Stonemaier Games: Wingspan (Base Game) | A Relaxing, Award-Winning Strategy Board Game About Birds for Adults and Family | 1-5

I was able to get a copy of this game around Black Friday in 2019 for a good price. Shortly after, from what I remember, it was either sold out or the price was heavily inflated. I tend to wait for games to be more than 40% before purchasing, but I just had this feeling that this game would be worth it. And I was right.REWIND: Ever since I was young I loved playing board games even though I was an only child and I spent hours playing Sorry!, Jumanji, chess, Chinese checkers, Monopoly, etc. all by myself (I would call it research now). And the year culminated at Christmastime when my cousins would all come together and we would play board games together.FAST FORWARD: I played more computer games as I got older and then games on iOS. I found Ticket to Ride or Scotland Yard on iOS and I thought those games were great! Little did I know there were PHYSICAL board games of these games, until my neighborhood friend said he played Ticket to Ride too and brought over the real copy and my mind was blown away.I started sneaking into the toy section at Target and found Pandemic. I acquired some expansions on and that’s where I was for 7 years. I played other games in the mean time but I didn’t care to own them, because my friends owned them. I moved out of the country and was busy with school. I graduated and came back and low and behold it was Black Friday!I had to do research for prices for Black Friday and I stumbled on Ars Technica that mentioned Wingspan. I didn’t care for birds…but the box was pretty…and what? All the cards had different art on them? That’s what sold me.FAST FORWARD again! And here we are 6 months later down a rabbit hole with 80 games, several game groups (mostly online now due to social distancing), and family who are stuck at home and have no other choice but to play games with me �� I also enjoy birding now and recognize the local birds. A silver lining with Covid is that it is during the Spring so I am able to see multiple different bird species flying around in my suburban backyard which fuels my newfound birding hobby.Pros:1. Wingspan is pretty to look at. Nothing ugly. Even the boring American crow starts to look pretty because it feeds the other birds in your bird “engine” – which is a combination of cards with birds on them that add on powers and help you on your way to victory.2. Even if I lose, I don’t mind it because I enjoyed playing.3. It’s fun to read the little info tidbit and learn something new on every single card.4. Information is from reputable sources.5. The game is pretty.6. It is relaxing…and at the same time NOT because there are so many possible combinations that could happen your brain cog wheels are always spinning. Or at least mine are.7. It has a solo mode.8. There is a Swift-Start pack – which are separate instruction mats for players with instructions to help everyone as a group learn how to play the game. This is a helpful tool for people who have no idea what they’re doing or you want to teach this game to other people.Cons:1. This could potentially lead you to hobbies like board gaming or birding2. If you’re a completionist/OCD and you buy this game, know that you’re in for at least 5 more expansions3. If you love artsy craftsy stuff and find the fan-made things on Etsy…you might spend more money than what you thought you were going to spend4. The bird feeder dice tower is a cool gimmick. I say gimmick, because I let my dumb 12-year-old cousin put it together and it was frayed before I even played the game for the first time. However, my husband bought me a proper bird house dicetower from Etsy…and after you have one of those, why would you ever go back to that cardboard thing?5. The game tray. It’s flimsy plastic…it looks nice…but when you start to plan on sleeving your cards (which I did after I had to hold back from saying anything while tearfully watching Frito fingers manhandle my cards) you end up spending a lot of time trying to figure out which sleeves to buy and if all the cards will fit in the tray…or do you buy a new tray…and the cycle continues. Apparently these cards are American standard card size, because there is a European standard card size. I got the cheapest Mayday sleeves which are also the thinnest, so all the cards still fit in the trays. BUT they feel so thin…and plasticky…They aren’t like the NICE sleeves my husband got for Terraforming Mars. ROLL EYES. The cards from Terraforming Mars are wearing out though on the edges and the Wingspan cards are way nicer in quality.SO good luck to you if you choose this dark path toward pretty birds and board game nights.Seriously though, if you think you might like a pretty card game about pretty birds that isn’t cartoony and has real information you can learn from, try out Wingspan!