Nestlings

About this board game

Nestlings is a 2024 board game for 1–4 players, with games lasting about 60 minutes. Players take the role of birds competing for priority across four biomes while feeding nestlings, collecting resources, and building a resource ring.

Each round, players roll their biome dice and place them one at a time, alternating in clockwise order. Players may place all their dice or pass, then the biomes are resolved. The player who first places a die in a biome initially gains priority, but an opponent can take priority by placing more dice there.

• Savannah
• Alpine
• Freshwater
• Desert

Priority matters because it determines who selects a resource first and who can discard a resource to disrupt opponents’ plans. Once priority is established, players claim resources to feed their nestlings and take the matching segment for their resource ring. The central wild grasslands biome is also resolved each round.

Every placement brings a difficult choice. You might feed nestlings for immediate points, choose another resource to complete part of your ring, or place a second die to secure priority. Completing a section of the ring can earn a bonus and trigger a powerful chain reaction, while in-game currency can activate another end-of-game nest goal or be saved for victory points.

After four rounds, Nestlings ends. Players reveal their endgame nest goals and score points based on the nestlings they fed and the segments in their resource ring, regardless of when those segments were assigned.