Wingspan

A solid engine builder with an unconventional theme, birds. Printed on top notch paper and cardboard stock.

Gameplay/replay

The game is played over 4 rounds. In round 1 you start with 8 actions but each round you lose 1 action cube to mark your round goal score. By the 4th round you are down to 5 actions. Your actions include:

Gain food: pull food from the feeder (randomly rolled food dice) based off the amount of forest birds you have. It is sometimes possible to pump this power by discarding cards. Food is used in the play a bird action

Lay Eggs: Place eggs on your played bird cards based off the number of plains birds you have. It is sometimes possible to pump this by discarding food tokens. Eggs are worth points at the end of the game.

Draw cards: Draw cards from the 3 on display or a random one from the draw pile based off how many water birds you have. This can sometimes be pumped by discarding eggs. Cards are the birds you can play on your board.

Play a bird: Play a bird card you have in hand to your board by paying its food cost and placing it in the proper habitat. This may cost eggs in addition to cost if it is your second or higher bird in that habitat. The birds often have abilities that activate when played, between turns, or as part of the action their habitat represents. This is how your engine builds. Maybe you choose gather food and it allows you to get a free grain token each time you do, or possibly draw a card. Doing these secondary actions lead to points, extra cards, eggs or food, and sometimes allow you to rearrange the board.

The Bad

There’s a lot of bird cards, and they will be randomly shuffled every game. If random shuffled cards is a turn off for you, this will be an issue for you because your overall goals, starting hand, cards drawn, are all random. Also I feel the final round is too short and gives you an anticlimax feel at the end.

In conclusion

Random cards aside, this is a solid game. It is a good gateway game to introduce non board gamers to something that isn’t Monopoly, Clue, or Risk. If you can get over the random card aspect, you’ll find a fun game

Wingspan provides a delightful experience with a wide range of strategy. One of the major aspects of Wingspan that stand out to me is the inclusion of theme. From every card having unique art to the nest types and egg amounts, Stonemaeir games teaches players about the lifestyle of each bird, while providing quality gameplay at the same time. In several of the games I have played, other players have enjoyed reading the bird facts on the bottom of each card out loud, as if it was an event card in a normal thematic game. Though another theme could have been put on this game, the bird theme fits elegantly in with the mechanics.
The gameplay is wonderful as well. Building up your engine is the best part, as by the end of the game your actions will be powerful. At the beginning of the game, you feel as if your actions are doing little to help you. The difference between beginning and end game is aided by the fact that in the last round all players have less actions in the first round, making the player’s need to take advantage of their engine more omnipresent.
I love Wingspan and most Euros I play, but the major problem I have with it as I do other Euros is that it does not seem to generate a table conversation. Rather, the table is likely to be quite, as people are calculating how to get the best out of their next turn or admiring the beauty of the cards. I’m sure this could change depending on the game group, but a game that encourages conversation is always great.
Overall, Stonemaeir games has produced another hit. The mix of Wingspan theme and mechanics, which are aided by the beautiful components, make for a game that can be considered the best game of the year.