Fly Away
Fly Away Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 65 bird cards (5 different species)
- 20 scoring cards (4 different types)
- 11 penalty cards
- 1 lead bird card
- 5 player aids
- 1 score pad
Setup
Take the deck of bird cards and remove all cards with icons showing player count numbers greater than the size of your playing group. In a 5-player game, use all cards. Return the bird cards you removed to the box. Shuffle the remaining cards and place them nearby in a face-down draw pile.
Divide the 4 types of scoring cards and create a separate face-down draw pile for each type. Thoroughly shuffle each of these piles.
All players now take 1 scoring card from the top of each of the 4 piles. Choose 3 cards you want to keep and place them face up in front of you. Return the scoring card you didn't choose to the box, along with the other spare scoring cards. Carefully consider which cards you want to keep, because they might complement or clash with each other. More information about scoring can be found in the "Final Scoring" section on page 13.
If this is your first game, you can also choose to keep only 2 scoring cards.
Each player takes a player aid. The player who last spotted a bird starts the game and receives the lead bird card.
Create a wedge formation in the middle of the table using face-up bird cards. To do so, place 3 cards in the top row, 4 cards in the middle row, and 5 cards in the bottom row. This area is called the display, and you will be taking cards from it during the game.
Goal of the Game
In FLY AWAY, each player is trying to assemble their own formation of birds by cleverly taking and playing bird cards. The goal is to score as many points as possible. Your scoring cards determine the ways in which you will score points at the end of the game. The player who manages to combine the bird cards with their scoring cards in the most efficient way will ultimately win the game.
How to Play
Players take turns in clockwise order. On your turn, you will take cards from the display and play them in your personal formation without changing their arrangement. The game continues until all players have assembled a complete formation. Careful though: players who take too long will receive minus points.
Turn Overview
On your turn, take 1 to 3 adjacent bird cards from the display. You may take cards from different rows, provided they're all adjacent. Next, play the bird cards you chose in front of you, in your personal formation. You must play them in the exact same arrangement as you picked them up from the display.
You may freely choose where to play the card arrangement in your formation. However, you're not allowed to cover any cards you've previously played, and at least 1 of the newly played cards must be adjacent to 1 of the cards already in your formation.
Depending on where you choose to play the new bird cards, you will be able to influence the position of the birds already in your formation. However, keep in mind that at the end of the game, your formation must look exactly like the display: 3 rows, with 3 cards in the top row, 4 cards in the middle row, and 5 cards in the bottom row. You may never play a card in a position that breaks this formation.
After playing the cards in your formation, refill the empty spaces in the display by drawing new cards from the draw pile. Play then continues in clockwise order.
End of the Game
Play continues until one player plays their 12th bird card, completing their personal formation. Continue playing until you reach the player with the lead bird card, so that all players have had an equal amount of "normal" turns.
Then, all remaining players continue playing until they've completed their formation. However, they must take a penalty card at the start of each of their turns.
Once all players have completed their formation, everyone simultaneously activates the special abilities on their bird cards before proceeding to final scoring.
Special Abilities
Bird cards can have special abilities, each of which may be activated once per card. There are 3 different abilities:
- Swapping (shown with the two-arrow swap icon): This card can swap places with any other card in your formation.
- Flipping: You may flip this card face down to prevent it from scoring.
- Doubling: This card doubles all the points you score for it, across each of your scoring cards. Careful, because it also doubles minus points. This ability is not optional and is always activated.
Once all players have activated their special abilities, proceed to final scoring using your scoring cards.
Final Scoring
Each player now scores the scoring cards they decided to keep at the start of the game. The scoring cards are structured as follows:
- A: The scoring area highlights the bird cards that count toward the scoring condition in a darker shade. All other cards are ignored for this scoring card.
- B: The symbol in the middle of the card (the "no card" symbol, a circle with a slash) shows the number of points you score if there's no card of the depicted bird species in the scoring area.
- C: The scoring table at the bottom of the card shows how many points you score for each card of a specific bird species in the scoring area.
In addition, players score 10 points if each of the 5 bird species are present in their formation at least once. Players score 20 points if each of the 5 bird species are present in their formation at least twice.
Finally, players deduct the minus points they received from their penalty cards.
Write everyone's points on the score pad and calculate each player's total. The player with the most points wins the game. In case of a tie, the tied player with the most points scored from a single bird card wins. If there's still a tie, those players share the victory.
For an extra challenge, experienced players can choose to play with all 4 scoring cards they receive at the start of the game.
Scoring Example
Special Abilities
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Nick has completed his formation and is now ready to activate his special abilities.
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First, he swaps the orange swan with the blue flamingo, using his Swapping ability. He now meets the conditions (the "no card" symbol) of his first and third scoring cards.
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Next, he activates the Swapping ability of his purple graylag goose, swapping it with the green crane at the bottom right.
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His first scoring card awards 3 points for each red pelican on the outside of his formation. His third scoring card awards 3 points for each green crane in the center of his formation. He therefore decides to use his ability to swap the depicted cards. The red pelican now scores twice thanks to its Doubling ability.
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The purple graylag goose in the top row prevents him from scoring the condition of his second scoring card. To make things worse, this card is also worth 3 minus points on his third scoring card. Nick therefore decides to use its Flipping ability to flip the card face down. Nick chooses not to use his other abilities.
Final Scoring
- Scoring card 1: 4 + 6 + 2 + 2 – 2 = 12 points.
- Scoring card 2: 7 + 2 + 6 + 0 – 3 = 12 points.
- Scoring card 3: 4 + 3 + 4 + 1 – 2 = 10 points.
- Nick managed to collect 2 birds of each type in his formation, which scores an additional 2 x 10 = 20 points.
- Unfortunately, he was forced to take 1 penalty card, which scores –3 points.
- Nick now adds up all of his points. He can be proud of his final score of 51 points.
The printed example also shows a score pad with the totals of three players (Martin, Nick and Selma); the figures are not reproduced here.