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Fancy Feathers
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Description
In Fancy Feathers, by order of your baroness, you begin to search for noble pheasants for the pheasantry, moving along a path via a simply but really tricky mechanism, collecting valuable cards and avoiding annoying ones. Sadly, you are not alone. Snatch the most beautiful birds to finish the game with the most precious animal collection.
When setting up, choose six of the twelve card types included in the game. In total, 924 different combinations are possible! Shuffle the cards, then remove from the game as many cards as three times the number of players, then lay out five cards face up in a row, placing the player tokens in a random stack. On a turn, move your token as far along the row as you wish to land on a card or another player token. If at the start of your turn you were alone on a card and at the back of the row, collect the card you were on, along with any others behind you. After you move, if necessary, lay out cards from the deck so that five cards lie in front of the player who is farthest down the row, then whoever is farthest back in the row takes the next turn.
Once the final cards from the deck have been placed in the row, you can choose to exit the row instead of moving, and the game is now over for you. Once all players have exited, tally your scores to see who has the most points.
Fancy Feathers works with up to six players. but to play with more than two people, you need additional copies of the game to have the required numbers of animal cards and wooden discs.
Fancy Feathers is a two player game that can be expanded to up to six players… if you buy three copies. What is this madness? Does it make sense? Is the game any good? Well, lucky you! I’m here to answer all your questions and more in this award winning review.
Fancy Flocks
Fancy Feathers is from designer Friedemann Friese who likes to name his games with the same alliteration as his own name. Whether he comes up with the name or the game first will be forever shrouded in mystery, but he must surely be running out of F words?
At its core Fancy Feathers is a set collection game with a lot of variety built in. You will only use 6 of the 12 types of cards provided each game. At the start of the game players are assigned a playing token and the 6 sets are shuffled. The top five cards are dealt out in a path face up.
On a players turn they place their token on any card they want, either in front or behind or on top of other players. Making sure there are always 5 cards in front of the player that is furthest forward. If you are moving your token from a card and you are the last token left on that card you take it and all the cards behind that haven’t been claimed, adding them to your sets, before you move. The next player to act is always the furthest back.
Fancy Farts
Of course not all cards are desirable. Each set has its own scoring rules, some rewarding collecting multiple cards, some punishing you for collecting too many of a type, and pheasant farts which always score negative points. Others may allow you one off powers, or multiply their scoring potential based on other cards you have collected.
Which is all fairly standard stuff when it comes to set collection. The way you get cards is a really nice mechanism though and I always enjoy games that let you move as far as you want but then have to wait for everyone to catch up. It creates this nice decision of jumping ahead to get something you really want, at the risk of missing out on things and being ditched with a load of pheasant farts. They are in the game – honest!
Stitching up others is always on the table as you have to take all the unclaimed cards behind you as well as your chosen card. In games with more than two players this often means stacking up on the back player can be a real life saver, delaying your decisions without having to take any cards. Of course if everyone does this it can cause a mid game stutter which is quite noticeable in a game of such a short length.
Fancy Pheasantry
When it comes to rating Fancy Feathers I’m having a really hard job because of the way it is packaged. Because as a two player game it isn’t very compelling. Add more players in and it’s a great experience though, but that means buying at least two copies, at which point you could have brought a more complex and rewarding game.
If you like set collection with some good decision space then this might be worth doing, but you might just end up resenting the fact you are having to pay twice to get the ‘full’ experience. As a two player game I just can’t recommend it over games like 7 Wonders Duel.
As a two player game it’s fine – you do have a little more control over what you collect but you lose a lot of the fun and threat of more players. So add 10% to my final score if you are playing with more than two.
Fancy Foughts
Fancy Feathers is a fun quick game of set collection with an interesting card selection mechanism, that is ultimately held back by its format and decision to sell as a two player game. Were it released as a four player game from the off it would be a lot easier to recommend. As it is I can only advise picking it up in a sale or if you are a die hard set collection or Friedemann Friese fan.
Zatu Score
You might like
- Solid set collection
- Interesting move as far as you want mechanism
- Pheasant Farts
Might not like
- Need to buy two copies to get the complete game
- Nothing ground breaking
- Can stutter mid game at higher player counts