Finspan: Rapid Review
Introduction:
Wingspan has been a global hit for Stonemaier with four large expansions and countless small accessories and expansions. Wyrmspan went for a deeper more complex experience than wingspan. Finspan is the third of the trilogy and went for a more approachable game than Wingspan. I personally find Finspan at the same complexity weight, while still creating a simpler flow. In Finspan the player is no longer going across a track, but are now diving deep as they go down a track. Finspan in its own rights is a widely popular game, that I have already missed the boat when it comes to a review. This review will instead be a rapid review, focusing on key parts that highlight what makes Finspan unique.
Altering from Wingspan:
There are numerous small intricacies where Finspan alters, but first the focus will be on the two big changes the tracks and the resources.
Tracks:
The tracks still create engines for three paths one card focused, one egg focused and one fish focused. These paths do not match wingspan as they have widely different uses in this game than the others. The other element that has been added is the freedom that players have when placing cards. No longer does the next card placed have to be adjacent to the last card placed in the track. Players now have more range when it comes to how they order their activated abilities.
With this freeform restrictions for some cards had to be placed for creativity and balancing purposes. The tracks are broken up into three depths; sunlight, twilight and midnight. These depths are spread across all three of the tracks. Some cards also have a banner on the right hand side that will match the blue, purple or green tracks (dives). The mix of the banners and depths will be widely displayed across different cards. Some cards will even further reference the top row in sunlight, the estuary spaces and the bottom row in the midnight, the deepwater row.
Resources:
The resources in Finspan are simpler and more interesting at the same time. The main resource is cards, to play cards players must discard cards. The beauty of this is that each player has their own discard pile and there are methods to redraw these cards back. Creating strategies for players to discard the later game cards earlier and redraw these cards towards the end of the game.
More complex resources are the eggs and fish tokens. Each card can contain one egg (no more variable egg counts). These eggs later in the game can hatch into a fish, the fish can swim around the board (whether there is a card there or not) in pursuit of merging three fish into a school of fish (immediate free action) each fish is worth one point where a school of fish is worth six.
But, there are predators in the sea that will need to eat these resources to thrive.
Production:
The production of the game is great. I wouldn't expect any less of a stonemaier. I do admit though my copy has been modified to include the stonemaier eggs, fish tokens and external stickers for the meeples. These squishy eggs are simply excellent. There hasn't been a resource this enjoyable since exploring Everdell and their squishy berries for the first time.
The art is also great with no fish appearing twice in the full deck of 125 cards. The ease of play is also helped with the consistent iconography across the cards and board.
Intricacies:
Consuming:
Fish cards are never locked fully into a location. When placing cards players can place on top of a played cards with a smaller finspan. Transferring the egg if any over to the new card. Some effects or cost will require or give the player the ability to eat smaller cards from their hand.
Brown Diving locations already on the board:
Several brown locations already exist on the board to begin with. If the player has any fish cards in these sections they will be able to activate these abilities when they dive.
Each round the first time a dive track is used there is a bonus activated ability at the end of the track that can be activated once per round.
Determination:
- Freeform in how fish cards are placed in the tracks.
- Interesting resource economy where the resources cards/fish tokens and eggs are duel use.
- Personal discard pile that can be accessed, reducing the frustration of paying card cost with cards.
- Due to the large boards this game is a table hog.
As a fan of the Span line of games Finspan is easily getting a Golden Seal. Finspan shares the same DNA with wingspan but truly feels different with plenty of room for both in any fans collection. The bones of the game are simpler than Wingspan but the decision space and depth of playability and replayability are just as vast. Players have more freedom when placing cards in their engine. Since the card placed doesn't have to be directly next to the previous played cards in the track, players have more control of how their engine is built, while also being able to place over smaller fish cards. Resources are also more interesting in this game featuring duel use resources in eggs, fish tokens, cards that need to be consumed or discarded. There is a lot to love in Finspan for veterans of the system and new fans alike.
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