Gamehelpfeedtheducks

Goal

Feed the Ducks is an abstract strategy game for 2–4 players designed by Néstor Romeral Andrés. Gather all the ducks of your assigned colour into one single connected flock across the pond before your rivals do! Each turn, drop a breadcrumb to attract all ducks along its 6 straight lines.

Components

Component	Icon	Description
Ducks		24 duck pieces in 4 colours (White, Green, Red, Blue).
Breadcrumb		1 golden breadcrumb dropped onto open pond cells to lure ducks.
Pond Board	—	Hexagonal pond grid with 61 spaces (side 5, 24 perimeter spaces).

Setup

• Ducks start occupying the 24 perimeter edge spaces of the pond:
  • 2 Players: 12 White vs. 12 Green ducks.
  • 3 Players: 8 White , 8 Green , and 8 Red ducks.
  • 4 Players: 6 ducks of each colour (White , Green , Red , Blue ).
• Ducks are placed around the perimeter: by default at random (never more than 2 adjacent ducks of the same colour), or placed alternately by players with the advanced table option.
• White drops the opening breadcrumb .

Your turn

On your turn, execute the following two steps:

1. Drop the Breadcrumb: Place the breadcrumb on an unoccupied pond space.
   • On the opening turn of the game, any empty space is legal.
   • On subsequent turns, you cannot drop the breadcrumb onto any of the 6 straight lines radiating from its previous position.
2. Ducks Swim: Every duck located on any of the 6 straight lines radiating outward from the new breadcrumb position swims straight toward the breadcrumb as far as possible.
   • Ducks stop immediately before the breadcrumb or behind preceding ducks on the same line (packing together without jumping).

End of the game and winning

The game ends immediately when a player connects their flock into a single contiguous group (ducks sharing hex edges):

• 2 or 4 Players: All ducks of your colour must form a single connected group (12 ducks for 2P; 6 ducks for 4P).
• 3 Players: At least 7 ducks of your colour (7 of 8) must form a single group (or all 8 with the advanced option).

The player who completes their connected flock wins immediately!

• Tie-breaker: If a single breadcrumb simultaneously unites winning flocks for multiple players, the player who dropped that breadcrumb chooses the winner among them!

Variants (table options)

• Setup (Option 100):
  • Random setup (default): ducks are placed randomly around the edge (at most 2 adjacent of the same colour).
  • Players place the ducks (advanced): starting with White, players take turns placing ducks onto empty edge spaces.
• Goal (3 players only) (Option 101):
  • 7 of 8 ducks (default): a single group of 7 or 8 ducks wins.
  • All 8 ducks (advanced): all 8 ducks must connect.

Controls on BGA

• Aiming: hover over (or tap) any legal space to preview destination ghost ducks and swimming paths.
• Dropping: click a valid space to stage the breadcrumb, then click blue Drop the breadcrumb here (or red Cancel).
• Setup Placement: click an empty perimeter space, then click the duck colour button.
• Tied Victory: if multiple players connect simultaneously, the active player clicks [Name] wins to decide.
• Tooltips: hover over each player's duck count in the player panel to view goal details, or tap it to highlight that flock on the pond.
• Preferences:
  • Colorblind support (Preference 100, default: Off): adds distinctive symbols to ducks.
  • Sound effects (Preference 101, default: On).
  • Move confirmation (Preference 102, default: Enabled): set to Disabled to drop immediately on click.
  • Show coordinates (Preference 103, default: Off).