How to play
- Everyone places two nests, each with a path beside it, in turn order and then back again. Your second nest gives you one card for each field it touches.
- Each turn starts with a roll of two dice. Every field with that number pays one card to each nest on its corners, and two to each roost.
- Then build: a path (reeds and mud), a nest (reeds, mud, feathers and seeds) on a corner your path reaches, a roost in place of one of your nests (two seeds and three pebbles), or a luck card (feathers, seeds and pebbles).
- Nests need a gap: no nest can sit on a corner next to another nest.
- Trade with the bank at 4 for 1, or 3 for 1 at a harbour, or 2 for 1 at a harbour for that card. Or offer a trade to everyone and pick who to swap with.
- On a 7 nobody gets anything. Everyone holding more than 7 cards throws away half, then the roller moves the heron to another field. That field pays nothing until the heron moves, and the roller takes a card at random from someone with a nest there.
- Luck cards: a Heron Chaser moves the heron, Two Paths builds two paths free, a Bumper Crop takes two cards from the bank, a Round-up collects everyone’s cards of one kind, and a Golden Egg is worth a secret point. Play one per turn, not on the turn you bought it.
- Points: a nest is 1, a roost 2. The longest unbroken path of 5 or more is worth 2, and so is the biggest flock (the most Heron Chasers played, at least 3). First to 10 points on their own turn wins.
Tips
The dots under each number show how often it comes up: 6 and 8 most, 2 and 12 least. Start somewhere that makes reeds and mud so you can build paths early, and keep a spot that makes pebbles and seeds for roosts later. With more than 7 cards in hand a 7 costs you half, so spend or trade before you end your turn.