Released in 2019, Wingspan is an award-winning, competitive, card-driven board game that has sold over a million copies. In Wingspan, you, the player, control a small wildlife refuge, a little patch of ground with some forest, some grassland, a marsh. Your job is to populate the preserve with a flourishing array of birds. . READ MORE ABOUT THE GAME:
This table-top, engine-building style game is tougher than than it looks – especially for those more familiar with the older generation of board games. I thought, I know birds and science, this should be a no-brainer. I must admit, however, that unpacking the contents of my beautiful game box, and diving into the seemingly novel-length instructional book, caused pieces of my mind to explode.
This is definitely a game that requires tutorials. There are really good ones on YouTube. But there’s nothing like learning in person. I reached out to the Wingspan community and found Tabbie and Charlie, local Wingspan aficionados, who have agreed to volunteer their time and talent to share their knowledge and love for the game with our Community of the Curious.
NHSM will be hosting a Wingspan tutorial followed by monthly Wingspan Game Nights. All are welcome. Newbies and Oldbies. Birders and Gamers. Young (10+) and Old. If you have a copy of the game, please bring it along, but not required.
Wingspan is what’s known among serious gamers as an “engine-building game,” which means that as the game goes on, the combination of birds you play becomes more and more efficient at generating points each turn, like an engine running faster and faster. Your cuckoo lays eggs, and the eggs not only give you points but make it possible to play more birds, which also give you more points but have their own powers that generate points in other ways. I prefer thinking about the mechanism of Wingspan not as an engine I am building, but as an ecosystem I am fostering. If I’ve strategized well, the birds in my ecosystem will be knitted together into a web of complex, mutually beneficial relationships. Activating the cascading effects of these healthy interconnections is the greatest pleasure of playing Wingspan. SLATE MAGAZINE ARTICLE
