Wingspan expansion
It’s approachable by nearly everyone but leaves room for extensive mastery, and that’s seldom seen in a board game lauded as a family title. The breadth of its possibilities extends a great deal past its simplistic nature. This isn’t a game where you can find a solvable strategy to win every time, because what you have access to is different in every game. The birds that are available to draw are always random, so you have to remain flexible in your pursuit, and that lends the game a great deal of replay value. You could go with an egg-focused strategy, one that tucks cards behind birds for extra points, and dozens of other strategies that you can mix and match. When combined with the wide variety of birds and their powers, this lends you an incredible amount of freedom about how you build your tableau of birds. Many birds have powers that activate when you use a habitat action where they reside. A less competitive variant exists that simply earns you points without competing with the other players to reach the goal.
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One round might award varying amounts of points to players who have the most birds in the wetlands, for example. But there are also end-of-round objectives that players can compete over. You also have personal goals that grant points if they are fulfilled by the end of the game, such as a certain number of birds in your habitats that have colors in their name. Every bird has a point value, eggs leftover at the end of the game are worth 1 point each, and special mechanics such as tucking cards or caching food grant points. There are several ways to earn points in Wingspan. How you decide to go about doing that heavily depends on the point strategy you decide to pursue. This means many of the choices you make are about enhancing the strength of your three core actions. Some are triggered when you play them, others are triggered when another player takes specific actions but most importantly, most of the birds activate when YOU take the habitat action that they are placed in.
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While birds have a point value, they also have numerous abilities. The more you focus on a single habitat, the stronger that action becomes, and it’s rare that you can focus on all three of them. The first bird in every habitat doesn’t cost an egg, but future birds in the same habitat will. The forest habitat allows you to gain foodĮach bird you place in a given habitat strengthens that habitats action, for example, if no birds are in the forest, you may choose one food from the bird feeder, with one bird you choose a food and may discard a card to choose another food, with two birds you simply choose two food, etc. The forest allows you to take food from the bird feeder, the grasslands allow you to lay eggs, and the wetlands allow you to draw cards. The kicker is, that every habitat has its own action. To play a bird you must pay its cost in food. You have three habitats where birds can be played, and some birds can only be placed in specific habitats. It’s the sheer number of ways you can accomplish this that makes Wingspan the cock of the walk. On the surface, it may look like a game about feeding birds, but the reality is that Wingspan is a game about combos and building a point engine capable of winning you the game. Platforms: PC, Switch, Mobile, and Xbox Platforms Publisher: Monster Couch and Stonemaier Games As it turns out, you can’t always judge a bird by its feathers.ĭon’t get me wrong, Wingspan is probably one of the simplest board games I’ve played, digital or otherwise, but it’s an edge case where there’s actually a great deal of depth underneath its simplicity.
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I assumed that one of the best-selling family games was going to be far too lightweight for my tastes, and I never bothered to look beyond that. Wingspan was an interesting experience for me because I largely blew off the physical version of the game. I’ve never played the board game version of Wingspan, so I wasn’t just finding my wings in the new European Expansion, but the entire game The game features a massive variety of birds! There’s a variety of ways to earn points, such as adding birds to various habitats and completing goals. In Wingspan, you are competing with other players to create the most prestigious avian conservation by having the most victory points at the end of the game. You can find a video version of this review on my YouTube Channel. The digital version extends its feathered nature into video game form, complete with AI opponents, hot-seat play, and online multiplayer. Wingspan was originally an award-winning board game designed by Elizabeth Hargrave and published by Stonemaier Games.