Wingspan Review: Is It Really That Good?

Wingspan is a light card and engine building game about collecting birds for 1-5 players, designed by Elizabeth Hargreave and published by Stonemaier Games. It feels flawed, and probably won't appeal to hardcore gamers, but it's fun anyway and beautifully presented. The bird theme is only skin deep though.
Buy Wingspan on Amazon: amzn.to/2FoTS3b (yes, that's an affiliated link, so I earn a little if you buy using it, but it costs you nothing extra)
Or buy direct from Stonemaier Games: stonemaiergames.com/games/win...
#wingspan #boardgames #boardgamereviews #tabletopdungeon

[@HelderP83]

Great review James, a good mix of serious content coupled with light humour which overall made the video thoroughly enjoyable to watch. Also, I'm much more clear on what Wingspan is about and I can tell it's not the game for me. Thank you and keep up the great content!

[@andrewjackson8346]

I like wingspan since although it is fairly light, its definitely a game that gives enough fun to play. Its one of 2 or 3 games my wife will play with me and it's gently drawing her into the hobby

[@DelveBros]

This is one of those games that I probably wouldn't think twice about based on the cover art, but wow it looks really good.

[@TabletopDungeon]

[@sabrinadennis8367]

Good video. Very informative and helpful for deciding whether or not to purchase. I think it will be a game I will enjoy even with the limitations for more serious game players. I appreciated your humour throughout, except at the very end. I suggest you edit that part out. It doesn't fly for me and I would imagine many others would have their feathers ruffled.

[@TabletopDungeon]

Thanks for the input Sabrina, and fair point - I've cut the end off now.

[@Harbinger631]

Great video, thanks for the content.

[@Gropylol]

Thanks for the review, I see this game everywhere lol

[@David-ym2vk]

Really impressed with the production quality of this video. The rules were laid out very well and the camera angles were good with pop up annotations. Also, I REALLY appreciate the points you made about the game at the end because of how hyped up this game is. After playing rising sun and not liking very much even though I thought I would love it and playing res arcana after seeing a lot of positive reviews and I actually hated it, I'm starting to feel like the boardgamegeek rankings don't mean much. It's like games that look better than they play are rewarded for their esthetics rather than their clever well balanced gameplay. Either way, well done video. Thanks

[@TabletopDungeon]

Thanks David! I find BoardGameGeek ratings tend to be a level of excitement rather than objective quality, definitely. New things tend to rank higher because they've got bigger budgets for bucketloads of minis (and I certainly fall prey to that showiness). It's rare for people to go back and revise their scores to reflect long term replayability. Rising Sun is a bit of a Marmite game. I love it, but everyone I've played with hated it. :)

[@David-ym2vk]

@@TabletopDungeon You're absolutely right on all your points. I've been currating a game collection that I try to keep of around 15-20 games and it's been pretty shocking when I try a game high on the top 100 that I end up not liking. After I play something I ask myself if there's another game that I've played with similar mechanics that I like better or would rather play. If no, I keep the game. If yes, I sell it. Rising sun is a pretty polorizing game from what I've read. I thought it was fine and wouldn't say no to someone inviting me to play it, but I was very disappointed with how neutered the monsters felt. They weren't nearly as powerful as they looked. The game was marketed as a negotiation game, but I found that alliances has little impact on the fame. So we would always have an alliance for the sake of getting the bonus when during the action selection phase because it never made sense not to take advantage of it. I really liked the set collection for territories which made you have to contend different territories over the course of the fame instead of just holding onto one for dear life like a lot of dude's on a map and war games. That's something I'd like to see emplemented in other games. Lastly, I thought I would love the combat after trying cry havoc and feeling that it was half baked. They definitely improved on the cry havoc design in a meaningful way, but I didn't really care for how most of the combat value was based on money as an blind bid. This tended to lead to overbidding to insure the win, or trying to bid just enough leading to surprise upsets. It would really hamper you when multiple people would contest more than one of your territories in one combat phase because it always felt like I couldn't win both, I had to choose between the 2 or 3 which ones I wouldn't mind losing so I could at least win the main one I needed most. It's a good game, but it just felt like there was something missing and if I'm going to get that close to an ameri-trash design, I might as well lean into it and just play Cthulhu Wars. I ended up picking up senji for cheap as I've heard it leans into the negotiation aspect in ways that rising sun promised it would. I haven't got it to the table yet though. I would love to see more board game reviews from you in the future. Do you mind if I ask why your channel seems to have waned a bit after producing such fantastic game reviews?

[@TabletopDungeon]

The usual lame excuse mostly: day job. I'm the hardware reviews editor for MUO.com (formerly MakeUseOf.com), and we've been pushing to ramp up output there lately. That, and lockdown. Having our 6-year-old at home all the time makes my wife crazy, AND we formed a support bubble with an elderly friend, so our boardgame choices are a bit limited right now. Not that we exclusively play kid games or anything - the four of us enjoyed a little zombicide campaign, and right now we're playing through the Mechs and Minions campaign, which I'll probably review next. But it's definitely less time to review games now. I'm hoping to get my hands on Infinity Defiance, and Zombicide modern 2nd edition, soon, so those will definitely be in the pipeline for reviews. And now I'm tempted to see if the kid can handle Rising Sun, bwahahah :p

[@killerczar]

I subbed to your channel, I enjoy your videos

[@palmcrazysg]

perhaps with more bird cards, your opinion may improve. :)

[@carlatate7678]

I bought this and we played it several times. It was OK, but I've just sold it on. Really not that interesting. I do like birds and point salad games, but still decided this game is not interesting enough to bring to the table. Good review.

[@MG-hn4sb]

Disagree. Disliked.