Wingspan Review

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4 Responses

  1. John Webley says:

    As a keen gamer and an even keener birder I really ought to be all over this, but my initial enthusiasm quickly died. I think the problem for me is that it doesn’t really seem to matter what I do. Unless the right combination of cards fall into my lap, I know that barring stupid mistakes, I will be competitive, I may win by a point or two, I may lose, but my actions don’t seem to make much difference. A shame, I so wanted it to be wonderful.

  2. Adam says:

    A fair point John, and something I tried to convey in the review too. I think to make a game that would fit into that gap of really showing the variety of birds, AND being able to be more strategic, the gameplay would need to be quite different. Having different decks of bird types for example, and changing the way scoring happens.

    Like Everdell and Terraforming Mars, being able to cycle quickly through a huge deck of cards is the only way you can make these games very strategic, rather than reactive.

  3. Cathi says:

    I play it solo online and sometimes with one friend. I think it’s a very well-designed game. I agree that the card issue is no worse than it is with Terraforming Mars and RFTG.

    The only adjustment (or house rule) I would suggest is to add a mechanism after the last round (before scoring) to lay eggs using left over resources, similar to laying down more greeneries at the end of Terraforming Mars. I think that would resolve my issue with some end of game boredom because the best end game strategy is usually to just lay eggs for the last few rounds. I’d rather play birds.

    My other recommendation is to never have any expectation of actually playing the game if you sit down to play with birders or naturalists. Expect to just hear all kinds of bird facts shared by every person at the table every time you turn up a card to explain the game mechanics.

    Aside from that, it’s a beautiful game that plays well.

    • Adam says:

      That house rule sounds really interesting, I’m going to try it next time and see how different it feels. Thanks for the good comment.

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