BONUS GAME: Wingspan

 

I've labeled this game as a "bonus" rather than adding it to our count since it belongs to our son Caleb and is therefore not a game on OUR shelves.  Caleb introduced us to this game last week Sunday, and we happily played it again this Sunday.  To be honest, when I first saw it I wasn't all that interested, and it looked to me like a really weird idea for a game.  But after playing it I found it to be one of the best resource-management games that I've come across in a long while.  (My brother loves the game too but is especially geeking out over the cool cards containing facts about birds, so I imagine any birders might be drawn to this game for that reason.)  The elements of the game, not only the playing pieces but also the rule book, are super high quality, and therefore nice to handle.  Below is a picture of the initial set-up with cards dealt and ready to go.


Here's a closer look at the initial set-up:

Here is a closer look at some of the bird cards.  These include all sorts of information relating to play, such as what habitat the bird belongs to (i.e. what row it can be played in), what resources are required to play it, what kind of nest it builds (which can be worth points, depending on public and private goals for a given game), what affects the card has on play.  At the bottom there is a little map showing the bird's range and also a bit of text giving information about the bird, both of which are just informative and have nothing to do with game play (as far as I've seen so far).

I love the birdhouse included for rolling the dice -- a very nice touch.

Below is a picture of the game a little further along.
I think the next picture was taken at the end of the game (last week).  It is of David's board.  He specialized in collecting eggs, which I thought looked pretty cool.  He happened to win the game too, so maybe there's something to that  .  .  .  or maybe not.
There are many ways to gain victory points in this game, and there are many elements that need to be balanced throughout play.  I played kind of lazily the first time through; instead of listening really carefully to the rules I just wanted to play it through to get a feel for it and then to really dig in the next time.  That first time we play I lost big time, which makes sense, given the above!  I scored 42, and David, who won, scored 75, with the boys being somewhere in between.  When we played yesterday I scored 75 -- WOOHOO!   But David scored 78, and Caleb scored 82 (with last place being in the 40-point range).  Although I didn't win, I do think I get the award for most improved!  I'm eager to play more of this game and to do so SOON!

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