Wingspan Oceania Expansion: Review
Information:
Mechanics: Engine Builder, Hand Management, Drafting, Dice Rolling Set Collection
Player Age: 10+ Player Count: 1 - 5 PlayersTime to Play: 40 - 70 Minutes
Game Designer: Elizabeth Hargrave
Player Age: 10+
Game Designer: Elizabeth Hargrave
Wingspan has flown it's way into my continent and I am excited to see and experience the birds that are found in my backyard.
New Eggs:
Everyone loves the little egg miniatures that come with wingspan. Now you can continue the rainbow of colours with the new yellow eggs.
Nectar Tokens:
There is a new resource available; Nectar. These pink nectar tokens can count either as a wild resource, or as a whole new resource altogether as some birds require nectar specifically. It cannot, however, be used when a bird has an action that requires the cost of a specific resource.
Nectar can be used when completing actions on the player board. Whenever nectar is used for this, or any of the reasons above, it will stack to the left of the habitat that it interacted with. At the end of the game, the player with the most nectar in each habitat will gain 5 points, while the player with the second most in each habitat will gain 2 points.
The nectar tokens are a great addition and come with new dice so players can gain them from the birdfeeder, but there is one thing players have to watch out for. At the end of each round any unspent nectar will be discarded, so players have to use their nectar effectively each turn.
New Board:
The new board has many improvements. There are more opportunities to spend resources/eggs/cards to gain a bonus from the habitat action. Instead of only being able to spend one type of thing to gain the benefit like an egg to draw one more card, you can now spend an egg or a nectar token. There is also a new action where you can spend a resource on some places to refresh the dice tower or refresh the displayed cards. This board is a refreshing take on the base game as it adds numerous ways to amp up your turn and many ways to cycle through cards and resources to you find what you really want.
New Goal Tiles and New Bonus Cards:
5 new bonus cards and 4 new goal tiles have been added with this expansion. There are some unique goal tiles such as how many action cubes were placed on ‘Play a bird’. The other unique goal is whether the played birds’ beaks are pointing to the left or right in their image. Three of the new bonus cards have an interesting scoring system where you are trying to have either an ascending or descending wingspan in the habitat on the bonus card.
New Birds:
There are four new factors that will appear on birds from this set. The birds with a yellow banner will have effects occurring at the game end. These are a unique and interesting way for players to score more points. Some of these birds are better to get at the start of the game so players can plan ahead, where others will have effects that occur at the end of he game like laying eggs on other birds in the same habitat or on birds with certain wingspans.
Some birds have an asterisk instead of a number in their wingspan. These are flightless birds and their wingspan counts as a wild value. Some birds have a nectar cost as their play cost that can make them more challenging to play. The last factor is that some birds will now relate to adjacency, this counts as immediately left and right, above and below (no diagonals).
Final Thoughts:
Pros:
- New scoring possibilities with the end of game birds.
- The new board adds many more opportunities to spend unspent eggs, cards and resources.
- The new resource adds numerous decision opportunities for the players to explore.
Cons:
- I now need a better storage solution for Wingspan, which isn't actually a negative towards the game itself.
This is a great expansion that dare I say it, is better than the European expansion. I say that not just because I live in the Oceania area, but because this expansion is more intricate than the last but doesn't add any more complexity to the great game. With this expansion, there are two new ways to score the end game effects on birds and the nectar majority. Both of these create a different avenue that players have to plan for. Will you try to get those birds early so you can plan ahead and use their bonus effectively, or do you try to use all the nectar possible to score each habitat and gain an extra 15 points? With the new board, interesting birds, and new resource there is plenty to like about this expansion which has earned a go-to golden seal and a place in my top 25 games.
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