Three Chickens

The chickens are coming home to roost and you are in charge of where they land. Rather than swapping pieces already on the board, you drag each chicken and drop it onto a tile, so every turn is a placement decision instead of a rearrangement. Three or more matching chickens together are removed, and the board makes a little more room.

That difference makes it a game about foresight rather than pattern-spotting. A chicken placed to complete a group right now can be the reason there is nowhere to put the next two, and the board fills from the mistakes you made three drops ago. Players who look at where the board will be, rather than where it is, last much longer.

There is no finish line — the run is endless and the score is the point. It is easy enough to hand to a child and awkward enough at speed to keep an adult honest, which is a rare combination in this genre.

1. Pick up the chicken you have been given and look at the board before you drop it.
2. Drop it onto a tile so that three or more matching chickens sit together and clear.
3. Leave yourself empty tiles — a full board with no room is how the run ends.
4. Keep going as long as you can; the mode is endless and the score is the measure.

Reserve one edge of the board for chickens you cannot use yet. Scattering awkward pieces across the middle is what strangles a run, while a single messy edge leaves the rest of the board workable.