Options for a more or less competitive game
Great Swift Start guide
High asymmetry allows deep, varied strategies
Loads of replayability
Can't get blocked in
Thwarted strategies can be disheartening
Five players is a stretch
Not the easiest game to learn/teach
Competitive version is mathematically tiring
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If you can hold off from eating the tasty egg tokens for just a moment🌳, you'll see that Wingspan can be a rich and well-rounded experience. It's one of those gorgeously illustrated, nature-themed economics board games that have become a staple of the genre, and its execution is so close to being perfect.
If you're asking yourself whether Wingspan is really worth it, and if it's really one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best board games, you'll be 🍰surprised at the breadth of play styles this game affords as an asymmetric game. With each player's individual spread taking on a life of ꦍits own as a unique avian machine, there's enough strategic variety for your mind to become caught in an updraft.
Let's take a gander, shall we?
Price | $65 / £59.99 |
Ages | 10+ |
Game type | Engine building |
Players | 1 - 5 |
Lasts | 60mins |
Complexity | Moderate |
Designers | Elizabeth Hargrave |
Publisher | Stonemaier Games |
Play if you enjoy | Jaipur, Parks, Photosynthesis, Azul, Cascadia, Sp♎lendor, Forest ꦯShuffle |
In Wingspan, players take on the role of avian enthusiasts whose goal is to collect birds, growing their habitats to gain the most points. The standard goal board makes for a less competitive game, while the green goal board increas🌌es direct conflict. There's also a solo mode.
In multiplayer, players work toward their own personal bonus, as well as shared, per-round goals that are visible to everyone. Whoever geꦛts the highest score will win.
Unsurprisingly, birds are a big part of that equation. You attrac🔯t them to their preferred habitat with the right foo♛d and egg cost listed on their card, and these feathered friends often have special abilities that earn you more resources when activated. After collecting a selection of birds in each habitat, you'll be able to chain powers in a domino effect.
This is where the magic happens. During your turn, you move down your row of birds from right to left, activating an♔y powers on cards placed there. There are a few powerful combinations, with some even being passively activ🦄ated by other players.
This game did well enough to spawn an entire series. Besides expansions (Europe, Oceania, and Asia), Wingspan has been joined by the dragon-themed Wyrmspan and the underwater Finspan.
The art is every bit as strong. Wingspan is famously pretty; the watercolor bird paintings are beautiful, ౠwhile the boards and components are a pastel rainbow. Tiny plastic eggs you'll use in-game are a highlight, as is a cardboard dicetower made to look like a birdfeeder.
That tower is something of a pain to put away (it doesn't fit 🌳neatly into the box unless you take it apart), but everything else about the game's storage solu🦋tions is top-notch. Numerous plastic containers are on-hand to help you keep things neat and tidy in-between sessions.
The game is paced well, gently but steadily increasing tension as players forfeit an action cube per round to indicate their current score from shared goals. Not only does this give everyꦅone an idea of how close the final score will be, ramping up the competitive action, it also means earlier rounds are more forgiving of mistakes, while the lack of actions in the late game make it feel more tense as you work more carefully toward your goals. This reduction also negates the extra length of later turns.
Still, there's a certain momentum to Wingspan that keeps everything rolling along. You never feel entirely blocked in as you might in the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best family board games like Catan, for example. There's no end to the strategies you can form, and while 💮you might end up relying on randomness for one to play out, failure never leads to an inability to move. You may just have to deal with making the less efficient move.
Efficiency is important to🔥 economics gamers, and iꦆt can be disheartening to have your plays thwarted by randomness. Wingspan combats this feeling with heaps of player agency. You are in complete control of your own board and plays. There's also less direct conflict and more indirect cooperation thanks to passive (between turns) bird powers inadvertently helping but never hindering.
"Spend half-an-hour with Wingspan and you'll understand why it's an award-winner. There are countless approaches you can take and multiple ways to win, but it doesn't feel aggressively competitive. You're working on your own board to build the highest score, making it a personal puzzle to solve." Benjamin Abbott, Tabletop & Merch Editor
There's also something to be said about the incredible repl✅ayability. Thanks to the incredible number of bird cards, and power chaining potential, no two games are ever the same and you'll be left wanting to come back and test new strategie𓄧s every time. It does mean that people who prefer to stick to a strict strategy every game will have to adapt. But, of course, in a game about ecology adaptation is king.
The main drawback for me is the convoluted scoring in competitive mode, in that when players tie they must "add the values of the tied and next places and divide by number of pl𓆉ayers, rounded down." The math checks out, but it does feel like an unnecessarily complex layer to an otherwise simple scoring system.
Otherwise, it's clear that the community agrees five players is too many for a game with this much going on. Rounds can already take up to half an hour wit🎶h four players, and since four already reduces replayability and momentum a lot, five really feels like a stretch.
If you want a deeper strategy gಌame that you can still enjoy as a family, Wingspan fits the bill (sorry). It's more complex than other family-friendly games like Carcassonne, but it'll keep you so much more engaged once you've got the hang of it.
🀅Not convinced? Photosynthesis is a slightly more straightforward alternative that shares a lot of the same DNA. Similarly, its spiritual successor Finspan uses many of the same mechanics but is pitched as a more ꦺaccessible entry-point.
Those who are ꦇpatient enough to learn Wingspan's ins and outs won't regret it, though. This is one of the greats.
Category | Notes | Score |
|---|---|---|
Game Mechanics | The combination of engine-building and increasing tension sinks its talons deep, keeping you far♚ more invested than you might think. | 5/5 |
Accessibility | Wingspan's bﷺiggest drawback is learni🅠ng how to play - it's not the most complicated game, but it's not accessible either. | 3/5 |
Replayability | The g๊ame's many cards and countless ability combinations keep it fresh for the long term. | 5/5 |
Setup & pack down | Thanks to the game's many component🅠s, organizing Wingspan before or after a match is more involv𝐆ed. | 3/5 |
Component quality | Wingspan feels 🍸as premium as its price would suggest, if not more so. | 5/5 |
This review was conducted us🌠ing a copy of the game purchased by the writer.
We played Wingspan numerous times with different player counts over a course of weeks to get the most complete overview of its gameplay an꧃d longevity. Our revie🍌wer also examined the game in context now that it is a few years old.
For a more in-depth look at our process, see this guide on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:how we test board games. You can also find out more via 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar+ reviews policy.
Want something that lets you work as a team? Don't miss the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best cooperative board games. As for those wanting a head-to-head challenge, try the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best 2-player board games.
Katie is a freelance writer with almost 5 years experience in covering everything from tabletop RPGs, to video games and tech. Besides earning a Game Art and Design degree up to Masters level, she is a designer of board games, board game workshop facilitator, and an avid TTRPG Games Master - not to mention a former Hardware Writer ove🉐r at PC Gaജmer.
