Wingspan: Americas Expansion

There I was, enjoying my retirement, sipping on ice water, watching some Star Trek, when our fearless leader dropped a cryptic note in our Discord: “Any Wingspan fans?” Here’s a transcript of our conversation that followed.

Me: “I am a Wingspan fan.”

Tony: “You are also retired, no? ☺️”

Me: “I am retired, but you didn’t make any qualifications. You just asked if I was a Wingspan fan.”

Tony: “That’s fair. I was looking for someone to cover the next expansion.”

Me: “There’s a new expansion… that I missed?”

Tony: “Has not been announced yet. It’s a secret.”

Me: <heavy_breathing_cat.gif> “I would 100% come out of retirement to write a review just to get my hands on it.”

So that’s how I ended up getting my hands on the Wingspan: Americas Expansion.

Expansion Overview:

Previous expansions of Wingspan focused on specific geographical regions, and the Americas Expansion sets its sights on the regions of Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. While adding a good number of birds to the bird deck, it places the thriving diversity of hummingbirds in the forefront, with a new and separate hummingbird card deck, and new rules for how hummingbirds can be collected and scored. New components included in the expansion are an additional hummingbird board that covers a portion of the player board, a personal scoring track to keep track of types of hummingbirds collected, and a garden board that serves as the display for all available hummingbirds.

Collecting different types of hummingbirds moves you up on the scoring track.

Gameplay largely follows the same flow as the base game, with selecting one of four main actions, then activating bird powers as necessary. After all bird powers are used in the Gain Food, Lay Eggs, and Draw Cards actions, a new “hummingbird action” is then taken. The hummingbird action represents the quick flight and frenetic motion of these birds as they flit to-and-fro in search of nectar.

• If a player’s hummingbird space for that habitat is empty, they choose and take a hummingbird from the garden, then gain a benefit. These benefits include drawing a bird card, gaining a nectar, laying an egg, moving up on any hummingbird track, or a variable bonus based on the habitat the hummingbird is in (food, egg, card.)
• If a player’s hummingbird space for that habitat is full, the hummingbird is returned to the garden board. A player will then move up on one of the five hummingbird tracks, choosing either the type of hummingbird that was returned or the type of hummingbird that was covered up in the garden. Moving up the hummingbird track can also trigger an extra hummingbird action.

The new standard bird cards included in this expansion interact with the hummingbird cards, scoring tracks, and garden in a variety of ways, but follow standard Wingspan rules in many cases. There are also new private objective cards and scoring objectives that involve hummingbirds and the hummingbird track. At the end of the game, extra points are added (or lost) based on the position of each of the five hummingbird tracks.

All manners of new birds come with this expansion, not just hummingbirds.

Game Experience with the Expansion:

Expansions are a tricky thing, especially when dealing with a game as elegant in its simplicity as Wingspan. However, Americas handles new rules as gracefully as Oceania did with the implementation of nectar. The hummingbird action fits into the flow of the game seamlessly, easily adding an extra hummingbird action after bird powers are all finished, with a clever reminder on the player board overlay. It did take us more than a few times (and checks of the rulebook) to get right that we took the benefit and moved up the scoring track at the correct time, but after a round of play, it became second nature.

Players collect from and release to the hummingbird garden, activating benefits and scoring on the hummingbird track.

Wingspan is one of those games that always leaves you wanting for a game action, when you realize you are an egg or a food short, or that you want an extra card in hand to perform a tuck action efficiently. However, Americas gives players the ability to add some economy to their actions through the hummingbird card effects. Need that egg? Grab a hummingbird who will provide you with one as a benefit. Want to be able to play that bird you’ve been holding on to next turn, but need both eggs and food? Take a Lay Eggs action, but then grab a nectar using a hummingbird action.

Planning for and gaining the ability to gain an action effect “out of phase” adds a very pleasant level of extra thinking when taking a turn, and lets players fill their bird habitats out that much faster. While ostensibly meeting some goals more easily, we still felt the pleasant crunch of limited action in the last round of play.

The Hummingbird action takes place after all bird powers for that row have been activated.

Keeping track of hummingbirds is also important for scoring purposes at the end of the round and at the end of the game, as hummingbirds count as birds in your layout that you have collected. Perhaps you need one more right-facing bird to outscore your opponent at the end of the round, or need another color-named bird at the end of the game to get you some more points? Choosing the right hummingbird at the right time can give your score a boost depending on the bird and the situation.

We also liked the added strategy of choosing which hummingbird track to move up on. It was fun to be able to string together multiple hummingbird actions on a single turn, based on moving up the right tracks at the right time. However, looking at our final scores over the variety of plays, we did not necessarily see that much in the way of variation between player scores from the hummingbird track. It could very well be that we did not uncover other ways to manipulate the scoring tracks to gain an advantage, and in our plays, we found that it only made a difference in a very close game. As far as the components of the track, the bits are a tad small and easily bumped during gameplay, so make sure not to have a stray elbow.

Final Thoughts:

Wingspan: Americas has everything we look for in a game expansion, with new rules that integrate seamlessly, while still evolving the gameplay. It takes an already elegant game and gives it a breath of fresh air with a host of new birds, a fresh new set of hummingbirds with powers that challenge players to reconsider their action economy while playing. This is a must-buy expansion in our estimation, as all Wingspan expansions have proven to be. I am glad I came out of retirement for this one.

Hits:
• Little bloat – rules are easy to integrate.
• Improved action economy.
• More strategic thinking for bird nerds.

Misses:
• Hummingbird scoring track (apparently) doesn’t mean much for final scoring.
• Be careful not to bump your hummingbird tracks.