Every day, dozens of birds have a stop on the fences of our countryside. When it is time to leave, all these birds mix together, unable to organize themselves into flocks to fly home. Help them find their way back to their nest.
Players begin each new round of CuBirds with eight bird cards in hand. Some birds also sit on four distinct fences on the table. On your turn, you lay a series of identical birds from your hand on one fence's extremity. These birds instantly gather with any identical bird already present on this fence, making all birds placed in-between them fly into your hand. With enough identical birds in your hand, you can perform a flock, allowing you to add some of these birds in your scoring area.
Your ultimate goal is to be the first player to gather in your scoring area either seven different species, or two species with at least three identical birds in each. Each bird comes with one small and one big flock scores, so you may want to wait to reach a big flock to add more birds at once to your scoring area. Beware, though, as the round ends as soon as a player empties their hand, forcing all players to discard their current hands and plans!
- adorable art; cube-like bird display is charming
- solid two-to-five player comfort; great with groups
- not as deep as heavier card games
- some may wish for more thematic depth
- avian diversity and display management
- Birds; set-collection in a display of bird cards
- light, approachable card-game whimsy
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Display-driven pickup — Move cards into your hand from a display to build your flock.
- set collection — Collect a flock of birds by meeting display requirements.
- Two-way selection — Choose birds to maximize future scoring while denying opponents.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- we are embarking on our top 50 journey
- the games for the most part are going to be shipped directly from the publishers
- we have excluded games that we've only played one time
- crossovers obviously because we share a collection a lot
- please keep in mind we are not here to sway you one way or the other but we do have to disclose
References (from this video)
- Unique drafting flow and bird theme
- Quick play and flow between hands
- Busy with options and cards; could crowd players' decisions
- bird collecting and racing
- bird-themed hand-management drafting
- quick, light
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- bird card drafting — drafting bird cards and replacing by trapping them
- card drafting — drafting bird cards and replacing by trapping them
- Compound Scoring — competing scoring objectives
- set collection and scoring conditions — competing scoring objectives
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the production and the visual aesthetic of the game was absolutely stunning
- the decisions were relatively uninteresting and pretty obvious once you've groked the game
- one and done style game so once you've done one of the missions you've experienced it can't go play it again
- it's a gorgeous looking game
- the money in this game, particularly in the first half was extremely tight
- this game's out there that I enjoy more that are faster they're a bit more succinct