Wingspan product reviews

Wingspan is one of those games that is highly popular in the board game world, with it being one of the most recommended games that I see, whenever someone is wanting ideas on a new game for the family. I ended up managing to snag a copy at half price last year, having already played my friends copy a few times. A nice sturdy box, with plenty of weight to it, happily there is a little diagram on one side of the base showing you how to repack the box so that everything fits back in, its like an annoying game of Tetris without this. The game comes with solo player rules, rules for 2-5 players and a glossary for extra help figuring out the components. It also comes with a guide for new players, should you wish to use it, to help you learn the game a little easier.

To start with, each player is given a game mat, five bird cards and one of each of the five foods. You then need to pick a combination of cards and food so that you have only five in total ie. you chose two bird cards and three food. Each bird with have 1-3 environments that it can be placed in and certain foods you will need to have in order to be able to place them. Each environment can fit up to five birds and after you have placed your first bird, eggs will be required to place more. Each turn you can select one of four options - gain food, gain eggs, gain new cards or place a bird. This is further aided by how many birds you have in certain environments, forest = food, grass = eggs, water = cards, the more birds you have in the environments, the more of that item you can get or Tswana a certain item to gain extra (ie, with no birds in the grass I gain one egg, with one I gain one egg and swap a card for a second, two I gain two eggs etc).

While there is a little bit of luck based upon what cards you get (there are three face up all the time or you can blind draw) and what food is available (the dice in the bird feeder determine what foods are available to select), there is so much strategy available in this game. Not only in deciding which environment you want to be aiming for in regards to what item you want to be able to get more of, faster, the birds themselves come into play. The birds have a mixture of effects to them. Some have no effect but are worth high points, which also means they require lots of food. Others come in to effect the instant you play them, when another player performs a specific action (so you have to be paying attention) and others when they are activated by you gaining the item in that environment (food/eggs/cards). Utilising all of these gives you great opportunities for bonus points galore.

With 170 cards, there is so much variety (we have never gotten through even a third of the deck in one game), end of round goals which change (and with two scoring options), bonus cards and two expansions, this is a game that doesn't get old. Add to the game the true facts on the bird cards and lovely illustrations... this is a great game to own that isn't going to get boring anytime soon.