Wingspan Review

Birds, birds, birds – so many different species, big and small, colorful and black and white. Can you attract the best ones to your aviary?

 

Game overview

You are bird enthusiasts (ornithologists, bird watchers, researchers and collectors) and trying to make the prettiest and most versatile aviary or bird sanctuary.

The game consists mainly of cards and their special actions, but also a feeding tower with corresponding food tokens – how else would you attract the best birds?
On your turn you can do one of 4 different actions – play a bird card, gain food, lay eggs or draw cards. These are simple actions to begin with, but once you have some birds in your aviary you will start triggering the special action on the birds, which can cause some chain reasons – you are building an engine of birds 🙂

The game is played over 4 rounds, where you can do 8 actions the first round and then one less action per round – there is always one action cube removed each turn in order to mark the random end of round scoring. These end of round scoring can either be competitive or friendly, depending on which play style you prefer.

At the end of the game, you score your birds, round goal scorings, bonus cards and any special ability on the birds that either caches food or let’s you tuck a card behind them – and not to forget EGGS – this seems to be a good income to generate points.

 

 

How is it?

(4.5 / 5)

It is one of the most beautiful and well done game I have yet played. And I love birds and my mum loved birds, so this is great way of remembering her, although these birds are mainly found in America and we live in Denmark, but still it’s birds – 170 unique birds to be precise, and is quite impressive.

This games has been compared to a light Terraforming mars. I don’t really see many resemblances other than the fact you draw cards, play cards and trigger a engine of cards.

This game was boyfriend approved, he also likes birds, and we took it on our vacation – instead of bringing 27 small games, we took 5 bigger ones. We played it 11 times on our 11 nights stay, so it was a success. He ended up finally winning over me.

While the theme doesn’t necessarily speak to everyone, the theme could have been anything, and the game would still shine, as the mechanics are great. Luckily we love birds, so this makes the experience even better for us. Seeing the different birds and learning a little something while playing (flavour text) makes this also an educational game.

We both really like the game, and maybe we are missing something, but it seems you end up spending your last 3-4 turns just laying eggs, as this will generate the most points, and this might be our only complain – as long as this game is short it’s not as crucial, but some better ending would make this game even better

 

Strategy & complexity

(4 / 5)

There are 4 easy actions to keep in mind, but there are a lot of cards and special abilities to handle; which can seem a little dauting at first, especially if you are not a gamer. But the cards are very well written and the appendix is a nice way of looking up actions, special actions on birds and the scoring bonuses.

There is a quite some strategy to be had; and I believe you will not win if you just play whichever bird, you find the prettiest or funniest, but it could be a good way of learning the game or just having fun.

Since there are 3 different engines you can focus on combined with the bonus cards and the round scoring, no game will be the same. Even if you want to always just focus on creating a good engine for drawing cards, you might not get the right birds, and if the round goals and bonus cards focus on something else, you will need to adapt to those.

It seems to be a good idea to at least have played 1 card in each row/engine as the actions you start with in each are very basic; only getting 1 food, 1 card or 2 eggs; and I have tried a few games, where I had to spend most of my actions to get food and not getting what I wanted.

The game is easy to understand and be comfortable with, but optimizing and winning will require some strategic planning.

There are some dice envolved, and you can get really unlucky not getting the food you need, but as you can always exchange 2 food tokens for another; although expensive; you will still be able to play some birds or changing your strategy and focusing on cards that involve the food tokens, you already have – if they are available.

Luck also plays in, when getting your first hand of birds and the birds on display. I had some games where there were no birds, who wanted to live in the forrest; which caused me to spend too many actions getting on food at a time.

It seems, and it might just be us playing it wrong or not better, that in the end you will end up spending your last 2-4 action cubes to just lay eggs if you have build a good engine. Of course you have to have room for all these eggs. If you have good cards in your hand you might be inclined to play them but if not, you have too spend actions to draw cards and maybe get food and then to play them – usually spending 2 eggs to put them down, so it might not be the best option, unless it makes your goals better.

Some of the hidden objective card seems to hard to do, compared to what you get out of it. For example the card to have 4 eggs on each bird to only score 1 point per bird (Breeding Manager). While others seems easier to do.

 

Replayability

(5 / 5)

Since there are 170 unique birds; some special abilities might be the same, the combination of the ability, food requirements and placements are always different, and you will never get the same combination of birds.

With the bonus cards dealt to each player randomly and the round scoring being random (16 to choose from) there is a lot of replayability. There is always the longing to create that perfect chaining of birds in your aviary.

They are already working on an expansion for this game, and I can wait to see, what they come up with and which birds they are selecting

 

Scalability

(5 / 5)

The game scales really well, from solo with the AI to 5 players. The more players the more interaction and the risk of more analysis paralysis, if you are playing with new players; however I have not had a major case of it yet. Turns are still quick and you can think on others turn, yet still paying attention to your cards with pink banners, if they activate. With more players you might not want to wait too long to grap that special bird out on display.
Boyfriend and I have played this game several times and it works really great with 2 players – plays really fast, down to 25 minutes or so. Only little thing is, the interactions are not so huge, you also don’t feel so inclined to play a lot of bird cards with pink banners “the in between” cards, as the chances of it activating seems a lot less than with more players. In the solo mode however, this seems like a wise choice if you can get them down early – the AI seems to activate it often.

 

Rules & accessibility

(5 / 5)

The rules are straightforward; 4 actions to choose from, play a card, draw a card, take tokens and lay eggs. Only questions I have had are regarding the activation of the cards, the order and when they activate and of course some of the specific cards; but the appendix is really good, and we have not really had any unanswered questions.

Good examples; which for me is the best way to explain the rules – a picture says more than a 1000 words as they say and in board game rule book this is very true.

 

Solo variant

(5 / 5)

The solo mode is exceptional; easy to play yet difficult to beat; I feel you have to get the right balance of cards in the beginning, and the hidden objective cards are crucial, especially the card the AI gets.
It’s based on the Automa Factory, which always makes good and nerve wrecking opponents in the game. You turn over a card and depending on which round we are at it will do different things; the AI get’s more powerful in the later rounds.
The AI also starts out with a value for each end-of-round goal, which you need to beat – the first few rounds are easy, but boy, it’s hard if you get the wrong end-of-round goal in the last round 🙂

 

Remote playability

(3.5 / 5)

This would be a harder game to Skype, mainly because of the hidden information, but as the game suggests, you could play with open cards, thus making it perfect for skyping; but I think some of the tension of having hidden information makes this game excel.
Playing 2 persons with one seeing their cards on a card holder, could also be an option. I have yet to try it.

 

Portability

(4 / 5)

While it isn’t the smallest game, it can be packed to take on a trip. We packed it, together with 4 other bigger games (and a few small once) in some plastic containers and in the hand luggage for the plane. The game isn’t heavy, but does take up some table space. We didn’t bring the birdfeeder dice tower or the plastic card holder, but used either a plastic container or just some decicated space on the table to indicate the birdfeeder; which worked nicely. The tokens and the cards do take up a bit of space carrying, so this is not for your compact travels.

 

Appearance & component quality

(5 / 5)

Everything about this screams “play with me”. So gorgeuos looking art on the bird cards, you want to keep playing to see them all – especially if you are a bird lover. Even the back of the cards have a nice smoothing feeling when looking at them.
Nice chunky wooden dice with good and clear iconography.
The player board is cardboard but something about the way the front was made makes you feel like, it’s a leather portfolio. It has a lot of color and the front and to some it might seem a bit overwhelming at first.
Simple yet good action cubes in nice colors.
And that the dice tower bird feeder house – Such a fun idea and nice touch making; it a bit more realistic. Sure the game can be played without, but you need somewhere to distinguish which dice are in the feeder and which are out. I feel though that it could have been made a bit better, as it seems to easily fall apart and I will consider gluing some of it tight.

Even the rule book has a nice finish to it, and I have not left anything like it – it might be plastic, but it feels good in the hands.

The only think that might seem a bit off with the rest, are the food tokens and the thin round tracker board. The food tokens are thick cardboard, but would have loved wooden ones as the wear on this will start quickly. I understand however that this would make the game much more expensive. There are not unofficial tokens you can buy to upgrade, but they are not cheap.

 

 

 

Helge’s review

(and Birger)

What first caught my eye was that bird house – I rushed forward to push all the birds out with my paw and grab them. I really like the sound of the wooden dice in the bird feeder running down, this excites me very much. The small action cubes I need to be careful with, they are so small I might swallow them; but they are fun to play with. Luckily by human upgraded the cubes to small, but bigger houses.

I know my human appreciates the card holders, but for me, it just means it’s harder for me to play with, and I have to stick with sliding on the cards already played down on the player board.

The box is nice and sturdy, and who doesn’t love looking at birds. It’s not much of a challenge, but for those relaxing Sunday morning.

 

Box Fitting:	(4.0 / 5)
Component Noise:	(5.0 / 5)
Component Count & Diversity:	(5.0 / 5)
Component Quality:	(5.0 / 5)
Human Annoyance Level (HAL):	(5.0 / 5)
Average:	(4.8 / 5)

 

Game info

BoardGameGeek (BGG)

 

Rules explanation

Watch it Played