Stonemaier Games: Wingspan (Base Game) by Elizabeth Hargrave | A Relaxing, Award-Winning Strategy Board Game About Collecting Birds for Adults and Family | 1-5 Players, 70 Mins

Firstly, let's start with the physical aspects of the item. It's a well built board game, the pieces are all tactile and of great quality. The eggs especially are beautiful and fun to hold. Wingspan really is a gorgeous looking game, the art on the cards is truly stunning, and it's super educational with so many fun facts on many different species of birds. And the font size is reasonable enough for anyone with moderate vision to not have to squint deeply at the cards. Now, the more important question is, is it fun? By golly, yes it is! It is a good low-weight game (2-3 hour playthrough with decent pacing, single action turns) that incorporates some very interesting card play and clever engine building, coupled with a fascinating depleting action selection mechanic and multiple ways to score. If you love birds, you will like this game. If you enjoy hand management and simple tableau building, this game is perfect for you. And if you buy into any of the hype, this game has won multiple awards for good reason! Get ready to sit down for a few hours and throw yourself into the aviary world of Wingspan!

Background: I've played a ton of board/card games in my life, enough to call myself a board game enthusiast. First of all let me say that this game is beautiful. Everything from the gorgeous bird artwork on the cards to the box itself is stunning. If you're like me, you'll probably be gawking at at least some of the artwork when you play for the first time (and long after that too). Wingspan oozes theme. The board is made up of three different habitats that birds commonly live in, and you're placing birds in the specific habitat that they belong in. The actual bird cards themselves, while being beautiful, also have an interesting fact about the bird, along with their wingspan in cm. I'm definitely not a bird person, but this game really pulled me with the bird theme, and I love it. Every time I drew a new card I would say things like "Oooo would you just look at that bird!?" or "Damn, that's a nice bird right there", and would look forward to reading it's little factoid. Drawing a new bird was just as exciting as making a strategic move to gain an advantage. I won't go into the gameplay much (you can look up a how-to-play on YouTube for that), but I will say that literally every facet of it works, and exceptionally well at that. You only have a few things you can do each turn, so typically turns don't take too long, as long as you're planning ahead when others are playing. This is GOOD, as you won't be sitting for 10 minutes waiting for your next turn (at least once everyone has played once). You'll be drawing birds, playing birds on your habitats, collecting resources, and laying eggs. Your birds have effects that can be triggered in future turns, doing cool things like getting free eggs or swallowing another bird for a victory point as long as it's wingspan is small enough to fit down your gullet. You can get a bit of an "engine" going later in the game, where you can trigger a ton of effects back to back, doing a bunch of awesome bird stuff at once. There is some player interaction with some of these effects, so it pays to pay attention when it's other players' turns! This is a "point salad" kind of game, meaning you have a ton of different ways to score victory points at the end of the game. It's great because you're always looking ahead at what you think will be the most efficient way to earn points at the end, and your options are going to be different each game depending on your starting birds or playstyle. There's also different universal goals and secret individual goals that you're working on that are different every game, which greatly adds to replicability. If you're secret goal one game is to play a bunch of birds with wingspans under 40cm, you'll probably be biased towards playing a bunch of tiny birds in your habitat, which effects differ greatly from most larger birds. I would say this game has a moderate learning curve. About halfway through your first game you'll start to get the feel for what you should be doing, and by the end you feel pretty good about it. It's really not too difficult to learn, but it definitely takes plenty of time and strategy to master. Quality of game pieces is exceptional. Even the game manual is made of a thick textured (vinyl?) material that feels amazing to flip through. Overall this bird game is well worth the money. If you enjoy board games and birds, you need to own this. If you enjoy board games and don't care about birds, you should still probably own this, it's just that good. PS If you do end up enjoying this game, I would highly recommend "Parks" from Keymaster Games (a Barnes and Noble exclusive in the US). It's gameplay is different, but it has equally beautiful artwork/design and the strategies you'll employ are very similar to Wingspan.

I was able to get a copy of this game around Black Friday in 2019 for a good price. Shortly after, from what I remember, it was either sold out or the price was heavily inflated. I tend to wait for games to be more than 40% before purchasing, but I just had this feeling that this game would be worth it. And I was right. REWIND: Ever since I was young I loved playing board games even though I was an only child and I spent hours playing Sorry!, Jumanji, chess, Chinese checkers, Monopoly, etc. all by myself (I would call it research now). And the year culminated at Christmastime when my cousins would all come together and we would play board games together. FAST FORWARD: I played more computer games as I got older and then games on iOS. I found Ticket to Ride or Scotland Yard on iOS and I thought those games were great! Little did I know there were PHYSICAL board games of these games, until my neighborhood friend said he played Ticket to Ride too and brought over the real copy and my mind was blown away. I started sneaking into the toy section at Target and found Pandemic. I acquired some expansions on Amazon and that's where I was for 7 years. I played other games in the mean time but I didn't care to own them, because my friends owned them. I moved out of the country and was busy with school. I graduated and came back and low and behold it was Black Friday! I had to do research for prices for Black Friday and I stumbled on Ars Technica that mentioned Wingspan. I didn't care for birds...but the box was pretty...and what? All the cards had different art on them? That's what sold me. FAST FORWARD again! And here we are 6 months later down a rabbit hole with 80+ games, several game groups (mostly online now due to social distancing), and family who are stuck at home and have no other choice but to play games with me :) I also enjoy birding now and recognize the local birds. A silver lining with Covid is that it is during the Spring so I am able to see multiple different bird species flying around in my suburban backyard which fuels my newfound birding hobby. Pros: 1. Wingspan is pretty to look at. Nothing ugly. Even the boring American crow starts to look pretty because it feeds the other birds in your bird "engine" - which is a combination of cards with birds on them that add on powers and help you on your way to victory. 2. Even if I lose, I don't mind it because I enjoyed playing. 3. It's fun to read the little info tidbit and learn something new on every single card. 4. Information is from reputable sources. 5. The game is pretty. 6. It is relaxing...and at the same time NOT because there are so many possible combinations that could happen your brain cog wheels are always spinning. Or at least mine are. 7. It has a solo mode. 8. There is a Swift-Start pack - which are separate instruction mats for players with instructions to help everyone as a group learn how to play the game. This is a helpful tool for people who have no idea what they're doing or you want to teach this game to other people. Cons: 1. This could potentially lead you to hobbies like board gaming or birding 2. If you're a completionist/OCD and you buy this game, know that you're in for at least 5 more expansions 3. If you love artsy craftsy stuff and find the fan-made things on Etsy...you might spend more money than what you thought you were going to spend 4. The bird feeder dice tower is a cool gimmick. I say gimmick, because I let my dumb 12-year-old cousin put it together and it was frayed before I even played the game for the first time. However, my husband bought me a proper bird house dicetower from Etsy...and after you have one of those, why would you ever go back to that cardboard thing? 5. The game tray. It's flimsy plastic...it looks nice...but when you start to plan on sleeving your cards (which I did after I had to hold back from saying anything while tearfully watching Frito fingers manhandle my cards) you end up spending a lot of time trying to figure out which sleeves to buy and if all the cards will fit in the tray...or do you buy a new tray...and the cycle continues. Apparently these cards are American standard card size, because there is a European standard card size. I got the cheapest Mayday sleeves which are also the thinnest, so all the cards still fit in the trays. BUT they feel so thin...and plasticky...They aren't like the NICE sleeves my husband got for Terraforming Mars. ROLL EYES. The cards from Terraforming Mars are wearing out though on the edges and the Wingspan cards are way nicer in quality. SO good luck to you if you choose this dark path toward pretty birds and board game nights. Seriously though, if you think you might like a pretty card game about pretty birds that isn't cartoony and has real information you can learn from, try out Wingspan!

This game well designed both from a gameplay perspective but also with how beautiful everything is. There is a dice tower included that you put together and it really brings me a lot of joy every time I look at it. The game may feel a bit complicated on first read through, it is pretty intuitive once you understand it which makes teaching new players fairly quick and painless, which is something I have definitely run into with some other games. As a fun little side note I have found that the game does really seem to help you learn about birds. Between all the illustrations and similar types of birds having similar effects some of it does stick with you. Somehow one of the wooden dice that came with the game went missing. I was able to reach out to Stonemaier and they sent me a replacement free of charge. Now my game is complete and looking beautiful again. Highly recommend Stonemaier as a company as they make great products and stand by them.

I've played this game online hundreds of times, I absolutely love it. Can't add much to the other five-star reviews, the physical game is beautiful and components are well-made. My only criticism of the gameplay is that it ends too soon! You lose a turn each round, so by the last round you've often just gotten your engine going. The beauty of the physical game is that you can house rule in an extra round at the end. If you need help learning the game, google "rodney smith watch it played wingspan" for an excellent intro. Don't give up on it if it seems confusing at first - there really are only four different moves you can make on your turn. Once you get to know the different bird cards, you'll figure out which ones work best together or to meet your bonus cards or EOR goals. Also, you will learn about birds as you play! This game is low on player interaction, but as an introvert I love sitting around a table with friends building up our bird habitats. It's also not a very competitive game, you're not out to thwart other players or block their moves, which I appreciate. 10/10 recommend!

The artwork on every piece in this game is truly remarkable. The level of detail in this is incredible and it’s obvious how much effort went into crafting this. The game is definitely complex and hard to pick up at first but their are game cards that walk you through the first few plays and it made it a lot easier to get started. The variety of birds to play with is super fun and as a birder, it has been a great addition to our family’s game collection. I like the ability to play multiple rounds and gives you the ability to modify how long you want to play for, could be a short game or long game depending on time. The wooden egg pieces feel great and overall quality of all the components is very well designed and crafted. I highly recommend this to birders, nature enthusiasts, or even just seasoned board game players.

Wingspan has become an instant hit among me and my friends. The detailed artwork and descriptions of the birds are a joy on their own, and the gameplay is engaging. Replay value is excellent with the large number of unique bird cards and variety of interchangeable goals, leading to a massive variation on how each game will play out for any player. We've had plenty of laughs over the funny-looking or oddly-named birds and have enjoyed chatting about the birds we have seen or wish to see in real life. This game appeals to both play-to-win type gamers and those who simply want to spend time and hang out with friends. I'd heard this in multiple reviews of the game, and it rings true for my friend group as well. It's also a fairly easy game to learn and start playing, while also offering the chance to learn deeply through repeated playthroughs. Our competitive and analytical players who want to optimize their strategies and maximize points are finding many different ways to do so. Our laid back players appreciate that no one is ever eliminated from the game and the lack of divisive tactics. Players cannot hamper the progress of another in a significant way - even taking a bird from the draw pile that another player really wanted isn't a game-changer. In fact, plenty of birds have special powers that share benefits with other players, making everyone's ecosystem a bit richer. I've never played a game quite like Wingspan before, and I highly recommend it to anyone 14 and up. I'll definitely be considering gifting copies to friends and family, and suggest that you do, too!

Nice quality, pretty cards. Hard to learn, even with YouTube demos.