Wingspan Part 2: Expansion Boogaloo

Hello again friends and enemies! I’m back to discuss the expansions for Wingspan: That is, the European Expansion and Oceania Expansion. Last time, I thought I’d be able to cram everything into one post and that was a mistake! Now I’m here to discuss those expansions and when it would be beneficial to buy them. So far, there have been two Wingspan expansions. The European Expansion essentially adds more content for the base game without updating the rules too much, with the exception of a new card power type as well as new cards and round bonuses. The core of the rules remains the same, however. In Oceania, there are a couple of fundamental overhauls to the game which I believe are quite beneficial.

European Expansion

As mentioned in the opening of this post, the European Expansion doesn’t add a ton to the game other than new variety. Because of this, this section will be the shorter of the two. The primary additions of the European Expansion are additional items to play with and a new kind of bird power. Below is a list of the items that come in this box, from Stonemaier Games’ online catalogue:

• 81 bird cards (all unique, all new)
• 15 egg miniatures (purple)
• 5 bonus cards
• 4 Automa cards (2 of which are bonus cards)
• 1 custom tray with lid
• 1 scorepad (multi-player on one side, solo on the other)
• 1 rulebook
• 5 goal tiles
• 38 food tokens
• 1 reference tile
• 1 box (296x144x80mm; 0.7 kg)

The new eggs and custom tray are a *very* satisfying shade of purple. In fact, the color of the purple eggs has created a situation where they are a hot ticket item at my gaming table. The competition to have the most purple eggs (Which is not in any way worth any more points than any other egg) is one of the greatest joys out of this expansion.

In addition to the beautiful aesthetic of this expansion, there are a lot more components to add variety to the game and ensure you don’t run out of items needed throughout the game. This adds extra replayability and new ways to play the game, particularly when it comes to the new type of bird power: The blue “Round End” powers. These powers add useful things to do at the end of the round, such as playing an additional bird if certain conditions are met or allowing the player to lay some additional eggs. The requirements for these powers are often relatively easy to meet, so they’re great to add a burst of power or points to your board throughout the game.

The European Expansion breathes new life into Wingspan and freshens the game up. Because this expansion doesn’t modify the core rules of the game, I think it’s a perfect pick-up alongside the base game. You’ll find yourself thinking up new ways to play and be able to rest easy knowing there’s enough food and eggs to go around. Overall, I’d give this expansion a 9/10.

Oceania Expansion

Now this is a game-changing expansion! As I alluded to in the earlier post on the base game, Oceania changes the core of the game. In my opinion, the most important thing this does is balance the game out between the three different habitats/tracks. I’ll go more into this later, as there’s plenty to say on that subject and some other things I’d like to cover before getting there.

First, I’ll do what I’ve done for the base game and European Expansion and show you what comes in this box. Again, this list is from the publisher’s website:

• 1 box (296x215x40mm; total weight: 1.4 kg)
• 15 egg miniatures (yellow)
• 5 player mats
• 5 wooden dice
• 69 nectar tokens
• 5 bonus cards  (57x87mm)
• 4 goal tiles
• 95 bird cards  (57x87mm)
• 1 scorepad
• 1 reference tile
• 1 Automa rulebook
• 7 Automa cards  (57x87mm)
• 1 core rulebook with appendix

Quite frankly, the egg color is not my favorite, so I won’t bother you with them like I did with the European Expansion. I’m actually pretty sure we haven’t mixed them in with our other eggs yet. There are a few items in this list that I’d like to focus on: The nectar, the new boards, and new bird powers. Like the European Expansion, there are several additions which do not change the core gameplay. There’s some new birds with old power types, new goals, and new bonus cards. These all help to extend the life of the game and add new ways to play, which is always welcome.

Let’s first talk about the new bird power, as it’s the least impactful of the new changes. Oceania introduces “Game End” bird powers which give you a fairly powerful boost as long as you’ve set yourself up to be able to take advantage of it. I’ve seen some folks on the internet say these birds can be overpowered, but I disagree. You really do need to plan to use these powers to their full effect if you want a lot of mileage out of them. Whereas the Round End cards of the European Expansion offer moderate bonuses for moderate requirements, these ones either require you to put in some preparation to take advantage of the card to its fullest extent. For example, if we refer to the “Black Swan” above, you would potentially be able to lay up to a dozen eggs if you had a lot of larger birds. But if you have a board full of tiny birds? It’s not going to be terribly useful.

Now let’s move on to the next two items, which are a bit linked: Nectar and the new game board. Nectar is a new resource in the game, represented as a pink flower token which you may have noticed in previous images. This is a “wildcard” food that you can be substituted for any of the normal food types. Some birds, however, will require nectar to be played. The catch with this is that any nectar which is held at the end of the round must be discarded.

Another benefit of nectar is that using it gives you more points! At the left hand side of the updated board, there is a spot to place nectar used for that row (Either to play birds there or to use for buying additional actions). The player with the most nectar in each given row will win an additional five points for it, and in a game with more than 2 players, the second place player will get 2 points for their efforts.

Personally, I’ve found that nectar has been immensely useful. Instead of repeatedly taking food actions in the hope of being able to get just one rat or just one fish, you’ll be able to reliably pull a nectar from the bird feeder in many instances. Some may argue that this takes away an element of the game (Ie, planning what foods you need adequately and timing your turns for grabbing food) but I’ve found that this has only cut down on the frustration of trying repeatedly and failing due to random chance.

That is one of the many ways in which Oceania has helped to rebalance the original game of Wingspan. In addition to the benefits brought by nectar, the new board entirely changes how the game flows. Refer to the above comparison image, and you’ll see that the original game was more generous with eggs while remaining stingy with food and cards. This oftentimes created a situation where every player involved could struggle through the early rounds (especially if they got a starting hand with expensive birds), simply because they can only grab one food a turn or one card a turn even if they have a bird down in that row! Meanwhile, the lucky duck (or goose, or sparrow… you get the idea) that gets to start the game by plopping down a couple of cheap birds in the plains row can immediately start spitting out eggs (And therefore, points) at a rapid pace. As the game develops, our latter player will be able to have eggs to spare for their new birds and at the end of the game will likely spend the last few rounds simply spitting out more eggs.

No more will the tyranny of the plains birds continue! The new board buffs the top and bottom rows while nerfing the middle one ever so slightly. Now, you can burn resources for an extra card or food on the very first tile in a row – Before even playing a bird. Having a bird in that row will mean you can draw two cards or food, respectively. Meanwhile, the initial egg laying space will only give one free egg now (down from two), but still allows you to trade for an extra egg similar to the other rows, bringing a much greater balance to the early game. This leads to a smoother and more balanced gameplay experience which lasts beyond the first round. I’ve found that this has also led to a much, much different late game. Instead of choosing to only lay eggs because it is very clearly the best action, people will be more inclined to play another bird or to grab more food to use toward bolstering other actions. One last note on the new board that I want to sing the praises of is the amount of flexibility given to the player! When getting food or cards, you can now spend a food to reroll the bird feeder on a couple of the spaces or to reset the face-up bird cards you can draw from. Similarly, while you can take the basic action available to you, most spaces let you expend an a resource which you have an excess of (I tend to gather up too much food personally) to get extra out of your actions, such as additional eggs or cards.

Overall, Oceania does an incredible job of balancing out the initial issues of the original game. While they weren’t game breakers, they were notable flaws. Fixing these leads me to think it may be worth investing in this expansion right off the bat so that you will have the most balanced experience from the very beginning. However, some of the mechanics introduced are more complex than the base game. So, if you’re new to board games or aren’t quite sold on Wingspan, I would recommend holding off for now on this one but I will also promise you that you’ll be wanting it from the second you set up your first game! Overall, I have to give this expansion a 10/10 for really perfecting an already incredible game.

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