Here is a smart little area-control game you can try for free this week. Perch, the bird-themed strategy game from Inside Up Games, has just landed on Board Game Arena, and it hides a surprisingly mean tactical puzzle under its friendly feathers.
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Start organising for freePerch is a game for 2 to 5 players designed by Douglas Hettrick, with art by Ari Oliver, that first reached shelves in 2025. In each of the five rounds, every player tips their birds into a shared bag along with everyone else's, then draws a handful back out. The clever bit is that you place whatever you draw, including your rivals' birds, onto location tiles. You score by holding the majority on spots like the Fountain and the Plaza, so a turn can mean propping up your own flock or quietly parking an opponent's bird somewhere useless.
That bag-drawing twist keeps things unpredictable without tipping into chaos, and it means you are never just managing your own pieces. You are meddling with everyone's. One reviewer summed Perch up as a game of sharp elbows hidden by soft feathers, quick to teach but rewarding to play well. A full game runs about an hour.
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See how it worksBoard Game Arena lets you play the whole thing in your browser at no cost, which makes it a low-risk way to see whether the flock fits your group before you buy a box. Like the look of it? Rally your own table and find a game night near you on Backseat Gamer.
Sources: Board Game Arena | Inside Up Games | Meeple and the Moose
