Wingspan European Expansion mini-review

With a lot of new birds, including a solid selection of owls, the Wingspan European Expansion is quite a hoot. There aren’t any sweeping transformations, but a few additions inject a bit more strategy into every game.

Normally, calling an expansion “more of the same” would be a subtle snub. But the digital adaptation of Stonemaier Games’ beloved board game was hardly your typical instance interactive entertainment. 2020’s Wingspan was an uncharacteristically soothing experience. Eschewing the typical cutthroat rivalry between participants the game allowed for only indirect influence as each player build their own avian habitat.

Instead, each player’s decisions impacted their own trajectory through a game, as they tried to amass their own collection of birds, eggs, and cached food. What made it truly special were all the additions that a digital recreation could provide. From hearing the signature call from many of the game’s 170 birds, spoken trivia about the feathered stars, and Paweł Górniak and Michał Lipiec’s soothing soundtrack, the adaptation was an absolute delight.

Smartly, the recent release of Wingspan European Expansion doesn’t tamper with the foundations of the base game. After purchasing the pack, you’ll have access to 81 new bird cards, 5 bonus cards, as well as 5 goal tiles. Unsurprisingly, the birds themselves are the highlight of the expansion. Each arrives with a sound sample. For North Americans, hearing the wail of a Little Owl or the song of a Eurasian Nuthatch will be a thrill. Like the base games, there’s a map that show each bird’s native habitat as well as bit of info about the creature.

Unsurprisingly, many of the Euro birds comes with new powers. Some can be placed sideways, taking up a pair of spaces in the habitat. Meanwhile, a selection of predators permit you to tuck other birds underneath them, providing additional points, while eliminating a food or egg cost. Other predators might replace a bird that is currently on your board. Another new ability resets the birdfeeder when the available nourishments aren’t to your liking. This time out, there’s a bit of friendly interaction when with bandit birds that allow you to steal food from a rival. Fortunately, it’s not to adversarial. Often, the player who was pilfered gets to draw from the feeder to recover their losses.

End of round cards contribute a bit of strategy, with the teal-colored cards optionally providing perks like free eggs for each bird in a habitat. Nicely, the expansion comes with a tutorial. But if you’ve played even a few games of Wingspan, the addons will seem pretty intuitive. If you are new, you might find the Automa solo game a great place for learning different approaches before heading into cross-platform online play.

Wingspan European Expansion was played on
Switch with review code provided by the publisher.
(No scoring is applied to downloadable content)