Game summary
👥 A game for 2 – 5 players
⏳ Playing time is 30 – 60 minutes
🏢 Publisher is Inside Up Games
Introduction
In Perch, you compete to gain and maintain control of various locations by making smart moves with your birds and those of others. Deploy your birds tactically, push opponents off their lookouts and avoid ties to take the lead in this exciting game.
Each round, players add birds to the migration bag. Then draw 2 birds and receive 2 birds from your own Flock and alternately place them on location cards. These locations earn points for majorities and can also give you unique powers to bend the game to your will.
After five rounds, the player with the most points wins. Thanks to the modular game board and the variety of forest animals and abilities, each game of Perch will feel and look different.
Let’s get it on the table
The game is played over 5 round, in each round each player will pace birds from their own and other players onto locations to earn points, trigger actions and can take control of Creatures.
Each round has 4 phases;
Migration Phase
Recruit Phase
Perch Phase
Upkeep Phase
Let’s dive into the 4 Phases:
Migration Phase; Remove 2 birds from each player’s Flock and add them to the Migration Bag. When you’re playing with 2 players, take another color and place also 2 birds from that color in the bag and use it during the next phases.
Recruit Phase; Shuffle the Migration Bag and in turn order each player will draw 2 birds from the Migration Bag. Then each player also take 2 birds from their own Flock so each player will now have 4 birds
Perch Phase; In this phase each player places by turn 1 bird on an Location tile. When you place a bird on a Location and there is already a bird of your color, you have to stack them together. When there is an empty nest on a location, you just have to place the first bird into that nest and counts now as +1.
This continues till every player has placed their birds.
Upkeep Phase; in this phase you’re going to score points for this round.
Step 1. Score each location; Start from the leftmost column of locations and score points from top to bottom, till all the columns have been scored. Location score points for every player that has the most, second-most and third-most on that location. Some locations can give players 0 points even when they have the most birds.
Step 2. Determine New Turn Order; The player that has the most points, after all locations have been scored is now the starting player.
Step 3. Trigger Locations that activate during Upkeep; Some location can be activated during this phase (upkeep), a player gains control of a Creature and birds can be moved to the Fountain or Plaza. When you gain control of a Creature, it’s only for the next round. Take the Creature card and place it in front of you. When you can move birds to the Fountain, you place it from bottom to top, but you can only place a bird on row higher when there are 2 birds supported below. Placing a bird on the plaza, is at the beneath the fountain.
Step 4. Advance the round maker; Advance the round marker 1 space. At the start of round 4 each player receives 1 birdhouse and at the start of round 5, each player receives a lightning token.
Birdhouse
Building a birdhouse in round 4 or 5, you can use the birdhouse. You may place the birdhouse on top of any stack with 1 or more birds. After this action, birds can’t be added or removed from this stack. The stack can’t be affected by Creatures of Lightning tokens. The Birdhouse counts as +1 for the Flock and for the stack.
Lightning token
In round 5 you can use your Lightning token to remove 1 bird from any location by using the Lightning token and Zap a players bird from any location or an empty nest. When a bird has been Zapped, place in on the Fountain.
The Game ends
After finishing the Upkeep phase in round 5, the game ends. Move all the birds from the Migration bag to the Plaza. When there are hidden objectives in play, determine whether each player has achieved their goal. When they do, players earn points as shown on the objective card.
Now score these points:
- 10 Points for the single largest Flock on a location, when there is a tie no players score points.
- 3 Points per Creature that a player control at the end of the game
- Points for each bird in the Fountain, you score points equal to the level where your bird has been placed.
- Birds in the plaza score 1 point for each bird
The player with the most points is the winner!
Final Conclusion & rating
Weight: 2.82/ 5
Replayability: 9
Our rating: 8 out of 10 dices
Perch, wederom een spel met o.a. vogels maar wat zien die er toch leuk uit! Maar bij de 3d vogels blijft het niet, want op sommige locaties moet je een vogelnestje plaatsen en tijdens het spel mag je zelfs een dakje plaatsen op een vogel. Doordat het spel geen speelbord heeft maar verschillende locaties is elk spel verschillend, je kunt hierin blijven afwisselen en dat maakt de herspeelbaarheid erg hoog. Met de tegels komen er ook een aantal creatures welke je kunt gebruiken zodra je op de tegel van de creature de meerderheid hebt.
Wat leuk is dat je aan het begin van elke ronde, 2 vogels uit het zakje trekt waar er minimaal van elke speler 2 vogels in zitten en je ook 2 vogels van je eigen kleur krijgt. Hierdoor kan je dus ook een andere speler of misschien 2 spelers dwars zitten door op de verkeerde plek hun vogels te plaatsen. Wij hebben dit als een heel leuk onderdeel ervaren. Zelfs met 2 spelers want dan wordt er namelijk een derde kleur aan toegevoegd waardoor het een verassing blijft wat je kunt pakken. Maar daarnaast kan je elke dus ook dwars zitten met die 3e speler of soms kan het je juist weer helpen.
Het speelbord met de fontein is ook heel leuk! Hoe graag je het liefst ook je vogels op de locaties wilt hebben, op de fontein leveren ze aan het eind het spel een aantal punten op per rij waar ze liggen.
Zoals gezegd, Perch is er een verrassend leuk spel uit de koker van inside up games, het is qua spelniveau een prima familiespel maar met een beetje een pest element erin verwekt maar echt op een hele leuke manier.
Thanks to Inside Up Games for this review copy and the opportunity to write about it.
