Eyrie Dynasties

Bind yourself to an ever-growing Decree — then race to score before it collapses around you.

Hard

Background

The Eyrie Dynasties were once lords of the entire forest, and they intend to be again. Where the Marquise builds from a position of strength, the Eyrie arrive with a modest foothold and must claw their way back to dominance through sheer discipline — and the iron law of the Decree.

The Decree is a binding order of operations that your faction must carry out every single turn, growing larger as you commit more cards to it. Choose a Leader at setup — each one starts with a different pre-filled Decree and grants a unique ongoing bonus. You are literally playing against the Decree as much as you are playing against your opponents.

How you win

Every Evening the Eyrie score victory points for each roost they have on the map. A single roost earns a trickle; five roosts becomes a flood. Because you score points passively and repeatedly each turn, the Eyrie engine snowballs faster than almost any other faction once it's running.

Your goal is to plant roosts as quickly and as widely as possible, then protect them long enough for the score to tick up past 30. The fastest Eyrie games end before opponents even realize you've pulled ahead — but a single Turmoil at the wrong moment can erase that lead in an instant.

How they play

Your turn follows three phases, and the Decree dominates all of them:

Birdsong — you must add at least one card from your hand to the Decree; you may add cards to up to two different columns. There is no skipping this.
Daylight — resolve every card in the Decree left to right across four columns: Recruit (place warriors in matching clearings), Move (move pieces from matching clearings), Battle (fight in matching clearings), Build (place a roost in a matching clearing you rule). Every card must be resolved — if you can't fulfill even one, you enter Turmoil.
Evening — score VP equal to your current roost count, then draw cards.

If you ever cannot execute a required Decree action — wrong suit, no warriors, no clearing to build — you fall into Turmoil. You lose VP equal to the number of bird cards in the Decree, discard the entire Decree, and replace your current Leader with a new one. It's survivable, but the momentum loss is brutal.

Strengths

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Each roost on the board adds directly to your end-of-turn VP haul. Once you have four or five roosts out, you're scoring more points per round than any other faction can keep up with — the game can end fast when the Eyrie runs clean.
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The Decree forces you to recruit, move, and battle every turn whether you want to or not. Opponents can't ignore you — your warriors will consistently show up in their clearings as a natural side effect of fulfilling your own obligations.
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Different Leaders give you meaningfully different openings: the Builder starts with extra Build cards for rapid roost expansion, the Commander starts combat-ready, and the Charismatic Leader softens the Turmoil penalty. Changing Leaders mid-game after a Turmoil lets you adapt to what the board needs.

Weaknesses

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Every card you add to the Decree stays there forever until Turmoil resets it. A Decree that made sense in round two can become an impossible obligation by round six if opponents destroy your roosts, deny clearings, or exhaust your hand.
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Losing roosts doesn't just reduce your scoring — it can suddenly make your Build column unfulfillable, triggering Turmoil when you already feel behind. Any faction that can reliably threaten your roosts has real leverage over you.
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You feed cards into the Decree every Birdsong, and your hand rarely feels large enough. A run of bad draws or aggressive crafting opponents can leave you without the suits you need to keep the Decree satisfiable.

Tips & tricks

Tip
Resist adding more than one card per Birdsong for the first few turns. A bloated early Decree locks you into obligations that become impossible to satisfy as the board shifts — start small and let it grow only when you're confident you can service it.
Tip
Bird cards are wild and satisfy any column, but leaning on them is dangerous — they inflate your Turmoil penalty if something goes wrong. Load the Decree with a spread of fox, rabbit, and mouse cards so you can fulfill obligations across multiple clearings.
Tip
Always be looking for the next clearing to plant a roost in. More roosts mean more VP at Evening, and each new roost also gives you a new clearing where the Build column can be satisfied — making future turns easier to resolve.
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Turmoil is painful but not fatal if you plan around it. Keep track of which Leaders you haven't used — some are better recovery picks than others. After a reset, build deliberately with a lean Decree rather than scrambling to re-inflate it immediately.

Walk through a turn →

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