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This seems to be a nice variant on the game Lost Cities, more free-form and with more flexibility in your options (thanks to the multiple suits per card, the fact you can play the ace or crowns at the end too and the lack of a maximum predetermined number of expeditions).

It does seem to be a nice game and I'll be giving it a try :)

I wonder though, why the scoring works different when winning profit than when making a loss… Wouldn't it be simpler if when winning a profit you'd just substract 18 from the total sum? Does it really change the game a lot? I'm interested in reading your thoughts on this…

I gave this one a try tonight (one year) and liked it. I like the gameplay changes the dual suits introduce to the "Lost Cities" concept. You have to think about how to use each card, as sometimes a card you have could be used for two of your "birds".

The different scoring methods for profit and loss didn't bother me that much, but I still find it faster to just subtract 18 from the total than to look for the right combination of cards to remove…

What I didn't like much was the way the round ends. In Lost Cities, there's a time pressure element in the deck running out. You have a limited number of turns in which to play all the cards, so keeping them in your hand is dangerous. There are limited ways of extending the time (by not drawing and using cards from the discard pile) but ultimately, you may end with cards in your hand you couldn't play.

Here, as you can play all the cards you want when the round ends, you don't need to be careful. Keeping cards in your hand becomes a good strategy, as you know you won't lose them, so waiting for the right ranked card is easier, as you don't feel the pressure to play the cards you do have before the round ends…

I'm curious to read your thoughts, but I want to try the game with the variant where the whole hand is discarded when the round ends…

We had a couple of doubts: When scoring a hand, does the pawn score as many points as the card it was replacing? Also, do you have to say what rank a pawn is replacing when placing the card, or can you wait until it is actually defined by the card you put next?

I created an implementation of Emu Ranchers which can be played online for free:

Play Emu Ranchers

If anyone has any feedback, suggestions, questions, etc, I'd love to hear from you

I think the game is fine without extras, but for the completeness of the rules: can a Pawn prevent you from playing a card? This is the scenario: You have played the 5 of Suns/Waves in an orange row, and then you play the harvest. Then you draw the 6 of Suns/Wyrms. Can you play that on top of the Harvest? I think not, because then no legal rank fpr the Harvest remains. This is probably self-evident, but could be mentioned in the rules.

As you guessed, this isn't allowed. You must allow for the Harvest to be some number rank.

In this example: If you play the 8 of Suns on top of the Harvest, without playing the 7, then the Pawn can count as a 7. If you play the 7 of Suns, however, the Pawn must count as a 6.