Wingspan Review - Charming, Wholesome & Peaceful

Stonemaier Games published Wingspan back in 2019 and I immediately knew that I wanted to pick it up. I've loved birds and ornithology since I was young and my grandparents would take me to go and see birds every so often in the woods and wetlands of the UK. Somewhere at my parents I still have my little bird book which I used to take to school to show off for projects.

Despite my love of these feathered friends I just didn't have the cash to pick up the game when it released. However, this year I was considering a new board game and decided I'd dive in and pick Wingspan up, finally, so I could enjoy it with my friends and specifically my partner who also loves birds and birdwatching. 

After playing it around six times already in two-player, I have to say that it's one of the most charming, colourful, wholesome and peaceful games that I've played in a long time. It might be up there was one of my favourite games and I haven't even had the time to try it with the full five players yet!

Simple & Elegant Gameplay

One of the elements that makes Wingspan is such a fun game is the fact that it is exceptionally easy to play. Each player starts a round with a set of cubes and you spend these on your turn to do one of four actions. 

The first action that you can take is to Play A Bird. A player has to reference the top of their bird card and check what food it takes to introduce them into your collection. You simply then may the food cost and they can be dropped into one of three different rows. Birds have to be placed in the left-most space of a row with each bird after that potentially costing you eggs to play which we'll talk about soon.

The second action you can take is to Gain Food from the bird feeder dice tower. Food Dice are rolled at the beginning of the game and you can take this action to take a number of dice from the tower and add the corresponding tokens into your supply. Learning when is best to take food is key to the game and your strategy. Sometimes you'll have to wait until someone re-rolls the dice into the feeder so you can get access to more!

The third action you can take is to Lay Eggs. Eggs can be placed onto any bird card in your collection dependant on how big their nests are and they are used for fulfilling certain objectives and allowing you to play birds into spaces to the right of your rows, unlocking additional benefits. 

The final action you can take is to Draw Cards. Drawing cards is pretty self-explanatory and allows you to either take birds from the face-up display or blind from the top of the deck. There is no hand limit in the game so you can pick up as many birds as you like to help your strategy.

The depth to the game then comes in how your "engine" develops. Whilst many birds have abilities which are triggered when they are played, the vast majority of them have when activated triggers instead. When you choose to Gain Food, Lay Eggs or Draw Cards you will always do the right-most action that you can and then walk your cube back along the row, following each of the triggered abilities as you go. This could be to go hunting for prey, adding birds to a flock, laying eggs or maybe even caching food for some extra points.

Being able to play the right birds into the right habitats, chaining together when triggered abilities properly and keeping an eye on the objectives for each round (and game) is the key to winning bouts of Wingspan but in reality, I just have fun playing birds and reading the information about them more often than not! 

However, if you do want to win then you do need to keep an eye on those aforementioned objectives. During the game, four objectives are picked at random for each of the four rounds. You'll score victory points if you are able to fulfil these, either to a maximum of five (in the friendly game) or dependant on who has the most/least (in the more competitive game). In addition to this, you'll also have an objective card that you were given at the start of the game. This should be what directs the course of your game (perhaps collecting lots of water birds) but it isn't the be-all and end-all. You can easily win by ignoring these and just working on collecting the best birds, laying loads of eggs and making the best engine!

There is more to uncover in terms of rules for Wingspan but this should give you a general flavour of the way the game works from round-to-round. 

Wholesome Feathery Fun

Elizabeth Hargrave has done a stunning job with this game allowing it to be both fascinating for newcomers to designer board games whilst also being a fun option for those who have been playing games like this for years. 

One of the elements of the game that impresses me the most is just how much has been crammed into the core game (nevermind the expansion!). There are so many different birds, objective cards and such that you are unlikely to find yourself playing the same style of game twice. One game you might be handling a lot of predators whilst in another, you might be trying to coax wetland birds to come and settle in your little reserve. This means that you can't stick with one guaranteed strategy to victory and it's a great leveller when you end up playing with veteran and newbie tabletop gamers. 

The other triumph, for me at least, is the way that it all comes together in your mind after one or two turns. Once you've played a few birds and taken each of the actions you'll know immediately what kind of game you want to play. For those who are still struggling, they have even produced a new set of getting started references for new players in the most recent printings of the game in order to guide someone through their first few turns. 

One of the things that Wingspan also does really well is presenting you with something just lovely to look at when you've finished. When you look down at your board and see all the beautiful birds, colourful eggs and the little engine you've built, you get a great sense of accomplishment. Even if you struggled in the game at least you've put together a nice menagerie of birds!

As well as the way the game looks when you've finished playing, the actual design of everything is just...lovely. The cards are well laid out, the art is great, the boards are bright yet easy to read, the quality of the cardstock is top-notch and it comes with a bloomin' wonderful bird feeder to roll your dice into! They didn't need to do half of this but it genuinely makes the experience all the more wonderful to sit down and play. 

Whilst the game is competitive, I actually found a lot of joy in seeing what my opponent was doing from turn to turn. Whenever they would take an action I'd give out a little "oooh", looking over to read the information on their bird card and give a little nod of approval if the power was good for their engine. The non-confrontational nature of the game is what makes it a nice experience for me, especially when you have so many games filled with competitive conflict. 

This lack of confrontation and interplay between the people at the table might be a turn off for some but I don't mind it at all. I am looking forward to introducing the European Expansion into the mix which does add a bit more interaction with other players though. Of course, it also comes with all the birds that I know and love from the UK and mainland Europe.

Should You Pick Up Wingspan?

If you like simple and elegant games with plenty of extra depth when it comes to the ways you can tie mechanics together then I would say yes. If you just like birds or enjoy the idea of playing a peaceful game with your friends of an evening, I would also say yes. 

It would also be a good idea to address some of the issues surrounding Stonemaier Games and specifically Jamey Stegmaier since they are the people behind the publishing of the game. He has not exactly made himself the most popular man when it comes to his views and the way he interacts with reviewers and content creators but I would hate for one man's actions to detract from what Elizabeth Hargrave has accomplished here. She designed a fantastic game which I think is going to be a classic for years to come and even though you might not want to support Stonemaier you should still consider picking up a game designed wonderfully and packed with absolutely beautiful art by talented individuals.

Wingspan isn't going to be for everyone but I genuinely can't wait to sit down and get stuck into another game. I really want to see what other birds I've yet to uncover and then what the European Expansion adds into the mix!

Enjoyed reading my thoughts? Consider donating via Ko-Fi!