Carrion Call (Pocket Edition)

A mighty battle rages… and its story is told in the sky!

Carrion Call Pocket Edition offers the full excitement of Carrion Call in a convenient, easy-to-transport size.

Carrion Call is a light deck-building game that tells the story of a battle between two warring armies. The fight rages on the ground, represented by the Carrion Call card game. As losses mount, more and more crows and vultures appear in the sky above – they serve as the game's scoring mechanism. You must balance the damage you inflict on your opponent against controlling your own losses to keep the flock away from your front. Over four rounds, you use a unique card-matching mechanism and powerful bonus cards to overwhelm your opponent. After four rounds, the player with the lowest score above their front wins!

Game Setup

Separate the cards into the blue deck (blue border on the front), the orange deck (orange border on the front), and the bonus deck (red border on the front). Shuffle all three decks. Take either the blue or orange deck and give the other to your opponent. Place the bonus deck face down in the play area.

Place the game board between you and your opponent, with a short edge facing each of you.

Place the flock tokens near the game board.

Gameplay

You start with a deck of 10 cards, identical to your opponent's. You and your opponent each randomly draw a flock token to determine who starts – the higher number wins.

On your turn, play up to 3 cards from your hand. You may play more than one card if you can form a combination with matching cards. To identify matching cards, look at the shape and number of bird silhouettes along the long edge of the card. If they match, you may play these cards together.

There are two types of cards. Attack cards show black silhouettes at the top of the card. Defense cards show gray silhouettes at the top. Attack cards allow you to place matching tokens from the flock into the flight path leading away from you (see arrows on the game board). Defense cards allow you to move matching flock tokens from above your front into the flight path leading away from you (again, see arrows on the game board). The tokens must match the bird or group of birds depicted on the card. You may not combine tokens to reach the depicted number of birds.

Take turns playing cards from your hand and moving or placing tokens until one player has drawn their last card. This signals the end of the round. Each player may play one last card, then the round is over.

Count all the points of the tokens above your front. Crows count their numerical value (1, 2, or 3 points), vultures count 5 points. The player with the lowest score draws cards from the bonus deck.

If you have the lowest total score, draw 3 cards and look at them. Bonus cards show either gray, red, or a combination of both on the front. The gray birds work like defense cards and move matching tokens from above your front into the flight path. The red birds allow you to move matching tokens from above your front directly to your opponent's front, skipping the flight path. Choose one of the cards to add to your deck for the next round, and pass the other two to your opponent. They choose one of the two remaining cards, and the third is discarded face down. Now you are ready for the next round.

The game consists of a total of 4 rounds, with you adding one bonus card to your deck after rounds 1, 2, and 3. At the end of the fourth round, the tokens are counted again, and the player with the lowest total score wins.