It was the best of games, it was the worst of games, it was the play of wisdom, it was the play of foolishness, it was the moment of belief, it was the moment of bluff, it was the birds of Light, it was the birds of Dark.
A couple things make this a contender as the best game on Happy Meeple--being able to steal the opponent's cards and playing some face down. Those elements make Migrato unique and exciting. The downside about the thievery is that if you don't get a similar number of chances to steal, you're in trouble. I don't mind that too much, though; a bit of luck adds to casual games like this, in my opinion.
My sole issue with an otherwise great game are the teals, the birds that range from one to five and only need two to be played to score. These nuisance birds can destroy a game. If someone is fortunate to land the five and four quickly before their opponent gets a card that allows them to steal the five teal, the unlucky one is very likely doomed. What other game can be decided in two moves? If I owned the game, I'm pretty sure I'd play by house rules making them 12234 or 12334 instead of 12345.
On the neutral side of things is that discards are placed face up. I still can't figure out if that's a good thing or not. I think it's probably good because it reduces luck and rewards skill a bit. At any rate it is another unique facet of the game. House Rules Idea #2--If you have this in the real world and have opponents who are vastly different in ability, you might want to try letting the underdog place their discards face down. That should even things a bit.
What are your thoughts about Migrato?
