Earlier in the week a friend and club member (you never leave Fenland Gamers!) who had moved out of the area for life reasons, enquired if anyone was free Friday evening for some gaming because they were back for the day. Naturally I was as was Jonathan. So plans were made.
Last night saw the fruition of those plans.
At the appointed time Charlie, Jonathan and myself met up at The Luxe to catch up over a game or two (time allowing).
Our game for the evening was Wingspan plus both expansions (European and Oceania, although technically we had a third with the swift-start expansion also mixed in). We were using Jonathan’s copy of the game because he had everything already mixed together.
This was the first time since the start of world events oh so long ago now that I’ve played Wingspan in real life, and the second expansion Oceania. Which I was keen to do. It was also a first for Charlie who had never played the game before.
So after a rules run through from both Jonathan and myself for Charlie we started attracting birds to our reservations. Even with the expansions and particularly the nectar side I still think Wingspan is not too much to teach to new players. By the time they have taken a couple of turns they have the basics grasped. After that it’s getting to grips with building that engine and evaluating cards. You can’t teach that, just give advice.
Early on I got a nice resource engine going that meant every time I collected resources I was getting four instead of two, plus tucking a bird or two. I also had a cool end of round ability in place that allowed me to discard up to 5 food to tuck cards from the deck up to the same number of discarded food. That was a nice little synergy.
Charlie also had a nice little extra value set up on the food as well. I think Jonathan was the only one who wasn’t getting extra resources when doing a food run.
So what did I think of the Oceania expansion? I liked the nectar. Having a wild resource that is basically use it or lose it, is nice. But throw in the majority end of game scoring for who used the most nectar in each of the three habitats does add a nice additional tactic and battleground during play.
The end of game ability was a new addition if I remember correctly. I nearly played a card with one that would have given me three/four additional points at the end. But that card got tucked. However I like the idea.
I do like the new player mats and the changes to them. I’ve already mentioned the nectar. But now some of the spaces allow you to discard a card or resource to reset the bird feeder or the bird trade row before doing the action on that space. Plus similarly you can on some discard either to get that extra card, egg or food. I love this change. That increased flexibility makes things easier and doesn’t favour one engine type over another.
As for the other additions of more birds, more bonuses, more end of round stuff. The more the better.
There has definitely been an effort with the expansions to make the eggs tactic a less viable route to victory. Which is a welcome design choice. Having various paths to victory keeps the game fresh. With all the cards from all three expansions mixed in the odds of getting that raven combo in the opening hand is greatly reduced. Which isn’t a bad thing either.
I think I was the only one of us to get something from their bonus card. And as you can see from the end of round scoring I cleaned up there too.
As you can see from the final scoring I ran away with the victory. Sadly fell short of the 100 point barrier.
Charlie had to hit the road after the game finished. So after saying our farewells I showed Jonathan Rolling Realms. I’m so impressed by the component quality.
I’ve said this before, but I don’t care what you think of the games by Stonemaier Games, the one thing you can’t take away from them is the amazing production quality of the games. They go above and beyond setting the standard others are judged by.
I love the large chunky d6 dice that come with Rolling Realms. Card used for the dry erase boards is a nice thickness. You get dry erase pens, little clothes to clean them with. Plus that amazing tough textured paper (first introduced with Wingspan) for the rule books.
There aren’t many components in a roll and write but this knocks it out of the park.
We ended up having a game of Rolling Realms.
Now I liked Rolling Realms. I like the puzzle element of it. I love the variability.
Even though each round has 9 turns they pass pretty quickly. Before you realise it you are on that final turn wishing you had one or two more turns left.
Naturally for us playing the game for the first time we were learning the realms for the first time also. One or two were a little confusing at first. The actual general rules are pretty quick and easy to pick up.
As a roll and write Rolling Realms is pretty solid. There is no player interaction. Which makes it perfect for playing remotely using a webcam. It’s great for large group play because of this, and supports an unlimited number of players. Which is pretty unique. Naturally you need enough copies of the game to support the number of players or use the print and play.
As you can see the game was pretty close, it basically came down to me having 3 more resources than Jonathan.
I had a great evening, it was great to catch up with Charlie. And the icing on the cake I beat Jonathan (twice).
I finish this post with a couple of photos taken by Jonathan of the evening.
