Fetching Feathers
Fetching Feathers (aka Peacock) is a card drafting game for 2–4 players. It's designed by Chris Priscott and published by Unfringed.
Players each have three starting locations. These all have a top and bottom that differs according to the season; the idea is that you orient these and any other location cards so that the top part always corresponds to that round's season and shows the food that will be available to birds that season.
Players are dealt two more location cards and five, six or seven bird cards, depending on the round. They then go through a series of drafts, picking one card to keep and passing the rest of the cards on to their neighbouring player. The cards you pick are revealed at the end of each stage of the draft, so you can see what cards others are collecting. Bird cards show what food that bird needs (so which location it can be played to), how many of that bird type can be flocked together (stacked), and how many feathers (victory points) that bird scores when properly located at the end of the round. Cards also show bonus requirements that mostly modify the score if their condition is met. Every location can accommodate two flocks of birds (one on the left and one on the right) and, as an example, one of the bonus requirements is that the flock on the other side of the location card contains a specified bird type.
You score at the end of a round but then the season changes for the next round. In most instances that will mean the locations will show different food icons so may no longer support the birds that are at that location. That means in that round, players need to relocate their previously located birds as well as those they take in in that round's drafting. It's this aspect that adds depth to the game as it informs players' subsequent drafting choices. In our plays at Board's Eye View, players have tended to eschew location cards on the first round, prioritising bird cards, but that has reversed on subsequent rounds.
Fetching Feathers is a light family-friendly set collection game that plays in around 20 minutes. Players are all making their selections and deciding on their flocking arrangements simultaneously so player count doesn't materially affect playing time. Just don't expect the kind of realistic ornithological art found in Wingspan (Stonemaier Games) or the cute stylised portrayal found in games like CuBirds (Catch Up Games). Faizul Mudhakir has gone instead for a anthropomorphised style that some of our team found more appealing than others.
