Hi friends,

We finally got to sit down for a game of Wingspan Pocket, and it was just as great as we hoped.

And I'll admit... We definitely got our hopes up. After all, the folks at Stonemaier brought back Elizabeth Hargrave, the renowned designer of the original Wingspan. Then they promised to condense the gameplay into a more digestible experience without sacrificing any of the richness of the original game.

For folks who have never played Wingspan

Wingspan is a game about feeding birds to add them to your play area, then combining their abilities into powerful combinations. It's beloved not only for its gameplay, but the fact that is draws so much inspiration from nature and incorporates data from the Cornell Library of Ornithology and the National Audobon Society. It's got lots of expansions, as well as spinoff versions featuring Dragons and Fish!

We've been approached by a lot of people over the years who are looking for help in learning how to play Wingspan; the original game has fairly heavy gameplay for a game with such widespread popularity, plus it's rulebook is lengthy and it normally takes at least two hours to play. It's an incredible game, but Wingspan Pocket is now unquestionably the best introduction to this game series for any first-time learners.

For fans of the original Wingspan

In my opinion, this game absolutely succeeded at preserving all of the fun of the original Wingspan, but in a smaller package. The main changes are that: The cards now have two sides, a bird side and a food side, so no more food dice; and your play area is a single row, instead of three rows. The rules are extremely approachable, but the card interactions still felt thinky and rewarding.

Both versions bring a lot to the table, so now I think I'll bring out the original when I'm looking for a longer board game experience with experienced Wingspan players, and I'll bring out Pocket if anyone at the table is new to the series—and I'll be happy no matter which version I'm playing.

But one aspect I did enjoy more about Wingspan Pocket is that you get to activate ALL of your bird powers every single turn. So rather than agonize over decisions like, "Should I activate my wetlands this turn or wait to add another bird," you get to watch your bird engine do it's thing every time play comes around to you.

Anywho, you can watch our How to Play Wingspan Pocket video here.

And watch our full playthrough with me, Gordon, Jess, Glenn and Wyatt here.

Happy bird-game!

Cheers,

Andy