ROOKERY

The goal

Be first to collect three Prizes. Every 4 turns the season wheel turns — that is a Count. Whoever holds more zones at a Count claims a Prize.

The wheel runs Spring → Summer → Autumn → Winter. Some birds are stronger in a particular season.

The field

Three shared zones sit between the players. Each is a habitat — Forest, Shore, Meadow or Wetland — and holds up to 8 birds.

The first player drafts the center habitat; the second drafts both ends.

Holding a zone

Whoever has more birds in a zone controls it. Every bird counts as one. Ties hold for no one.

At Home (⌂) means a bird is standing in its printed habitat — a Forest bird in a Forest zone. Many abilities only work At Home.

Your turn

Draw a card, gain ♪2, and untap your birds. Then, in any order:

• Tap a bird to sing — collect its Song.
• Pay ♪ to nest a bird into a zone. It arrives tapped.
• Pay ♪ to set a predator face down.
• Play an event.
• Pay ♪ to flip a zone's habitat — birds that don't match are discarded, and so is every predator standing in it.
• Move a Migratory bird to another zone. This taps it — unless the bird says otherwise.

End your turn — unspent Song is lost.

Predators

Predators are always played face down. Reveal one to attack: as an ambush the moment an enemy bird arrives in its zone, or on your turn.

Compare the predator's Attack to the bird's Defense, +1 for each friendly bird in target zone — and +2 Attack if the bird is alone. Beat it and the bird is discarded. Either way the predator stays face up and may attack once per turn.

Attack does two jobs. It is what the predator hunts with, and it is what a mob has to beat to drive it off. A big predator is hard to shift as well as hard to survive.

Predators are never birds. They don't hold zones, they can't sing, and no ability that mentions birds includes them — even the hawks and owls.

Mobbing

Only a Territorial bird can lead a mob, and only while it is At Home. Tap it to declare a mob on a revealed predator in its zone. Then tap any of your other untapped birds there to join — each one adds +1.

Mob is the leader’s printed Mob plus one per joiner. Compare it to the predator’s Attack in that zone — its printed Attack plus any standing habitat or season bonus. Ambush and prey-specific bonuses don’t apply; those only exist during a strike.

Beat the Attack and the predator is driven off and discarded. Fall short and the mob fails: every bird that mobbed stays tapped, and the predator may turn face down again and wait for the next bird to arrive.

Every bird that mobs is a bird that didn’t sing, and a failed mob hands the predator its ambush back. Bring enough, or don’t go.

Abundance

Four Weather cards — Mast Year, Bait Ball Call, Grasshopper Year and Mosquito Run — each name a real glut that pulls birds in from miles around.

Play one on a zone of its habitat and that zone loses its capacity for the rest of the game. Then, starting with you, each player may nest up to 3 birds of that habitat from hand into it, free. They arrive tapped.

It feeds your opponent too — but only if they built for that habitat. Abundance rewards the player who came prepared for it.

Migratory & Resident

A Migratory bird may move to another zone on your turn. Moving taps it, so a bird that has already sung stays put — migration and income compete for the same bird.

A Resident bird never moves.

Some abilities read “when it arrives” — this triggers when the bird moves into a zone, not when it is nested from your hand. “When it nests” is the other one, and it fires only from your hand.

The three bird keywords

• Territorial — this bird defends ground. It carries a third stat, its Mob, and it is the only kind of bird that can lead a mob — while it is At Home. A bird wearing three medallions is a bird that can drive something off.
• Keystone — this bird is its habitat. While it is At Home, its zone can't be flipped to another habitat, by a Habitat card or by anything else.
• Dawn Chorus — the woods are loudest at first light. This bird sings +♪2 while At Home.

The five cards

• Bird The round ♪ medallion is Song — tap the bird to collect it. The shield is Defense — how hard the bird is for a predator to take. Territorial birds carry a third, the splayed wing: Mob.
• Predator The dark blade medallion is Attack. A hidden threat in a zone.
• Habitat Pay ♪, flip a zone to this habitat. Terraforming as a weapon. Each habitat is printed in several plates — different photographs of the same ground. They play identically; pick the one you like.
• Event One sentence, resolve, discard. Weather bends the field; Human draws and disrupts.
• Season The Wheel Turns — the Count happens now. The tempo weapon.

Winning

First to 3 Prizes. If two full years (8 seasons) pass, most Prizes wins; a tie goes to sudden death — the next Prize decides it.

When your deck runs out, your discard pile is reshuffled — you can't be decked. If your hand ever empties, you draw 3.

The goal

Be first to collect three Prizes. Every 4 turns the season wheel turns — that is a Count. Whoever holds more zones at a Count claims a Prize.

The wheel runs Spring → Summer → Autumn → Winter. Some birds are stronger in a particular season.

The field

Three shared zones sit between the players. Each is a habitat — Forest, Shore, Meadow or Wetland — and holds up to 8 birds.

The first player drafts the center habitat; the second drafts both ends.

Holding a zone

Whoever has more birds in a zone controls it. Every bird counts as one. Ties hold for no one.

At Home (⌂) means a bird is standing in its printed habitat — a Forest bird in a Forest zone. Many abilities only work At Home.

Your turn

Draw a card, gain ♪2, and untap your birds. Then, in any order:

• Tap a bird to sing — collect its Song.
• Pay ♪ to nest a bird into a zone. It arrives tapped.
• Pay ♪ to set a predator face down.
• Play an event.
• Pay ♪ to flip a zone's habitat — birds that don't match are discarded, and so is every predator standing in it.
• Move a Migratory bird to another zone. This taps it — unless the bird says otherwise.

End your turn — unspent Song is lost.

Predators

Predators are always played face down. Reveal one to attack: as an ambush the moment an enemy bird arrives in its zone, or on your turn.

Compare the predator's Attack to the bird's Defense, +1 for each friendly bird in target zone — and +2 Attack if the bird is alone. Beat it and the bird is discarded. Either way the predator stays face up and may attack once per turn.

Attack does two jobs. It is what the predator hunts with, and it is what a mob has to beat to drive it off. A big predator is hard to shift as well as hard to survive.

Predators are never birds. They don't hold zones, they can't sing, and no ability that mentions birds includes them — even the hawks and owls.

Mobbing

Only a Territorial bird can lead a mob, and only while it is At Home. Tap it to declare a mob on a revealed predator in its zone. Then tap any of your other untapped birds there to join — each one adds +1.

Mob is the leader’s printed Mob plus one per joiner. Compare it to the predator’s Attack in that zone — its printed Attack plus any standing habitat or season bonus. Ambush and prey-specific bonuses don’t apply; those only exist during a strike.

Beat the Attack and the predator is driven off and discarded. Fall short and the mob fails: every bird that mobbed stays tapped, and the predator may turn face down again and wait for the next bird to arrive.

Every bird that mobs is a bird that didn’t sing, and a failed mob hands the predator its ambush back. Bring enough, or don’t go.

Abundance

Four Weather cards — Mast Year, Bait Ball Call, Grasshopper Year and Mosquito Run — each name a real glut that pulls birds in from miles around.

Play one on a zone of its habitat and that zone loses its capacity for the rest of the game. Then, starting with you, each player may nest up to 3 birds of that habitat from hand into it, free. They arrive tapped.

It feeds your opponent too — but only if they built for that habitat. Abundance rewards the player who came prepared for it.

Migratory & Resident

A Migratory bird may move to another zone on your turn. Moving taps it, so a bird that has already sung stays put — migration and income compete for the same bird.

A Resident bird never moves.

Some abilities read “when it arrives” — this triggers when the bird moves into a zone, not when it is nested from your hand. “When it nests” is the other one, and it fires only from your hand.

The three bird keywords

• Territorial — this bird defends ground. It carries a third stat, its Mob, and it is the only kind of bird that can lead a mob — while it is At Home. A bird wearing three medallions is a bird that can drive something off.
• Keystone — this bird is its habitat. While it is At Home, its zone can't be flipped to another habitat, by a Habitat card or by anything else.
• Dawn Chorus — the woods are loudest at first light. This bird sings +♪2 while At Home.

The five cards

• Bird The round ♪ medallion is Song — tap the bird to collect it. The shield is Defense — how hard the bird is for a predator to take. Territorial birds carry a third, the splayed wing: Mob.
• Predator The dark blade medallion is Attack. A hidden threat in a zone.
• Habitat Pay ♪, flip a zone to this habitat. Terraforming as a weapon. Each habitat is printed in several plates — different photographs of the same ground. They play identically; pick the one you like.
• Event One sentence, resolve, discard. Weather bends the field; Human draws and disrupts.
• Season The Wheel Turns — the Count happens now. The tempo weapon.

Winning

First to 3 Prizes. If two full years (8 seasons) pass, most Prizes wins; a tie goes to sudden death — the next Prize decides it.

When your deck runs out, your discard pile is reshuffled — you can't be decked. If your hand ever empties, you draw 3.