The board game being referred to is most likely Wingspan, a popular and award-winning board game designed by Elizabeth Hargrave and published by Stonemaier Games in 2019. Wingspan is a competitive card-driven board game with a birdwatching theme, where players collect birds for their wildlife preserves with specific goals in mind. The aim of the game is to attract the most valuable birds to your aviary by gathering food, laying eggs, and expanding your wingspan. With beautiful illustrations and engaging mechanics, Wingspan has been widely praised for its creativity and educational value in teaching players about birds.
What is the aim of Wingspan?
The main goal in Wingspan is to gain the most points after 4 rounds. Players earn points primarily by:
– Playing bird cards into their aviaries (habitats)
– Having birds with powerful special abilities and high point values
– Fulfilling end-of-round goals on goal cards
– Earning bonuses for meeting certain conditions like playing eggs or storing food
There are three key ways to get stronger on each turn:
– Gain food tokens by taking dice actions in habitats
– Play bird cards using food to gain new bird abilities and points
– Use bird abilities like laying eggs on nest cards or getting more food
By carefully combining these actions, players create high-scoring engine-building strategies with powerful bird combinations to maximize their points. The player with the most points after the final round wins the game.
How do you play Wingspan?
Wingspan is played over 4 rounds. Each round has 4 main phases:
1. Roll Dice Phase: Dice are rolled and placed on the birdfeeder dice spaces. These dice actions will allow players to gain food.
2. Birdsong Phase: Some birds have special abilities that take effect now.
3. Player Turns: On their turn, players will take exactly 2 of the following 4 actions:
– Play a Bird card: Pay food equal to the bird’s cost to play it in a habitat.
– Gain Food: Take dice from the birdfeeder matching a habitat you have birds in.
– Lay Eggs: Some birds allow you to lay eggs on nest cards to gain points.
– Draw Cards: Draw cards face up into your hand equal to the number of card draw symbols.
4. End of Round: Scoring happens based on public and private goal cards, and new goals are revealed.
After 4 full rounds, players calculate their final scores. The player with the most points wins!
What are the components and setup?
Wingspan contains:
– 170 unique Bird cards
– 56 bonus cards
– 20 round goal cards
– 5 dice
– Cloth bag
– Food tokens
– Custom wooden pieces for eggs, food, and end-of-round markers
– Player boards, reference cards, and point trackers
To set up:
– Each player takes a player board and tracker. Boards have 3 habitats (forest, grassland, wetland).
– Bird cards are sorted by color into 3 draw deck piles.
– Dice, food tokens, and cloth bag are placed in the center.
– 1 random Bonus card is chosen for each habitat to form the public bonus card area.
– 3 face-up Goal cards are revealed for the first Round.
– Each player is dealt a starting hand of 8 Bird cards.
Then play begins starting with the Roll Dice phase!
What are the habitats?
Each player board has 3 distinct habitats that birds can be played into:
Forest (Green)
The forest habitat focuses on card draw. Many forest birds give you a card draw action or bonus cards when activated. Building a strong card draw engine lets you cycle through more birds.
Grassland (Brown)
Grasslands concentrate on egg laying. Grassland birds make powerful use of the limited 3 egg slots on each nest card. Filling nests with eggs earns big points.
Wetland (Blue)
The wetland habitat revolves around food. Wetland birds either produce extra food, give you more food actions, or require specific foods, driving efficient food production.
Matching habitats and abilities between birds creates strong synergies. Players need to balance building up all 3 habitats over the 4 rounds.
What are the main strategies?
There are two key paths to victory in Wingspan:
Engine Building
The best strategy is engine building by stringing together bird abilities that complement each other. For example, a bird that produces extra food each turn combos well with a high food-cost bird played later. Chaining card draw lets you cycle through more bird options.
Achieving Bonuses
Paying attention to the public and secret bonus goals is important. For example, if you see a card draw goal, you can specifically target forest birds and card effects. Balancing both strategies is important for success.
Here are some other good strategies:
– Play high point value birds with strong abilities
– Fill all three habitats to access more bonuses
– Use bird powers twice by activating them from the player mat
– Fulfill end-of-round goal cards like eggs in nests or birds in one row
– Deny opponents key birds by hoarding foods they need
What are some beginner tips?
Wingspan is easy to learn but challenging to master. Here are some tips for your first games:
– Read each bird carefully to understand its food cost and abilities. Plan ahead.
– Spread out across habitats at first to open up options. Don’t just focus only on birds in one habitat.
– Pay attention to the public bonus cards and end-of-round goals.
– Use bird abilities twice for bonus actions by activating them from your player board.
– Card draw is very powerful. Don’t underestimate birds that let you cycle through more options.
– Save strong multi-powered birds for the late game when you can take full advantage of them.
– Block opponents from key food types if you see they need it for an upcoming strong bird.
– Eggs accumulate over rounds. Don’t wait too long to start filling nests.
With experience, you will start to recognize strong card combinations and when to pivot your strategy based on in-game public goals and your draws.
How does the Roll Dice phase work?
The Roll Dice phase replenishes the birdfeeder dice that provide food to players each round. To roll dice:
– 5 dice are rolled and placed on matching icons on the birdfeeder mat, with each food type getting its own dedicated space.
– Dice remain on the mat until chosen by players on their turns or if redrawn later.
– Any extra dice are placed in the general supply until needed later when the birdfeeder empties. This creates some randomness in food availability.
The dice colors and symbols match the 4 different food types in the game:
| Die Color | Food Type |
| Yellow | Seeds |
| Pink | Fruit |
| Green | Invertebrates |
| Brown | Fish |
Gaining food by taking dice is the main engine that powers your entire game, so paying attention to dice odds and planning bird costs around probable food availability is key.
What kind of bird cards are there?
The 170 beautifully illustrated bird cards come in a variety of types. Here are some of the main categories:
Low Cost Birds – Birds that cost only 1 or 2 food. They have low point values but let you build your engine faster early on. Good to combo later with higher cost birds.
High Cost Birds – Birds that cost 4 or 5 food. These birds have very strong abilities and high point values but can be harder to play until your engine is going.
Card Draw Birds – Birds that let you draw extra cards each turn as an activated ability. More card flow lets you see more options.
Food Birds – Birds like ducks that produce extra food tokens each turn or when activated. Help ramp up your food production.
Egg Birds – Birds that lay more eggs or let you reuse empty nests. Important for the wetland habitat.
Power Birds – Rare birds with very strong abilities, like drawing 3 cards or turning all dice to the food you need that turn.
There is deep long-term strategy in analyzing the odds of certain food types being rolled, planning multi-turn bird combos, and responding to other players denying you key birds or food tokens.
How do the end-of-round goals work?
Each round, players work towards completing both public and private end-of-round goal cards to earn bonus points.
There are two types of public goal cards revealed each round:
1) Group Goals – Rewards for all players who achieve its condition, like having the most birds in one habitat or 6 eggs in nests.
2) Individual Goals – Only rewards the single player who meets its condition the best, like having the most birds that produce extra food.
These public goals are available for all players to work towards.
There are also two types of private goal cards dealt facedown to each player:
1) Individual Goals – Hidden goals only you can see that award points for specific conditions.
2) Team Goals – Goals shared between two players that reward cooperating or competing.
Balancing your hidden private goals while deciphering opponents’ strategies based on their gameplay and the public goals adds engaging deductive elements.
The end-of-round cleanup lets players score points from achieved goals before moving on to the next round. New random goals are revealed, keeping strategy fresh.
What are the Bonus cards?
Each habitat has an associated Bonus card displaying an extra scoring condition. These public cards can be achieved by all players and are a key influence on strategy.
Some example Bonus cards include:
– Forest – Points for playing the most birds with card draw abilities.
– Grassland – Points for the player with the most unused empty nests.
– Wetland – Points for diversity by playing birds with different food costs.
Since the Bonus cards are fixed at the start, they heavily shape your opening moves. Paying attention to how opponents are positioning against the Bonus cards is also important counter-strategy.
Balancing the end-of-round Goals with the ongoing Habitat Bonuses is critical for maximizing points. Evaluating which of the two scoring systems favors your current hand and board state is an essential strategic skill in Wingspan.
Conclusion
With fun bird facts, chance from dice rolls, captivating artwork, and deep interwoven mechanisms, it’s easy to see why Wingspan has become an award-winning hit. The game elegantly blends engine building, set collection, and hand management into an engaging experience with high replayability. Wingspan’s beginner-friendly rules also make it a great gateway game for newer gamers, while still offering strategic depth for enthusiasts. If you enjoy wildlife themes, engine building, or card drafting games, Wingspan is a must-try immersive board game.
