The afternoon saw a hors d’oeuvre gaming session with my friend Nathan. Nathan is very knowledgable about video games and movies. But I might question that after recent new information came to light. Such as until Pokemon Let’s Go X (can’t remember which one he got), he hadn’t played a Pokemon game before (Go does not count). Then if you saw his films of 2018 he enjoyed Superman 4 The Quest for Peace. I think ’nuff said on that. Just knowing that is enough to make my case.
We started off with a couple of games of Keyforge. We both played new unopened decks. So we had no idea about the decks, except the houses they contained. Which meant we got the full discovery experience as we played.
We only played two games, using new decks both games. If time allowed I’m sure we would have played best of three with each deck. But this was uber casual, playing for enjoyment. Which is why the honours being shared, a game a piece seemed right.
During the second game Nathan’s partner arrived. So after I had finally won the game, I taught them Kingdomino. Nathan owns the game, but hadn’t played it, and wanted to be taught how to play.
This really was a fun way to spend a Wednesday afternoon.
The first monthly meet up for 2019. And what a meet up. Some of those that attended got to play possibly the first big game of 2019, it’s definitely the hottest game of the year so far, Wingspan, approximately 3 months early!
But first we played a five player game of Sheriff of Nottingham. I’ve not played this game for a while, but like all things gaming it has a lot of stiff competition for getting to the table.
Sheriff of Nottingham is one of those games that really is reliant on the people you are playing it with. Get the wrong bunch playing it, and the game is not a fun experience. On the other hand, get people that ham it up, buy in to the roles they are playing, and the experience is really fun.
Last night we had a great bunch playing. There was banter, well two postman at the table there was going to be. Especially at their profession. Throw in some school boy humour based around male chickens. It was a blast playing the game. I think possibly the funniest game I’ve taken part in to date. Because of that I didn’t care I was nowhere close to winning.
Afterwards we split into two groups of three to play games. Naturally this is when Jonathan, myself and James played Wingspan.
Officially Wingspan isn’t due to hit the shelves of your FLGS until March. However thanks to me being impatient and jumping on the pre-order bandwagon of getting it direct from Stonemaier Games, it hit the table last night.
This is a really really nice engine builder, that looks amazing. Any faults found with the game is really nit picking.
We played using the competitive end of round scoring. So ideally you are building your engine with one eye on the end of round scoring rule for that round. Whilst also taking into account the end of game bonus you chose.
In our game we had three completely different engines. Mine was an egg and tucking cards engine. Whilst James had a card draw engine. I don’t know what engine Jonathan had. But that illustrates the variety you can have in the engines you build. And I know with the number of birds and their abilities in the game, there is a few more engine types and then mashups that we didn’t touch.
With 170 odd bird cards in the base game (an expansion is already planned) there is a lot of variety, and you are not going to see every card in a game. It’s also going to be a few games before you’ve seen all the bonus cards. With eight end of round scoring tiles, that are double sided, that are selected at random at the start of the game, there is even a bit of variety there. So I guess in a kind of long winded fashion I’m saying there is a lot of replay ability in the game.
I really like that you start off the first round with eight actions to take that round. Then at the end of each round that number goes down by one as you use one of your action cubes to mark your position on the end of round scoring track. But even though you get to do less on subsequent rounds, the actions you take are more powerful thanks to the birds you are attracting.
It’s a hard decision to make at the start of the game about which of the starting hand of five birds you want to keep, if any. Because each bird you keep costs you one of your starting five resources.
It seemed to me reflecting back on our game, that rounds one and two are your building your engine rounds. The third round is the start to exploit your engine, and the fourth and final round is your engine doing it’s thing.
I liked the mechanic on the Barn Owl card I had that used already selected resource dice. They got re-rolled and any mouse symbols went on the card. It just simulated the hunting of this predator perfectly. Loved it, seemed very thematic. There were a couple of times when I couldn’t use the ability because there were no used dice.
And the bird tower and the resource dice, love them. Love how they are used in the game.
The rule book is easy to follow, and I love the little designer notes scattered through out it. Having the reference section separate is nice. Although the quick start rules that it has inside the cover would have been better on the back page in my opinion. They even suggest if you are learning the game as you go along (which regular readers will know is something we like to do in our game group) to use these rules. When I read that in the rule book it bought a little smile to my face.
With the card tray, supplied containers for eggs and resource tokens, set up and clearing away is pretty quick.
The game looks beautiful. The art as I’ve said previously is gorgeous and could easily be in one of those Observer bird books. Out on the table being played, the bird box dice tower, and the eggs make great table theatrics. Overall with quality of components is amazing.
My nit picking for the game is that with all the cards sleeved they barely fit in the rather nice card storage box included. In fact I had to take the automata cards out and put in a small deck box. For those interested these are the sleeves I got, Mayday Games 57.5 x 89 mm sleeves Chimera USA Premium Card Game (Pack of 50). There is a couple of millimetres gap at the top of the sleeve. But I can live with that.
There is a typo that I’m not bothered about. But there is a couple of misprinted cards, with incorrect numbers on. The correct images are available on the games FAQ, but it would be nice to be able to get replacement cards.
I’m going to also nit pick about the thin card stock for the end of round scoring track. I’d have liked it to be a bit thicker, maybe even cardboard.
And I’ll agree with Tom on The Dice Tower that the score pad is a bit plain when you look how colourful the rest of the game is.
Wingspan really does live up to the hype. It delivers in spades on it’s promises. This is one game I can’t wait to get to the table again. The bar has been set really high for the rest of the year.
As usual for this type of post a big thank you to The Luxe Cinema for hosting the evening once again. And a “you rock” to the staff on duty.
While Wingspan was great to play, and I will not be cancelling my pre-order, I will chime in with my nit picks (you never know, the publisher might be reading and take them on board, although, hands-up, they are minor).
I had a bit of trouble reading the text on the cards and seeing the icons clearly and I would have preferred larger text; I found it more difficult to read the black text on the brown background (but, in the game’s defence, I had forgotten my glasses). Knowing that it was a Stonemaier Game, who also produce Viticulture, Between Two Cities, Scythe, amongst others, I was surprised that the cubes used for the actions were not bird shaped (a lot of their games use custom shaped wood). I would have liked custom shaped resource bits too, but that would probably push the cost up by too much. However, I’ve seen that Meeple Source are producing wooden resource tokens for the game, and I’m hoping they will become available from within the UK at a more reasonable rate than attempting to ship them in from the US. I get what they were trying to do with the player boards (making them look like field guide notebooks) but I do wish publishers would get the cut right. The board should be cut on the front side, nit the back, to avoid those unsightly white lines that appear at the crease over time.
The dice are great; really like that they’re oversized and the print is excellent. The graphic design is excellent and the bird illustrations are fantastic. The bird-box dice tower is particularly nice, but they really should have got the wooden plank design to match on the tower chute!
The game plays great though and I’m really happy to have been able to play this. Looking forward to see where they might go with expansions :)
Thanks for putting this down, as I didn’t want to give the impression they were my thoughts, I wanted you to get the full credit. I didn’t have a problem with the text. Totally agree iconography and dice fantastic, and I should of mentioned them specifically.
I too hope those wooden resources make it here to the UK. An instant buy based on the photos you shared with me.
And I must say that I’m not overly enthused about the amount of typos that are starting to surface. I get that some won’t affect from the gameplay, but they still annoy me quite a bit. I know that they are reprinting some to be offered for free, but they’re only reprinting some of them and not all of them! For goodness sake, reprint all of them with typos on and include them in an expansion.
I thought the solution was a reasonable one. The third printing will be a corrected version from what I’ve seen online. I like that boardgame extras are being involved for over.
That’s the problem though; it will be fixed for the late adopters. Similar to Kickstarters, the early adopters that help launch the game are left out in the cold, while later buyers get a better product. It makes me contemplate my pre-order, knowing that I can get a copy a couple of months later that has all known errors fixed.
Well there is no hurry, we have my “flawed” copy to play in the meantime. Plus there solution offered is a fair one. It’s better than a few companies would have done.
There are 3 game-affecting cards, which is what they’re offering for free, but there are plenty more that are non-game affecting typos. Personally, I want a game that is free from typos and certainly free from game-affecting errors. I am pleased that the publisher is offering the 3 game-affecting cards for free, but disappointed that the cards that just contain typos are not being dealt with.
Yes, I agree that it more than some companies would do (Dice Hate Me being one of them), and it is a ‘solution’. Whether it’s a ‘good solution’ depends on who you’re asking. I think there’s a better solution, but Jamey does not think so. The thing is, these silly errors (most of them down to poor proofreading) should have been caught in the first place. One or two errors are to be expected, but it’s getting ridiculous now with errors that keep cropping up.
How many now? Last time I looked it was 3 cards. Obviously going by your comments it’s a few more than that now. Will have to look to see how many are typos, how many are misprints.
There are 3 game-affecting cards, which is what they’re offering for free, but there are plenty more that are non-game affecting typos. Personally, I want a game that is free from typos and certainly free from game-affecting errors. I am pleased that the publisher is offering the 3 game-affecting cards for free, but disappointed that the cards that just contain typos are not being dealt with.
In fairness to the publisher and to your comment, there are currently 2 game-affecting card misprints in the game, and 1 card with incorrect art. These 3 cards are being replaced at the publisher’s expense. However, there remain currently 17 cards with typos. Although the solution by the publisher is a fair solution, it irks me when I see typos in a game, so my preference is a deck of 20 cards with all typos and misprints rectified – I don’t even mind paying a small cost for this. There are also about 4 rulebook errors that are being corrected in the third edition.
Although I know that Wingspan is not a Kickstarter, it really annoys me with Kickstarters when the early adopters (or those that actually fund the production of a game) are denied upgrade packs when problems surface within the first edition. One such example was in Brew Crafters when the concern about the starting player being able to grab all the Local Partnerships in the game, locking out other players from being able to get them was raised, it was subsequently changed in the second edition. Early adopters were offered a sticker, but at extortionate shipping rates to the UK (I might as well have purchased a complete second edition). It was a solution, but only for those in the US. Outside of the US, it was not a fair solution. Perhaps it hurt more because it was actually me that discovered the Local Partnership loophole and pointed it out to the designer.
I sympathise with you on that front. Typos I can live with. It’s annoying, but they happen. The misprints I think that the solution is acceptable. Yes I wish the proofreading had been better. But it’s a minor thing in the scale of things. It does take the shine off a little. However I will say in our play last week, I didn’t notice any, but then I wasn’t really paying attention. Imagine if this had been Terraforming Mars, poor component quality and typos! Now I’m wondering if there were any for that game.
Maybe we can make a house rule, person with most typos gets an extra 3 points ;)
I do think that you are in the minority on the paying for the replacements. I know so many that would not be as reasonable.
My opinions about postage from the US is same as yours especially for the likes of Dice Hate Me. They might as well just put a banner on the site saying US only.
So are you happy with the official response by Jamie on the Wingspan Facebook group?
Yes, I’m very happy. This solves all the issues I had with the typos/misprints. Now there is a publisher striving to be the best.
Exactly. It’s the way things should be handled. If only ITB could be the same.