About game: The author – Elizabeth Hargrave – designed a really interesting game and Stonemaier Games stood up to its reputation as publisher. What we got is a very elegant, repayable and interesting title. A game which received many awards & honors, Spiel des Jahres and BGG Golden Geek Award including.

Now a little about the mechanics. Wingspan is a competitive, medium-weight, card-driven, engine-building board game. So who you are? A bird enthusiasts – researchers, bird watchers, ornithologists, and collectors – seeking to discover and attract the best birds to your network of wildlife preserves. Each bird extends a chain of powerful combinations in one of your habitats (actions). These habitats focus on several key aspects of growth:

  • Gain food tokens via custom dice in a birdfeeder dice tower
  • Lay eggs using egg miniatures in a variety of colors
  • Draw from hundreds of unique bird cards and play them

The winner is the player with the most points after 4 rounds. Sounds simple? Oh, believe me, it is not. The game is deep, interesting and thrilling.
Number of players:

What I like about the title is that it allows whole spectrum of possibilities – from solo game up to as much as 5 players. And it scales greatly, not needing any special, artificial mechanics for multiplayer.
Playing time: A pretty quick game, especially if you know the rules. Up to 20 minutes in solo or 2-players mode and should be less than 2 hours in full, 5-player scope.
Complexity: This is rather light EURO, with simple set of rules but a large variety of possibilities due to the birds characteristics and skills. Once you have large palette of animals in your playing area things start to get slightly complicate as creation of best combos requires some planning.
What I like:
  • replayability – the best games can be played many times, over and over again; Wingspan has a great value in that area – what is more, you can very quickly develop syndrome of “one more game” to beat / increase your previous score. I definitely got into this mood when playing against Automa!
  • multiple strategies to victory – good game does not have a one, set path to victory. And so it is with Wingspan – much depends on cards you draw but also on strategies you incorporate. I am never tired of playing that game and can easily play couple of them in sequence to test new approaches.
  • components quality – I would like to again stress that both original edition (English) as well as Polish reprint are of highest sort – play mats, eggs, cards and the feeder – that all makes the game very nice to play with.
  • can play with children – very important for me, as we usually try to play Euro games with family members; children are attracted by the components as well as curiosities about birds.
  • great European Expansion, providing even more strategies, birds and options to the base game.
  • AUTOMA – one of the best Stonemaier Games solitaire modes; you really feel you play against somebody!
What I do not like:
  • The randomness when drawing the birds can sometimes be quite annoying; still, it can be overcome by adhering to couple of simple rules when starting the game.
  • Some of the bird types are much more powerful in 3-5 players games rather than in solo / two-player. Playing with my wife only, we rarely used the ones which benefit when “other player performs some action”.
For whom?

This is definitely title for everybody. New players will have easy to learn, beautiful game to by drawn into the hobby. Children will like it, and even the advanced players will appreciate that medium, not overly-complex design as something new.
More about the game:

And now let us have a look at the components – all pictures from my articles and session reports. Enjoy!

Beautiful base game components
European Expansion components
Close-up on the player mat
AUTOMA in action

VERDICT:

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Wingspan is definitely game which is worth the time invested in it. This is great as a family title or to bring new adepts of boardgaming to the hobby. Components are beautiful, mechanics straightforward, the strategies to victory – multiple.

Still, the title will for sure not be a suitable position to some of the more experienced players, willing to have much more control over the course of the game and who desire much less randomness.

On an additional note. I can understand all “the hype” connected with this title as it really does a great initial impression – my wife is best example, as it is really hard to convince her to a gaming evening. But does the game deserves so many prizes (see Golden Geek Awards and other) and should be awarded almost unanimously across whole spectrum of possible categories? For the sake of variety and health of boardgaming hobby I would appreciate more diverse approach from jury.

And to sum-up – strongly recommended! See you in another game review!