Wingspan Pocket Just the Right Size

 “Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.”

— Robert Louis Stevenson

I recently picked up Elizabeth Hargrave’s Wingspan Pocket edition at a regional gaming store, one of several more mainline games on my radar beyond my usual fare of roleplaying games and historical wargames. Our Thursday family game nights have long ago vanished from the calendar in the onslaught of homework, personal projects, end-of-week weariness, and general ennui toward gaming. But I’m still always looking for games with themes to tempt family members to the game table. And Wingspan Pocket fit the bill. Concise in table space, rules, and gameplay with a satisfying depth and, of course, rich avian illustrations by Natalia Rojas and Ana María Martínez for which the Wingspan line remains famous. It’s a good match for casual gamers with an interest in birds but also works well as a taste of contemporary board game play style which forces players to make decisions based on available resources and strategies for maximizing victory points.

I’ve known about the Wingspan games since they emerged on the gaming scene but never really took the plunge. I’ve hesitated buying new board games lately given my general lack of willing players, a shortage of free time, and concern about the usually high price points. I’ve also been gravitating away from some games with greater complexity both out of concern for my own tolerances and the patience of others for such things. Certainly Wingspan was the “new hotness” for a while. The game line has managed to remain in the popular game-culture consciousness thanks to various expansions (for the Americas, Europe, and Oceania), adjacent games (Finspan and Wyrmspan), its general popularity with the wider board game crowd, and some good publicity beyond the usual gamer demographic.

News about a more compact Wingspan game caught my eye. Wingspan Pocket came with a more reasonable price point, $20, and still promised to include a host of high production value components, notably the meticulously illustrated cards and the egg tokens. The avian theme catered to my wife’s interest in games, preferring ones with a more nature-oriented focus like Ben Pinchback and Matt Riddle’s Piepmatz: Little Songbirds (Lookout Games, 2018), Peer Sylvester’s Village Green (Osprey, 2020), Matt Loomis and Isaac Shalev’s Seikatsu (IDW Games, 2017), and Kevin Wilson’s a gentle rain (Incredible Dream Studios, 2021). Billed as “a lighter, swifter version of the award-winning Wingspan,” Wingspan Pocket is not an expansion of the core game but a more accessible experience for those unsure about spending for the higher priced title or willing to immerse themselves in its more involved gameplay.

In the game players acquire and play food and bird cards as well as eggs to accumulate points (calculated at games’ end). Scores tally based on the value of birds in one’s flock, the number of bird and food cards tucked under birds (as prey or resources), and the number of eggs a player has remaining on his cards.

Players have a nest card outlining the three actions they can take at the start of their turn; it also leads off the area where players play birds from a reserve to their flock. Beneath this line is the reserve where players place bird or food cards they draw from the supply. The supply consists of four piles of cards, with the top ones turned over, showing a line of four food cards on top of the supply decks and revealing four specific birds. Players have three nest actions, using one at the start of each turn: pay resources (food and eggs) to play a bird from their reserve into their flock; draw any two cards from the supply (a bird or food); or “lay” three eggs (depending on their capacity to hold them in the nest or on bird cards in their flock). Birds in one’s flock possess powers, most of which activate after using a nest action, but some of which are always in effect (usually abilities to swap resources in playing birds or activating abilities). The more birds in one’s flock, the more opportunities to use their powers to gain more resources or points. One’s approach often depends on what cards are available from the supply when your turn comes around. The Stonemaier Games website includes links to a host of resources to help players learn the game and provide more than the lean outline here.

As with many games with basic core mechanics, individual cards often modify implementation of rules to various advantages. Bird powers remain key in the game. Many allow players to draw cards from the supply deck, sometimes limited to birds, other times to specific foods when available in the supply. But the prized bird powers allow one to draw any card or any food. Two other powers can help players rack up points. “Tucking” a card allows the player to slip a food or bird card under the bird with the power in question. Most require prerequisites of having a specific food or a spare bird in one’s reserve. The “hunt” power — usually on predatory bird cards — allows a player activating that power to look at one food card on top of the supply to reveal the bird on the other side; if that bird’s wingspan is less than the one listed on the bird power, the player can tuck it. At game’s end each tucked card equals one point toward victory. Savvy players can try setting up “combinations,” such as birds that allow one to draw certain cards and others that enable one to tuck them away for extra points later.

Playing the game quickly reveals the various choices players constantly weigh. It’s a challenging balance between accumulating relevant resources (eggs, birds, specific food types) and playing birds into one’s flock that have solid point values and powers to increase points or much-needed resources. Birds cost resources to play into one’s flock, but powers often require spending resources, too. Several times I realized my resources had dried up or hadn’t been available in the supply, leaving me short-handed in having the right combination of cards (usually food) to activate bird powers. I also eventually realized the order in which one plays a bird from the reserve to their flock matters, since powers activate from left to right from the nest card. This becomes vital when some birds provide resources necessary to spend to activate other birds’ powers.

The game ends and scoring begins after a player puts a sixth bird into their flock; the rest of the players take one more turn until they reach the one with the “starting player” card, ensuring everyone takes the same number of turns the entire game. That said, deciding when to play that sixth bird requires some consideration. I found myself holding my potential sixth bird with a high point value but a power inconsequential to my entire strategy, since I’d only get to use that power once. Some games I wanted to end quickly given my opponent’s methods of racking up points. Other times I wanted to extend my own time to build up points. But I also realized, in a two-player game, the second player could end the game instantly without the other player having a final chance to accumulate more points, as everyone gets the same number of turns. So the end-game strategy also has several layers to consider.

Several aspects of Wingspan Pocket impressed me. The cards serve two roles, one side depicting a bird, the other a food resource. The supply decks mechanic works well, giving players limited choices and refreshing with each draw. The game pleasantly avoids direct competitive actions, preferring to create tension as players choose birds and food from the supply, often taking ones others want. Players have plenty of choices to ponder even at the start of the game, when players remain limited to one of the three nest actions; choosing to activate bird powers often relies on available resources...and whether a player wants to spend them that turn.

My only very minor concern was reliance on icons to convey game mechanics on cards. The game relies on a set of icons to help players identify elements and actions as outlined on the player aid card and individual bird card powers. While this is a handy reference — and pretty common in games these days — some players with little experience with modern board and card games might find the reliance on iconography over textual notes a little overwhelming; but it’s easily overcome with frequent gameplay.

Wingspan Pocket deserves a place on most game tables. On the surface the core mechanics (and the rulebook presentation) remain basic enough for gaming newcomers and nature enthusiasts drawn to the theme; as the game progresses, bird powers gradually come into play and the learning curve on how they might benefit a player’s strategy seems natural. Casual and experienced players can find a great deal of tactical depth in the gameplay, with many options for choices and strategies, with a far shorter play time and lower price point. It’s rare we find a family game like Wingspan Pocket we can just pull out and easily dive into on a whim and it seems like a suitable one to introduce to like-minded friends.

“Everyone likes birds. What wild creature is more accessible to our eyes and ears, as close to us and everyone in the world, as universal as a bird?”

— David Attenborough