Finally got the Wingspan Nesting Box. It fits all the current expansions and has room for the future. I swear it must clock in at like 20lbs.
Still a little annoyed that all the Wingspan stuff that holds sleeved cards won’t fit the mote or less widely available and “standard” sleeves (Wingspan cards are not the same size as many other games) but thats not really anything a little 3D printing can’t fix.
Sorry to say but I really don’t. Wingspan is one of the few games I’d rather sit out than join a table to play. It’s simply too prone to RNG for me to enjoy and I have been bored playing every time.
Not saying the game itself is bad but it is not for me nor I for it. Earth is similar but more enjoyable for me - but if I can I’d rather play something more complex.
Not knocking anyone who does enjoy this one or owns all of the content, mind you. Just wanted to add that, trivially, indeed not everyone enjoys everything that’s popular. :)
Of course! All opinions are valid. The RNG factor is definitely an issue. I play a good amount of Wingspan online too and maybe just because of the speed at which you can play games back to back, it becomes really apparent when you just don’t get smiled upon by the RNGesus
Yeah I feel like if you are able to take the randomness in stride better than I do then that is much less of an issue.
It doesn’t throw me nearly as much when a game is really short; like ten, fifteen minutes a round - because then who cares whether you got (un)lucky. You just make the best of it and next round things may be different.
But Wingspan is just long enough that I didn’t enjoy myself several times when I happened to get a bad inital draw and not much in the market to mitigate.Utterly unconnected to Wingspan other than being another Stonemayer title, but I’m really looking forward to getting Expeditions and giving that a go :)
Yeah is that the scythe thing?
It’s a game in the Scythe setting, exactly. I got the Ironclad edition with metal mech minis and I’m looking forward to getting those in my fingers.
The gameplay is pretty different though. I think only the scoring is based on the achievement stars from Scythe but that’s about it :)
I’m in your team.
The production is awesome, art and all. I took the game with an extension (the first, European) because I like engine builder and, yeah, couldn’t be wrong, right?
But for an unknown reason, nothing happened on the table. A good review point the problem, IMHO: It lacks of drama.
The extension make things more interesting, IMHO. Maybe with all extension Wingspan become a “complete” game, dunno.
From what many people say the Oceania extension appears to ameliorate some of the weaker points.
But for me, I’m not going to force myself playing a game I didn’t have fun with again and again when I have literally so many other games I do enjoy playing.
It’s more than fine if people do enjoy it but I’m not among that crowd.
I think there can be a bit of drama, if you consider the drama of “can I build my engine fast enough”… or maybe just dont add up points in your head until the very end and hope for the best. I do think there’s a sort of vaguely chill vibe that maybe tamps down on some of the drama.
Definitely not too much of the sort of “let me bait my opponent into doing X which they think is a good move but it will actually benefit me” (well there’s some of that but not a ton).
I‘ve never played the game and am curious: what is it that you like about Wingspan?
That’s a pretty good question and I’ve never sat down and wrote a list of things I like about it. First time for everything though…
[After writing out this list, I actually think doing something similar for favorite games would be a good way to get more content here]
- In general, I’m drawn toward “engine building” games
- there’s something comforting about the game having a defined end after four rounds (rather than when some victory condition is met)… note that this doesn’t necessarily mean the game plays quickly!
- the end of round goals (one of the way you can score points) are randomized. This keeps things fresh
- the “bonus goals” (which are another way to score points) are also randomized on a per-player basis, which creates an interesting asymmetry… all players are working to score points, but each player’s path to that end is different
- (i think this has a lot to do with the randomized nature of the end of round goals and bonus goals) plays great with just 2 people but also fun with 5-7 (6 and 7 player variants require the Asia expansion)
- it may not seem like it at first but there actually can be quite a bit of player interaction
- the artwork is really gorgeous… will have to take a pic next time we play for an example
- the components are fairly high quality for the price point
- despite the relative complexity/weight, setup and breakdown are really easy
Overall, I very much recommend it. That said, there are things i dont like as much about it
- people are generally intimidated by the complexity the first time they play. I have found though that about 3/4 through the first game things start to click.
- because it has a lot of randomization via card draw and dice roll, there is a fair bit of luck involved. Sometimes you just don’t get the cards.
- although there is some player interaction, I wish there was more. I think this is addressed in one of the expansions (but admittedly I haven’t played all of the expansions)
The only game I like more is Terraforming Mars. I play it less, though, as it’s a but longer and the folks I play with don’t like it as much.
Stonemeier always has excellent production values.
They really do. I also picked up Scythe but it’s still in the box. Have heard good things about it though.
I would add that the theme is very well executed. I enjoy nature games for the artwork (e.g. Cascadia, Meadow) but few games have such breadth of artwork and detail.
Wingspan nailed the feel of its theme in the same way Rosenberg does for agriculture - it’s something about the mechanics and thematic logic.
Absolutely agree. I think it’s cool how the cards themselves and the mechanics all sort of make sense in context of the theme. (Example, birds that-in real life-don’t make their own nests will lay eggs in other nests in the game)
Yeah, I really enjoy that about the animal goals in Cascadia, that they mirror realistic behaviour and provide a great gameplay mechanic
I’ll need to check that game out sometime then!
There is also an app dedicated to what the chirp of each bird is by scanning the actual card of said bird. I don’t use it very often, but it’s a very interesting addition, although completely not needed.
Me! Absolutely love the game, quibbles and all. It’s beautiful, has a theme I like (birds, I have two), the components are great (bird dice tower and eggs especially), and it’s a very pleasant play. My main issue now is how to integrate everything together. The nesting box is neat but holy hell it’s huge. Also after putting all the cards together, it’s going to be some really tall stacks, as I play with card sleeves too.
Edit: Saw that the nesting box is still in pre-order status on their website, have they started shipping already?
I think its pre-order for the next printing. They don’t pre-make them (they said it would be too expensive, which I guess I kinda understand) so they’re effectively made to order in batches.
Edit: hit send too fast. Yeah the stacks of cards get a little unwieldy when you have sleeves on them. Need some 3D printed accessories to help manage for sure.
Nope, nobody likes one of the best selling and most popular hobby board games of all time. ;)
I think I can trace the insane oumt of Wingspan sales to a New York times article, at least what I gathered when swarms of non gamers started asking for Wingspan.
It still hovers in the top 10 on our sales charts despite not running out of stock at distribution (meaning it sells despite price competition)
The in-laws heard about it from the Today show and begged to play it. Ended after the first round and howls of “The Today show lied”. It was not a pleasant evening but that was only a part of it.
Yeah the sad thing is I believe a good chunk of customers that bought wingspan from us likely never fully played a game or just played maybe one game.
By the time we were able to get hundreds of copies to meet demand the pandemic hit so we never did a demo night to teach those people.
I can also imagine a bunch of people paying well over the $50 MSRP during the great wingspan drought on its release year
:D I’ve found it to be a divisive game, maybe some snobbery about it’s mainstream appeal, and luck of the draw putting people off.
Also criticisms over egg laying, which I believe an expansion fixes, but most will have only played the base game, which does have faults.
People are fools if that’s the reason why. Mainstream appeal for a hobby game means more hobby gamers to play with.
Oh exactly, I find it’s slightly rigid people who have been playing in groups for years. I love gateway games.
The egg laying criticism is mitigated a little by the expansions. But I would also say it’s kinda like the first strategy people realize can work. The game is so situational because of the card draw and the randomization that egg laying definitely CAN work well in a lot of scenarios, but personally I look at it as sort of a fall back if something better doesn’t come along.
I enjoy playing it, but even completely new players can see that ravens are overpowered and there is very little interaction.
With my family and friends we all preferred Dominion and Viticulture as engine builders. Wingspan is ridiculously pretty though and it’s worth trying.
Oh for sure re: ravens. See my other comment, but it makes sense to disallow playing them until second round (along with 2 other OP birds)
The digital versiom has some clever achievements, and one of them being to beat a player who opened the game with a raven
Love Wingspan!
Yes my wife and I love this game and we play it all the time. We ordered some nice 3d prints to help with storage and organization. We’ve got oceana, Asia and the standard.
Basically same here!
I can’t even say that the gameplay itself is the thing that I enjoy about Wingspan.
While I’m sure it helps that I’m a fan of engine builders in general, if I’m sitting down for Wingspan it’s for the theming and chill vibes the table has when it’s out over anything else.
I’ve got Oceania, but haven’t unboxed it yet - do you remove the ravens? That was a suggestion on BGG, I like a bit of luck in my games but I often come across pieces that swing the luck too far (found a similar issue in Castles of Burgundy).
So I don’t remove the ravens but just disable playing them (along with 2 other cards… killdeer and and Franklin’s gull) until the start of round 2
That’s good to know, might try next time
I can’t take credit for the idea. It’s a “house rule” on the big discord server that hosts regular online tournaments.
I just got the steam version but am a bit overwhelmed by the tutorial. Going to try again soon. :)
Similar. When I played it, it felt like it had lots of bells and whistles whose main contribution was to make it more difficult to learn. Possibly some people just like complex rules and the process of learning them.
Love wingspan. But I still haven’t bought Oceania, I don’t like how important nectar seems to be and how it devalue the normal resources. Planning to get it once I find a houserule that seem good enough.
If it makes you feel any better, I actually haven’t played Oceania, even though I have it…
I think it makes the game better in some ways. The balance for nectar is that you have to discard any you have left at the end of the round
I got my nesting box yesterday. Love it!
Love it, but the Oceania expansion is still unplayed.
