I enjoy taking hikes in the woods, and hearing the songs of different birds. I have memories of Eagles, Hawks, Blue Jays, Cardinals, Woodpeckers, Hummingbirds... the list goes on and on. The thing is, I would not call myself a birder. I appreciate beautiful things in nature, including birds, but I know people who are especially interested in birds. Seeing birds and finding birds are their hobby. I can’t help but wonder if the perfect choice of theme is what makes Wingspan work not just for board game players like me, but it taps into the appreciation of birds that is innate in many people.
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Short Explanation of How to Play
The goal of Wingspan is to collect as many points that you can through bird cards placed on your board, bonus cards, end of round goals, and various elements that are placed on the bird cards on the board. The mechanics are fairly simple, as the turn options are to play a bird, collect food, lay eggs, or draw cards. As you play birds, you get bonuses each turn depending on the move you make and where the birds are placed. Even though the game is simple to play, this is one that takes some time to master because there is a lot of strategy involved in correct placement of the birds, as this is an engine building game where your bird bonuses can magnify one another each turn to give you huge points by the end of the game.
Why it Works/Doesn't Work For Our Family
What Worked: The theme was a lot of fun for my kids. They liked collecting birds that were their favorite from watching Wild Kratts and other nature shows. The game was simple enough for our 6 and 9 year old to play it, and my daughter (the 9 year old) actually did well enough with the strategies that she built to beat me a few times, so it raised the competitive juices a little bit. The birdfeeder dice roller adds a nice touch to the game, as the kids were excited every time they could drop the dice through the birdfeeder.
What Was Challenging: While the game is not exorbitant in its length, each player who plays adds to the length of the game. It can be a very long game with more than 3 players. It is a great 2 player game, but there is a lot of down time between turns as each player waits for the others to take their moves. Our 6 year old did not finish any of the games he started with me and his sister. The nice thing about this game is that there is little enough interaction that having someone drop out of the game is easy to do and adjust to, but the fact that the dropout consistently happens shows length could be an issue. A way to mitigate this issue would be to have fewer rounds than the recommended number in the rulebook.
Why it Works/Doesn't Work With Friends
Wingspan is a sneaky gamer’s game. The engine building is built toward the seasoned gamer, not the causal novice. The games I have played with gaming friends have been interesting and engaging. These games have moved much quicker than the family games, and have been more competitive since we were focused on engine building and not limiting our appreciation of the game to the beautiful art on the bird cards. I’ve had friends go and purchase this game to play with their own families after playing it with me, which is a good indicator to me that it is a good game.
Teacher's Corner
This game is great for teaching about different birds. Each card has the name of the bird, an artfully drawn picture, a location on a map of where that bird lives, the wingspan of the bird (hence the game name), and a small piece of information about that bird. When learning about classification in biology or how birds fit in to ecological systems, this game could help with exposure to different birds from around the world, and could drive discussion about what aspects of each bird help them to survive and thrive in their environments.
Overall opinion, rating, and recommendation
6 year old son - My son loved the bird cards. Whenever he could acquire a bird that he knew about, he got very excited. He was not focused on the strategic moves necessary to get a bunch of points to win the game, but he focused primarily on the birds he wanted to have on his board and getting the supplies necessary to deploy them
9 year old daughter - My daughter liked the birds, but was much more strategic than my son was at playing the game. She thought about how the birds would interact with one another, and often would outplay me by building up a bunch of eggs on her birds and getting a ton of points at the end of the game and beating me.
Mine - I will rate this game Heavy Family. I love that this game mechanically is playable for a younger kid, so they can participate, but the strategy in the game has tremendous depth so a person can grow in how they play this game and it changes. I would generally recommend this game for anyone who likes playing in depth strategy games that take awhile to play. The game does take awhile to play if you have more people, and there is some nuance in the rules, so I don’t want to imply this is a casual game. For the casual, short game player, they can either play fewer rounds than the game recommends, or they can look for other games to play that better match what they are looking for. For everyone else, this is a great game that allows for a wide variety of players, strategies, and play styles to be present and playing at the same time.
Games with similarities with this one at each rating level:
Casual Family: Draftosaurus
Heavy Family: My Little Scythe
Casual Adult: 7 Wonders
Heavy Adult: - Scythe
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