of course you can!
Today we’re checking out Songbirds – an abstract strategy card game designed by Yuo, and republished by Daily Magic Games. Songbirds supports 1-4 players, and takes about 20 minutes per game.
Goal
In Songbirds, each player is a Forest Spirit trying to help their favorite bird secure territory. They accomplish this by placing birds of various volumes in strategic locations in order to help their bird claim berry tokens. At the end of the game, the color of the last card in each player’s hand is their favorite bird. Players gain points equal to their chosen bird’s berry token value, combined with the number value of the card left in their hand, and the player with the highest point value wins.
Setup
To set up, shuffle all of the purple backed berry tokens face down (the other berry tokens have special uses). Arrange the berries along the top and side of the play area to create a 5×5 grid – ensure you leave enough space in each row and column for 5 cards. Set the score cards (featuring the 4 different bird colors) at the top of the forest (play area) – this is where claimed berry tokens will go. Shuffle all of the bird cards (leaving out any special cards like the crow and hummingbird – these are for variants), place one face up in the center space of the play area (3,3). Deal the rest of the bird cards evenly between players, leaving any extras out of the game.
Gameplay
Each game, players take turns placing bird cards from their hand adjacent to birds that are already in the forest. When a row or column fills up, total up the volume of each bird color in that row or column. Place the corresponding berry on the score card indicating the loudest bird’s color (ties cancel each other out).
This basic flow continues until all rows and columns are filled and all berry tokens are claimed. At this point, each player should still have 1 card remaining in their hand – this is the bird they have tied their fate to. Players add the value of the card in their hand to the value of the berry tokens that bird collected throughout the game. The player with the highest point value wins the game.
One of the great things about Songbirds is how simple the rules are, yet how deep the strategy can get. I explained this game to my family in about two minutes, and everyone immediately understood the basic game flow. Only after our first game and a half did we start to really develop strategy.
On the surface, you might think that toploading your favorite bird on the highest valued berry tokens would be the obvious strategy. You’d be right – but it isn’t necessarily the best strategy. Consider the fact that your opponent can pick the same bird you do – what becomes the determining factor then, is the value of the card they save. You might secure a high value token for your favorite bird by playing a 7, not knowing that your 4 in the same suit will not be enough to beat your opponent’s 6 they held on to as their favorite. This creates a sort of soft bluffing environment, where you’re trying to mislead people into believing you are trying for one bird when in fact you are trying for a different one.
Another interesting thing is that the highest volume bird doesn’t always win the berry. Remember, ties cancel each other out. If you pay very close attention, you can make your otherwise insignificant bird win by forcing a tie between two other seemingly dominant birds. I love how many levels of complexity there are in this game. What originally seemed like a simple card game is actually a pretty deep abstract strategy bluffing game with a really low barrier to entry. It is a fantastic entry point into abstract strategy games, and a fantastic entry point to gaming in general for players who aren’t drawn to the more oversaturated themes.
The game includes some alternate birds that change the way you score certain rows and columns – these bird cards also introduce those berry tokens you left out of the standard setup, and serve to mix things up a bit when the standard mode gets stale. There’s even a co-op and solo variant, which changes setup and gameplay significantly. Instead of dealing out all of the cards, you can only draw one card at a time. At any time during the game, you can declare the card in your hand to be your favorite bird. This can only be done once, and if you fail to choose a favorite by the end of the game, you score 0 points.
Rules
As I’ve already mentioned, the rule set in Songbirds is actually on the light side compared to how thinky it is. The rule book does an excellent job of explaining and illustrating gameplay, and we never ran into any edge cases that it didn’t address. It even includes a few variant rules and a variable setup for solo and co op play, which I tried and enjoyed thoroughly.
Production
I love the overall aesthetics of the game. The theme is great, and grants it appeal to a broad audience – including members of my family who are usually indifferent about games with more standard tabletop game themes. While the theme is certainly not unique, it is far from saturated – I can think of a few other bird themed games, but not many. And the art! It’s so good! We spent a good amount of time just flipping through cards admiring the different birds. Every bird card has a unique illustration on it – check it out.
As with basically everything I’ve seen from Daily Magic, the production quality on this one is top notch. Everything is printed on quality materials, and colors are consistent. The berry tokens are notably thicker than expected, and feel great. At the same time, the game isn’t overproduced, which lets them sell at a reasonable price point.
The one small complaint I have is that the box lid is incredibly tight. It’s hard to get the bugger open, especially considering how light the contents are. I’ll probably end up storing this one in a Quiver or something because it’s kind of tough to get out otherwise.
Final Thoughts
I honestly don’t have a lot of negative feedback on this one. Songbirds is fantastic, through and through. The art and theme are awesome and fresh. It has a light rule set with deep strategic options that will pull in the entire family, and variant modes to keep things interesting for many plays. Games play pretty quickly, and don’t overstay their welcome. I would place this in filler territory, but only just.
I have no hesitation in recommending this to anyone. It’s a great little game that packs more punch than it seems on the surface, and bridges the gap from modern board gaming into standard playing card territory. I’ll be holding on to this one for the foreseeable future.
Review copy provided by Daily Magic Games
Publisher: Daily Magic Games
Number of Players: 1-4
Age: 8+
Price at time of Review: $25
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