With the imminent release of the third expansion Wingspan Asia for Wingspan I thought I’d give my ill informed opinion on which of the expansions to get.
Please remember I’m not a reviewer, I don’t get early access. So I’m basically saying I haven’t played Wingspan Asia yet. So my opinion on that at the moment is based on currently released information such as the rulebook.
Also please remember I do not play games solo. So I won’t be making any comment about the Automata. Besides with the app why would I play it solo with the Automata with all that setup?
I’m also not going to mention the Swift expansion as that is included in every copy of Wingspan now. It was only released as a separate expansion for those of us that had an early printing of the game.
My final disclaimer these are not in-depth looks at each expansion, they are brief summaries hopefully justifying why I selected that particular expansion for that particular thing you are looking to add to Wingspan.
I want a great engine builder…
Wingspan the million plus selling hit board game.
Ok technically not an expansion.
I really like this game. I think it’s still Jonathan’s all time favourite game (it’s not it’s in his top two!). I haven’t done my paired comparisons for a while to determine my top ten list, but I’d be surprised if this was outside my top five.
I’ve played the game with all player counts (except solo – see previous comment above about this). I’ll never ever play Wingspan at five players again. There is too much downtime, it takes forever to play. It’s just not an enjoyable experience. The sweet spot is three or four players.
I love how your actions get more powerful but you get less of them as the game progresses.
Great theme, beautiful looking game, easy to teach. Ticks all the boxes.
I just want more of the same…
You have Wingspan and just want more. The European expansion gives you just that.
It adds more birds to the game. European birds naturally, an extra card tray for storage, purple eggs, bonus cards, goal tiles, food tokens, etc.
There are a “variety of new powers, including “round end” powers, powers that increase interaction between players, birds that can cover multiple spaces to make future actions more profitable, and birds that benefit from excess cards/food.” I consider these minor changes to the game. And not nearly as big game changer as my answer to the next bit.
I want to shake things up a little…
With the introduction of the Oceania expansion the core game play hasn’t changed. But we get a new food type nectar, new player boards, new dice, plus the usual more eggs, cards, etc.
This expansion is a much bigger impact on game play, although in my opinion not a massive one, with the nectar.
It changes things up, adds new end gaming scoring opportunities, makes it “easier” to get birds out.
If you had to get only one expansion…
This was a hard one to answer, but in the end I think it has to be the Oceania expansion for the same reasons I gave above.
I only play two player…
You can play Wingspan as a two player game. And it’s perfectly fine as a two player game.
However the new Asia expansion “is a stand-alone game for 1 player or 2 players (Duet mode).” That comes with everything (“1 duet map, 6 goal tiles, 30 duet tokens”, tokens, dice, player mats, etc) for two players.
Obviously I’ve not played it two player yet. But if I only played two player, or the majority of my gaming was two player, then this is the version I’d get. In fact I will be buying this as Nathan’s Christmas present.
I want to play with more than 5 players! Why?
I think we know from previous comments in this post where I stand on playing five player Wingspan.
So imagine my horror to see “A new Flock mode is also included to expand the base game of Wingspan up to 6 or 7 players”.
To support this new mode of play the expansion includes a “1 turn-order dial, 1 round-end goal board”.
Be warned “Plan for a Flock mode game to last about 2 hours on your first try—longer if there are inexperienced players in your group.”
I obviously don’t know how long a “normal” game with experienced players takes in Flock mode, but it does “require 2 simultaneous active players to speed up gameplay…” But I’m guessing it won’t be much under two hours.
I don’t know how this plays naturally. You know I’ll try this once. I’m a sucker for punishment.
However if you want to play Wingspan at the higher player counts this is the way to go.
Or you can…
Just do as I do get them all (obviously not the Asia expansion but it will be added), shuffle all the cards together and play with everything.
Ok the draw decks are massive (especially sleeved)! So I normally select one of the card trays (until the storage box comes out the current available expansions just about fit in the trays sleeved) and that is the one we play with that game.
The big advantage is that with (currently) 356 cards the likely hood of the ravens being a problem is greatly reduced.
For a new expansion I’d get a random 180 cards and mix in the new cards so I get to play with the new cards. I’d only do this once I’ve played a new expansion a couple of times.
I suppose this everything in, including the kitchen sink approach should be given a name. Let’s call it Ultimate Wingspan. Although cluster mode might be appropriate.
Well I hope the above has helped.