Wingspan by Stonemaier Games – Boardgame Review

You’re a Bird Brain! Am Not! ARE TO! … The newest and hottest game of the year is WINGSPAN, the winner of the prestigious 2019 Kennerspiel des Jahres, the game of the year for hobbyists, that is, for those comfortable learning and playing new hobby games.

In the game, you are a bird brain … errr Bird Enthusiast/Ornithologist and you are trying to attract the most and best birds to your 3 habitats, The Forest, The Plains, and the Wetlands.

The game is played in four rounds – each with a unique victory point goal, and each round shorter than the last. As you go the rounds go faster and faster giving you less options to do things and making each decision that much more important.

Each turn of a round you have 4 simple options to choose from,
1) Play a bird to one of your habitats paying the required food costs and egg costs,
2) Gather Food using unique and creative dice to enable to play more birds – darn you did not roll any worms? I will take the cherry instead,
3) Lay eggs on your current birds to be able to attract more birds to your habitat, and
4) Draw additional cards from the hundreds of beautiful fine art cards that you may later add to your habitats.

Simple it seems but devilish it is originality. Each bird also can have its own unique power so that when you activate it, you may do things like draw victory point goal cards, or active a bird of prey and it can hunt and give you more victory points, or it may provide you with other game bonuses.

Who knew creating your own working functioning Bird Sanctuary could be so much fun and challenging.

You’re a Bird Brain! … I wasn’t before – but after several plays of the game – those in our group are beginning to become one!