Birdwatcher Review

Birdwatcher from Renegade Games puts you in the shoes of an old timey nature photographer attempting to collect the best photos for your photo journal. On your turn, you can do 3 of 5 possible actions:

- Take a Photo: Here you'll take a bird from your tree and put them into your journal. The caveat to this is your flash will startle one from your tree meaning that they'll go to the clearing for other players to potentially grab.

- Run into the Jungle: You will move all of the birds from the jungle board into the clearing board. This can be a smart play to cover up a card in the clearing you really want in your next turn or block an opponent.

- Bird Call: All birds of a single species from the jungle or clearing boards will be added to your tree.

- Zoom Lens: This counts as two actions but it will allow you to take a bird from an opponents tree in exchange for one of yours and they draw a card.

- Publish: Take a publication card and add it to your journal. Publication cards will score you points at the end of the game.

After a certain amount of cards are added to the journal or if the bird deck is depleted, the game will end. Players will tally up their scores based on sets in their journals, publication card goals, and having the most species and the most Black Sicklebills. There's also additional points to be made for collecting insects that appear on cards. Whoever has the most points will win.

The Good: Birdwatcher is set collection at its finest. There's several different ways to score points and it all fits into a single row. You'll need to be careful where and when you place birds in your journal. If you break up a set and continue it later, it will start over and you will miss out on points. The art is gorgeous for the game and it all feels very appropriate to the time period they framed this for.

The Okay: I do wish that there were more variety of cards. I'll be honest, when I think of bird games, I thought Wingspan which had an absurd amount of variety. This is something completely different but I would have loved to see more of the gorgeous birds in the game. It focuses on birds of paradise which is already limited in variety but when art is this beautiful I just want more of it.

The Not So Good: Set collection games are not always the most exciting ones to play and that can stand true for this as well. While very pretty to look at, some games can feel like a runaway for one player while you're trying to stay afloat but when it works, it really works.

Final Thoughts: Birdwatcher is a really solid set collecting game. The theme may not be for everybody but if you are looking for something simple to play with a unique set of actions and ways to score then this may be for you. If you are interested in the theme but may not want to do the set collection piece of it then maybe something like Wingspan is a better option.

Thanks to Renegade Game Studio for providing me with a review copy.