Wingspan is the newest hotness from Stonemaier Games, from up-and-coming designer Elizabeth Hargrave. Highly anticipated since its announcement in January, this game hit the market and sold out before it even reached store shelves. Wingspan even attracted the attention of The New York Times, an organization that usually doesn’t look twice at this hobby. Something about this game has everyone’s attention, but what is it exactly?

Just like Stonemaier Games’s other huge success stories, Scythe and Viticulture, Wingspan has incredible component quality. When you open this game, it immediately sings a birdsong of luxury. Everything is so well polished and feels incredibly nice when playing, from the linen lined cards to the leather looking player boards. The game even comes with a birdhouse shaped dice tower to raise your ornithology to even higher levels of opulence.

During the game, players take turns performing one of four actions: playing a bird, getting food from the forest (which you use to play birds), laying eggs in the plains (also used to play birds and are worth points), and drawing bird cards from the wetlands. When you play a bird, it is placed in one of these three habitats, powering up that terrain’s ability. Most birds have a special effect, some that happen when you play them, some that happen when other players do things, and some that happen every time you use their terrain’s ability. Finally, at the end of each round there are goals that you and the other players are trying to achieve as effectively as possible for points. And that’s it, those are all the rules to Wingspan in a quail-sized eggshell.

Wingspan (like Terraforming Mars) falls under the category “Engine-Builder”. Your first number of turns are spent trying to make your abilities better so that at the end of the game you can make points more effectively. Why would you lay two eggs now when you can lay four somewhere down the line?

The problem with Wingspan’s engine building is that the game never lasts long enough for any engine to be reliably built. Regardless of the number of players, each player only takes 26 actions over four rounds in any game of Wingspan. Add that to the fact that the game comes with 170 unique bird cards that mostly do different things and it becomes nearly impossible for you to line up a combo on your board that has any sort of meaning. If you spend your few available actions improving your draw ability, yes, you’ll see enough cards to start to take advantage of something, but you probably won’t be able to play them before the game ends. If you spend your energy improving your food collection, you’ll be able to play more birds, but you probably won’t have any birds to play, and there’s no point focusing on eggs at the beginning because you don’t have anywhere to put them. This leads to each player vaguely focusing a little bit on everything, and having about the same abilities by the end of the game, with nothing significantly unique happening on anyone’s board.

Wingspan shifts a little bit at the end of the game, as each action can pretty easily be calculated for specific point values. In my first few games, I realized that the best move I could make would be to just lay eggs for my final five actions of the game, putting my moves on autopilot for the entire last round. I don’t mean to henpeck, but that isn’t something I seek in a gaming experience, making the whole game pretty hard to swallow.

So, is Wingspan a good game?

Maybe? The game here isn’t a satisfying experience that scratches any meaningful itch for me, but I’m someone that just played a fourteen hour long session of Twilight Imperium 4. Other people will (and do) open this game, love the feel of it, love the look of it, and love playing birds for the sake of birds. I can’t fault them. Playing this game feels good, and playing birds and then putting little eggs on them is fun. Drawing a card, hoping that you’ll get what you need against all odds is nail biting, and it is one of those fundamental board game experiences we have loved ever since we were kids rolling dice trying to somehow avoid landing on Boardwalk with a hotel.

And speaking of kids, this game is fantastic for most kids ages nine and older. Each card comes with a little fact about the birds on the bottom, and the rules are easy enough for a patient child to wrap their head around. On top of this, future expansions are going to be focused on birds found on other continents, which means you’ll be able to teach your children about the birds around them, no matter where you are in the world.

Finally, while Wingspan may not be that deep of a gaming experience, it is an important game for the hobby. Board gaming has a problem with theme in that it seems like every game has to shoe-horn in either high fantasy, deep sci-fi, or the middle ages (*cough* Magic Maze *cough*). While there are plenty of games out there that don’t fit into these three categories, it’s still refreshing each time a game comes out that doesn’t. It is also important to note that in an industry that is predominately white and male, having more female figures becoming involved is always a good thing. This is pushed even further by the fact that Elizabeth Hargrave is not only someone who has clearly put her passion into Wingspan, but also someone who actively seeks more inclusivity.

So while I will almost always rather play a more complex engine builder like Terraforming Mars, Wingspan has definitely found its cache in the market, and made a nest in the hearts of many. If you’re someone new to board gaming, haven’t played an engine builder before, and don’t have the time or desire to go after a longer experience, Wingspan is a great choice for you, however, if you are already even somewhat into the hobby, you may want to look elsewhere.

If you enjoyed this review be sure to check out our other reviews (including Patchwork, Terraforming Mars, and Dominion so far). Also please comment below or leave a voicemail (815- 905-1414) with your thoughts, especially if you end up trying Wingspan after reading this!

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Purchase Wingspan here: https://amzn.to/2YRXv6K