Wingspan is a family-friendly strategic board game centered around building a card-based engine with stunning components from Stonemaier Games. The game was designed by Elizabeth Hargrave in 2019, and the 170 bird cards were illustrated by Beth Sobel, Natalia Rojas, and Ana Maria Martinez. Wingspan quickly soared to the top ranks of the world's best board games according to Board Game Geek and won the "Expert Game of the Year" at the Spiel des Jahres competition, along with many other awards and accolades.

Description of the Wingspan Board Game

From 1 to 5 players take part in attracting and breeding birds from various habitats into their wildlife preserve over four rounds. Thanks to their active and passive abilities, each new bird creates an engine effect in its habitat—whether it's forests, grasslands, or wetlands. In this way, you will earn points.

Game Rules Summary

At the start of the game, each player receives their board, five bird cards from the main deck, action tokens, food tokens, and goal cards. For each bird card left in hand, one food token must be discarded. Prepare the stylish birdhouse and roll the food dice into it.

On their turn, a player can perform one of four actions:

1. Play a bird card onto their board in the appropriate habitat (indicated on the bird card along with the required amount of food). Birds are placed from left to right on the nearest unoccupied space. An action token is placed above the occupied space, and the required number of eggs is paid.

2. Gain food from the birdhouse and activate the brown powers of forest birds.

3. Lay eggs and activate the brown powers of grassland birds.

4. Draw cards and activate the brown powers of wetland birds.

Once all action tokens are used, the round ends. Players use action tokens to mark completed goals on their boards. With each subsequent round, the number of tokens decreases.

After the fourth round, the newly-minted ornithologists tally up their hard work and determine the winner by recording points in the scorebook (if you are a very experienced researcher and run out of the scorebook, it can be downloaded and printed from the "Files" section). Of course, the player with the most points wins.

We also recommend watching the video rules in the "Video" section, and if desired, you can explore the rules in more detail with illustrations in PDF format in the "Files" section.

And Finally

The moss-covered birdhouse, wooden eggs, colorful boards, unique dice, and bird cards with short descriptions of each species will leave no one indifferent. Solo mode enthusiasts have not been forgotten either, as the game includes the option to explore the wilderness on your own, adding yet another plus to the game's collection.

Rooster Gallu assures you that you will enjoy the gameplay even without deep immersion in building an engine from cards, making it a gateway for family evenings. It's also suitable for those who want an intellectual challenge with friends, and it's no wonder this board game won the "Expert Game of the Year" award.