Wingspan has been one of the most popular board games in recent memory and is no longer confined to hobby board game shelves. Target proudly displays and sells Wingspan, and people are buying it like crazy.
In Wingspan, players will add birds to their habitats in an attempt to score points. The most points after 4 rounds is the winner, and yes, it is that simple. The question becomes, does Wingspan provide enough strategy with its bird mechanics to make this game fun, and more importantly, re-playable?
In Wingspan, players will be taking a certain number of actions per round, attempting to play birds and set themselves up to have a lot of endgame points. Players can use their actions to get food from the birdfeeder, which is a resource they can use to play cards on their boards. The bird cards can be activated throughout the game to provide a variety of benefits, but ultimately, you’ll want to push all of your actions towards things that will score you points.
What I instantly enjoyed about Wingspan was how quickly I was able to teach it to a group of people. Great iconography and easy-to-understand turns make teaching the game pretty simple. Unlike many other titles from Stonemaeir, this one doesn’t have a whole lot going on. You’ll have private objective cards to look at and work towards, and a bundle of birds and items on your board and in your hand. Everything has a purpose, and the detailed guides on all the boards make playing a breeze, even when things become ‘busy.’
While easy to understand, there is still a fair amount of depth to the gameplay. Choosing which birds to play where – based on their one-time or ongoing bonuses – is incredibly important. Without prioritizing good bird placement, you are doomed to fail and lose.
At all times, it’s important to remember what private goal you are working towards, which public goals will be scored next (and in subsequent rounds), and of course, how to maximize the benefits on the bird cards you have played. Understanding when to play a bird, and where to play it, is paramount to success.
With over 170+ birds to pick from, there is a ton of variety within the deck, although many of the birds do share the same bonuses, even if their habitat locations and placing costs are different.
Thankfully, there is a ton of variety on the cards, both for your one-time bonuses and your ongoing bonuses. Often, the bonuses will be tailored to the type of bird you are playing. For example, many of the predator birds like owls, eagles, and hawks, allow players to look at the next card in the face-down bird pile, and if it’s wingspan is less than 100 cm, they can tuck this card underneath, scoring them a point at the end of the game. Other bonus cards are similarly partnered with appropriate birds.
The gameplay is enhanced by the fantastic components. While I’ve always said top-tier components cannot make a bad game good, good components can take a great board game to the next level.
As a game that won prestigious awards in the past, I was expecting a lot, and thankfully, the game delivered. The included cardboard dice tower is fantastic and of solid quality, as are the printed dice that you will roll down the tower to create your ‘bird feeder’ of resource types. Similarly, the eggs are also great to look at, hold, and play with. And while it would have been easy for the design team to just include one color of egg (since egg color does not matter), they went ahead and created different colors adding to the overall aesthetics of the game.
The rest of the components – the bird cards, player mats, and so on – are also fantastically produced, but it is the artwork on each that really elevates things. Each bird is unique and beautifully detailed, and includes an interesting fact about said bird. This makes waiting for your next turn easily bearable as you read the interesting facts on the cards.
Overall, Wingspan is a fantastic game that is a must-own for anyone, whether they are long-time board game fans or just getting into the hobby.
Adam has been writing about video games since 2014 and board games since 2018. If he's not rooting for the Toronto Maple Leafs or Toronto FC, he definitely has a controller in his hand - probably playing on a Nintendo platform - or is sitting at a table playing a board game. Adam also has firm opinions on a few key topics: there are much better board games than Settlers of Catan, and Nintendo doesn't need to compete with Sony and Microsoft.
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