Migrato - Rules of the card game

Objective of the game

Migrato is a game about bird migration.

Players score points when birds reach their destination.

Bird journeys are represented by columns of cards.

Deck content

There are 54 cards in the game (49 bird cards and 5 danger cards).

Some birds fly only by night, some by day and night and some only by day.

The number of cards required for birds to reach their destination is different for every bird.

Setup

The 54 cards are shuffled and form a deck.

Each player receives 3 cards.

Player's turn

Players take turns alternatively.

On his turn, a player must play one of these 5 actions:
Play a bird card on his side
The player takes one bird card from his hand.
He lays it at the bottom of an existing column or he starts a new column.
Day cards are played face up. Night cards are played face down.
Combine/Split columns
The player takes a card that is already on the table and moves it to the bottom of another column.
All cards situated below move with it. Moving cards stay in the same order.
Play a danger card
The player shows a danger card and places in the discard pile.
He then takes a bird card of the appropriate type (day or night) from the opponent's side and place it in his hand.
For example, a danger card showing only a sun (=day) may only be used to attack day cards.
The stolen card can come from the bottom of any opponent's columns or from the top of any pile in the arrival zone.
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After these actions, the player must discard a card.
He then takes 1 or 2 new cards from the deck so as to have 3 cards in hand.
When the deck is depleted, a new deck is formed from the discard pile.
Discard his 3 cards and take 3 new ones
Send one of his columns to the discard pile
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After these actions, the player does not discard any card.

Columns

A player may never have more than 4 columns in play.

Each column must follow the following rules which apply for playing a card and for combining/splitting columns:

It is not allowed to mix birds. If a day card is visible, only birds of the same type can be played below.
Cards must be played in descending order. If you play a card with 3 birds in a column, you will not be allowed to play a card with 4 or 5 birds below.
There may never be more than 5 cards in a column.
It is not allowed to play a bird card if this bird type is already in the arrival zone of the player.
It is not allowed to make a column longer that the number of cards required for the bird, if we know the bird type.
Actions that would always lead to incorrect columns are not allowed:
- Birds that fly only by day can never be in a column containing night cards.
- The '5 teals' day card cannot be placed below any other card.
- The '4 teals' night card cannot be placed below any night card.
- No card can be placed below the '1 teal' day card.

Birds arrival

If after adding a card (or more) to a column, it reaches the number of cards required to reach the destination (see Deck content), the player uncovers all cards present in the column and checks that everything is in order.

Night cards are then turned face up.

If birds are mixed or in the wrong order, the whole column is discarded.

If everything is in order, the birds reach their destination. If the same bird is visible in any other column of the player, that column is immmediately discarded.

After a 'Combine' action, if there are only night cards in the resulting column, uncovering that column is optional.

After a 'Combine' action, a column with 5 'Black-winged stilt' cards is considered valid although if it is longer than the 4 cards needed for that bird. Migrato opening screen

Arrival zone

When a bird type reaches its destination, all cards of the corresponding column are placed on the side to form one pile. The order is not changed. The last card is on top.

Each player will have at most 5 piles (one for each bird type) in this zone (the arrival zone).

Only the top card of each pile is visible.

The player's score is equal to the number of birds visible in his arrival zone.

If the top card of a pile is attacked by the opponent, a new card becomes visible on top of the pile. It may have more birds than the previous one. In this case, the score of the attacked player increases.

If there is only one card left in a pile, it cannot be attacked.