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I love bird themed games. It sort of crept up on me. I don’t like seeing bird in captivity. And, I suppose, in a way, being stuffed into a board game box is a very captive environment, especially as avian artwork keeps getting better and better. So I perhaps shouldn’t really like bird games. But I do. What can I say? I’m a cornucopia of conflicted emotions.
Fly Home is another bird game in our collection. With solo through to 4 players (age 6+), it is a co-operative offering from the growing Helvetiq and Coiledspring line of “Fun by Nature” games.
Pretty Pelmanism
Fly Home is a simple game to set up and play. You select 3 random trait cards depicting behaviours, food preferences, wingspans, and more, and return the rest to the box. Then, all the bird cards are shuffled and laid out face down in a 6 x 7 grid. Finally the Habitat boards are placed out – one at each corner of the grid.
Being co-operative, players are working together to try and send birds home to their own habitats. Each turn, a player flips over 3 cards from the grid. If the revealed birds share a common trait active for the game, players can together choose which one to place into the allocated slot in their particular habitat. The other cards are flipped over again, and a new turn begins. When the fourth bird in any habitat is placed, you get to pop another of the remaining two birds into their habitat too – double jubby!
Some cards mix things up a little: (a) binoculars let the active player (only!) sneak a peak at another card before flipping it over again (trait information discovered must be kept secret); and revealing two identical birds (species and traits) ends that player’s turn immediately.
The game ends at whatever stage you are at when the 6th Owl card is revealed. If you manage to rehome all 16 birds before this, you and your teammates will be considered expert ornithologists!
Final Thoughts!
Fly Home is a light, calm, quiet game that is easy to teach and play with folks of all ages. Very young gamers will be familiar with flipping and matching; it’s a skill which is continuously practised when learning and playing. Likewise, older gamers and non-gamers will have no problem with the concept or mechanic. If you are like me, you might have trouble remembering where the cards you saw 1, 2 or 3 turns ago are located. But hopefully you can rely on your teammates to assist!
Recalling where birds are in the grid is the main challenge, but deciding which bird to re-home when also comes into it a little. With two identical copies of each bird in the deck, duplicate rehoming is not allowed. As such, you need to balance sending cards to each habitat with the bonus double placement opportunity when all 4 find their rightful place. Having a little bit of secret information also brings in a fun twist, although it also flies in the face of true collaboration (haha I couldn’t resist a pun!).
Also, with the Owls acting as a timer, each game will last for a different duration. This mixes things up in a good way. Having said that, if you get 6 owls in 7 turns, it’s going to be a very short game indeed!
Like Flip ‘n’ Fish and other games in this series, the eco-friendly credentials of Fly Away! are commendable - the components have been made without plastic and using FSC certified components/biodegradable glue!
