Wyrmspan: Review

Wyrmspan: Review

Information:

Mechanics: Engine Builder, Hand Management, Drafting,Set Collection
Player Age: 14+ 

Player Count: 1 - 5 Players

Time to Play: 90 Minutes 
Game Designer: Connie Vogelmann, Elizabeth Hargrave (Designer of original game).

Game Artist: Clémentine Campardou

Publisher: Stonemaier Games

Year Published: 2019

BGG Weight: 2.66

Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the VR Distribution.

Introduction:

Stonemaier Games is well known for a bird-watching game called Wingspan. Wyrmspan is a spin-off game with a similar essence of engine building but with many changes that creates a different feeling game and allows room in your collection for both. The two most notable changes are the lack of dice and the introduction of a new currency called silver coins which will determine how many turns you have per round.

Game Anatomy:

Silver Coins:

At the start of every round, players have six silver coins. The silver coins doubles as a countdown timer for each round, as well as action tokens throughout the round, where one action costs a minimum of one silver coin. It is possible to regain the silver coins through certain cards to extend the round. When enticing powerful dragons, players may have to spend extra silver as a resource cost, essentially reducing their round by one turn.

Dragon Cards:

Dragons are the crucial element of the game. Each dragon contains the following elements:

A) A resource cost

B) Habitat cave

C) Special ability and when the ability will be activated

D) Victory Points

E) Size (Hatchling, Small, Medium or Large)

F) Egg holding capacity

G) Trait (Shy, Aggressive, Playful or Helpful)

Each dragon has a special ability in one of the following categories:

- When played abilities will activate when the dragon is enticed.

- Abilities that activate whenever your adventurer walks past them during exploration.

- Once-per-round abilities that will activate at the end of the round.

- End-of-game abilities that will activate at the end of the game.

Hatchlings:

Hatchlings are one of my favourite new additions. They are baby dragons with zero egg holding capacity aa there not grown. The resource costs always requires a combination of milk and eggs. These hatchlings benefit from long-term planning as they have an ability that occurs such as caching a resource or tucking a card during cave exploration. They also have a follow-up effect any time this occurs to them, whether it be through cave exploration or other combo-based means. Once the specified action has occurs three times, a powerful effect will resolve, gaining a silver coin or a group of resources. This is to represent the dragon growing up. 

Cave Cards:

Before a dragon can be played the location has to be excavated to create a hospitable cave. These cave cards are gained through the Amethyst Abyss Cave, as well as through other bonuses. When you play any of the cave cards they will take up the left-most empty spot in any cavern of your choice (colour doesn't matter) and then resolve its when-played effect. The further into the cave you excavate, the higher the cost will be with additional eggs. 

Objective Tiles:

Each game will use four objective tiles to score additional points. These points will be based on which player has the most, second most, and third most of the objective requirement. Each objective tile is double-sided whereby increasing the variety of unique objectives.

Resources:

Unlike wingspan, the resources aren't just types of food. The four resources in this game; are gold, crystals, meat and milk.

Eggs:

Eggs are a constantly useful resource throughout the game as they will be required for excavating the third and fourth location in any cavern, enticing dragons, and paying for card actions. Each dragon will have an amount they can hold shown on the right side of the card. The game mat will also allow each player to hold two eggs in reserve away from any dragons.

Guild Board and Guild Tiles:

The guild board is a new mechanic added to this version. Whenever a player gains a guild bonus they will move one space on this track. Every space will grant the player a bonus of some kind. These may be a resource, egg, card or other benefit. When the player moves to the bottom or top location they will place one of their four tokens onto the guild tile, scoring points at the end of the game or granting an immediate bonus effect.

The central guild tile has 4 variations to increase game replayability. These have different bonuses and scoring possibilities. Some bonuses on the guild tile have multiple allowances for player markers to be placed here. 

Player Mats:

Each player mat is filled with information explaining the possible actions and costs on your turn. The most important part of the player mat is the caves. During the explore action, whenever the explorer passes a bonus they are allowed to gain it. Once they reach a stop symbol, however, that signifies the end of the exploration. Each of the first and third symbols will grant either resources, dragon cards or cave cards based on the cave. The second symbol in a cavern always grants movement on the guild track, and the fourth symbol on each track will lay one egg.

If you complete a cave and play all four dragons the last bonus is to either cache two resources, tuck two cards or lay two eggs.

Setup:

Game Setup:

- Select a central guild tile and place it on the guild board with the appropriate player count face-up. Each player will place their guild token on the starting location.

- Shuffle the cave and dragon decks and reveal three of each on the card board.

- Place the round marker on the first space of the round tracker board then randomly draw and place four objectives (one for each round). 

- Place the resources, eggs, and coins within reach of all players.

Player Setup:

- Each player gains a player board, eight markers, one egg, one adventurer and six silver coins.

- Draw three dragons and three cave cards from the top of their respective decks. Each player will choose a total of four of these cards to keep.

- Choose three starting resources.

How to Play:

Wyrmspan consists of multiple turns within the span of four rounds. On a turn, the active player will spend a silver coin, along with other resources, to either excavate, entice or explore one of the three caves. These turns will continue until each player has chosen to pass, thereby ending the round for themselves. Players will keep their cards and resources between rounds but when starting a new round will gain one egg and regain six silver coins. Any coins left over from the previous round are added onto the six coins. 

Excavate:

Dragons need a proper cave to call home. In the excavate action players spend one silver coin to build a cave card in any of the three caves starting from the left-most available spot. The third and fourth spaces in each cave will require one or two eggs for the player to excavate. 

When players excavate the last space in each cave they can immediately spend a combination of three resources, dragons or caves to gain one silver coin. This is a desired bonus to help extend the round.

Entice:

The player can entice a dragon to the left-most cave location by paying one silver coin and the resources denoted on the card. If there are any when-played effects on the dragon they will be activated immediately.

Explore:

Exploring is a crucial element of the game. When a player explores the adventurer meeple will begin on the left-hand side to enter a cave. As they move along they will activating any symbols on the pathway, as well as any dormant dragon card with an ability that activates when explored. When the adventurer reaches a stop sign the exploration will end. 

During a round, after the first exploration per cavern the cost will increase by one egg with a maximum exploration allowance of three times per cave.

End of Round:

Once every player passes (since they can choose to pass early and bank the leftover silver coins for the following round) the end of round will occur. The following will now occur:

- Each player will discard any spent eggs or silver coins on their play mat.

- Any end-of-round effects on the dragons will now occur.

- Players will score either 1st, 2nd or 3rd for the round goal. If they had nothing meeting this goal they would instantly score zero. If any tie occurs, it is shared. 

When the next round begins all players will receive six silver coins and one egg. The face-up dragon and cave cards will be discarded and replaced. 

End of Game Scoring:

At the end of the game, players will tally up the points listed below: 

- Value on all played dragons.

- One point for each egg, tucked card and cached resource.

- Any markers on the central guild board worth end-game points. 

- End-game abilities activate. 

- Public objectives on the round board.

- Every silver coin remaining is one point and the players will gain one point for every combination of four cards/resources.

Final Thoughts:

- Still as welcoming to new players as its sibling game.

- Hatchlings are great thematically and give a focus for players mechanically.

- Silver coins add a new element of round management.

- Guilds add a new focus that can score the players a lot of bonuses if targeted.

- Reduced randomisation from wingspan and adds another layer of pre-planning with the cave cards. Both of these attributes can be good and bad based on the player's preference.

Wyrmspan is the sibling game of Wingspan with the same base engine-building focus so it's only natural that they are compared. However, Wyrmspan feels like its own stand-alone experience to me and there is enough room for both of these games in your collection. There are plenty of changes with big impacts such as the engines you build in Wyrmspan working left to right as opposed to the opposite in Wingspan. I find the incorporation of the silver coin is one of the best changes. In wingspan the amount of actions becomes less with every round through the removal of one action marker. This didn't make the rounds faster, however, as players had a more functional engine each round. The silver coin system keeps the number of actions per round consistently starting at 6. This is because in Wyrmspan there are more steps in building your engine, particularly paving the path with caves. In the later rounds, players are rewarded for their hard work in payment of extra turns to properly fulfil their engine. The other prominent system is the guild track. Each guild has unique bonuses that can be unlocked up to four times and exploration through every cave allows guild movement but to properly benefit from this track players have to make guild progression a focus. In doing this, there will be a lot of points the player can award themself. If you are a fan of the original wingspan and have more room on your shelf for its sibling then I highly recommend Wyrmspan and give it a Go-To Golden Seal. This game works for players who enjoy less luck based games and prefer fantasy themes.

Click...feed the addiction: 

VR Distribution
Stonemaier Games
Wyrmspan on BGG
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