Hummingbirds

• Designer: Jason Tremblay
• Publisher: the op
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: 15 minutes
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/43bESwB 
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

In Hummingbirds, you’ll guide your birds to claim flowers that hide sand timers, then reveal those timers to check for nectar. If the sand timer has run out, collect a nectar token of the same color. The longer you wait, the sweeter the reward! But be careful: if the sand timer is still ticking when you check, you’ll lose one of your lowest-value nectar tokens. 

To set up the game, place the garden base on the table, making sure the colored tubes are in the appropriate spots (See the figure in the rules).  Then get all the sand timers out and reset them all.  Each player takes 2 Hummingbirds in their player color.

Once the game starts, play goes clockwise around the table.  On your turn, you can either claim a flower by placing your Hummingbird on top of an unoccupied flower tube or you can check for nectar by lifting up your Hummingbird which has been placed previously.  

If the timer has run out (i.e. no sand left in the top part), you collect nectar from that flower.  Grab a scoring token that matches the color of the flower.  If the timer is still running, return the sandtimer without flipping it and remove your bird from it.  As an additional penalty, return your lowest value nectar token to the supply.

The next player now takes their turn. The rules warn you not to stall – when it’s your turn, you should do something.  Also, don’t be a schmuck – no outside timers or clocks.  Just use your own internal timing.

Continue playing until all the nectar tokens of a single color have been collected – at which point the game ends.  Players total up the points on their tokens and the player with the most points wins. 

My thoughts on the game

Hummingbirds is a beautiful game that got plenty of comments each time we played it at a recent convention.  But, aside from its gorgeous appearance, there is also a crafty little game going on here.  You have to use your internal sense of timing (as well as some memory) to place your hummingbirds on timers that you know will score soon.

Games rarely take more than 10 minutes – as the longest timer in the game runs for 10 minutes, and there is only one scoring token for that color.  As it scores the most points, players often vie to get that scoring token… but at the same time, if you place your hummingbird on there too early, you’ve really limited yourself in what you can do as you only have one other Hummingbird to place and check each turn. 

There’s not really a lot of deep strategy going on here – pick a flower timer that you think is going to run out soon and then score it.  You can go for lots of small scores with the quick timers (that are almost always expired when you check them) or play a longer game and wait for the more valuable ones to empty out – though there is a much higher risk of pulling your bird up too soon.  

Of course, be sure to take advantage of your opponent’s mistakes.  When they pull out early, you’ll get a glimpse of how much sand is left in the timer which should help you estimate how much time you need to score that one.

If there is a downside to the game, it is that you see everything it has on the first play.  There really is no other strategy to the game.  But it’s quick, can be played by anyone with enough dexterity to pick up the hummingbird, and it is generally enjoyed by all. And for that reason, I’m keeping this one-trick pony in my game collection as there are plenty of times that my social gatherings need exactly this sort of game.

Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers

Dan B. (1 play): It’s a decent silly concept but the way the sand timers are used adds an unnecessary dexterity element, and using sand timers at all means you have the usual issues with those. I’d play this again but I’d rather play the old Ravensburger Time is Money, which is also a game about estimating time in your head.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it. Dale Y
• Neutral. John P, Dan B
• Not for me… Steph 

Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/43bESwB