Wingspan Asia

Board Game Geek Reviews

1. 7.8 out of 10

   Alaena

   First play impressions: after setting up the game for solo with duet mode, I looked at the mat with duet the tokens and the huge goal board and it was kind of overwhelming. I took the rulebook and read through the whole thing - there are some modifications mostly in bold like rewording of rules, reminders of common mistakes, and maybe the addition of the term resources? I then read through the automa rulebook but mostly while playing. The explanation of the automa/duet card was confusing. I had to re-read it several times because I had a lingering question in my mind and it wasn't answered so I kept rereading expecting an answer which was actually on the next page. I think it is possible to improve the layout of the rules for that section. The fiddly rules like interpreting the card one way for when automa fulfills a goal and then another way if it draws blind is just another thing for my brain to remember. Original automa was clean. Automa with the nectar was very simple. This is pushing it. It lacks the clean design and simplicity I liked from automa to this point. Oh. M. G. The solo automa duet card images are SO SMALL. I am near-sighted so I can read it fine but even I think it's small! Like why is the duet board GINORMOUS?! And the card is SO SMALL?! WHY?!?!?!!! If anyone is older or far sighted wow. I want to know how they will be able to read it and it's so disappointing because this hurts accessibility. Like, Why?! And the rulebook wow. How did it get past all those people whose names are on the side of the box? The cubes in the example are so small it's hard to read. Maybe they all had the luxury of a pdf version of the rules but it was hard to see specifically the blue cube. Why didn't they use the white cube in the example? Why are things so small? Trying to save money? Yeesh. Why wasn't there graphic design magic? One section referenced an example and I kept looking at the wrong picture. I wish the pictures were labeled. Makes me miss my college textbooks. At least the images weren't so small. This is the most disappointing Wingspan rulebook if I end up missing General Chemistry Principles. Playing the game was mostly fine. The new birds are okay. I am disappointed that the cave bird with echolocation was not used. I guess it's ugly looking. No art in the world can save those birds. Like the moles of birds. It is such a unique and interesting ability that could have had some cool thematic mechanism. Or we can have two more kingfishers (with the same color schema as the common kingfisher) or another teal. Or egret. Or another ruddy duck doppelgänger. I'm sure there's some reasoning and someone in Asia is happy these well-known birds are included. I personally was looking for something more diverse. Oh well. I guess we still have Africa and South America! There appears to be a larger emphasis on bonus cards, food token caching, dice rolling, and tucking. There are less birds so far I have seen that lets me trade a resource for another. The cost are cards but no output which hurts. My first play was 105 to 54 which is highly suspect since usually I don't destroy Automa. I lucked out with the cards that chained well… or maybe that's just this expansion. The duet board will definitely add time to gameplay and influences your decision on which card to play sort of. It's a mini-area control game in addition to playing Wingspan and it is not thematic. I think it will be possible to have a co-op duet mode so the white and black tokens can come together. If not in an official expansion then a fan-made expansion.

2. 10 out of 10

   Benzene87

   Great standalone game. Takes a familiar game and forces new planning/strategy without having to relearn a system

3. 7.5 out of 10

   agr18

   Awesome collection of birds / bird powers, with varied mechanics that are new to the game. I wish a few more pink and yellow powers were included. Duet mode improves the two-player experience, but Flock mode is a miss for me.