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In Wingspan, players are bird enthusiasts. They are trying to attract birds to each of their three different bird havens. The habitats each give you a bonus that you can use to attract more birds. Players want to build up an engine to ensure they can continue attracting birds for points, but also to meet secret bonuses and end of round goals. At the end of the game, the player with the most points wins.
Preparing The Nest
First, shuffle the bird cards into a deck and place this next to the bird tray, in easy view of all players. Then, place a card face up in each space on the bird tray. Shuffle the bonus cards and place them in a pile near the bird cards. All food and egg tokens should be placed into the supply, which should be within easy reach of all players.
If this is your first time playing the game, you will need to build the birdfeeder tower. There are instructions on the punchboards for how to do this. Once the birdfeeder is complete, place it on the table and fill it with the dice.
Place the goal board in the middle of the table. Players will need to choose which goals they wish to play with as the board is double-sided. The blue side is a less directly competitive game where points are awarded at the end of the round. The green side is more competitive, with points awarded for being in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place for each goal. The blue side is recommended for new players. Shuffle the goal tiles and place one, with a random side up, on each of the blank spaces on the goal board.
Each player takes a player mat, 1 food token of each type, and the eight action cubes of one colour. Players are then dealt two random bonus cards and five random bird cards.
The players then decide which of their bird cards they wish to keep. For each bird card they keep, they must discard one food token. Whilst a player could keep all five birds, they would then have no food for the start of the game. Players decide on one of the two bonus cards to keep and discard the other one. Players can look at bonus cards and bird cards at the same time to help them decide which to keep and which to discard.
The first player is randomly selected, and play can then begin.
Playing The Game
The game is played over four rounds. The first round comprises of eight turns, whereas the last round is only five turns long. On each turn, players will take one of their action cubes and place it on one of the available actions on the left side of the board. These are:
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Play a bird
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Gain food from the birdfeeder
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Lay eggs
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Draw bird cards
Play A Bird Card
To play a bird from your hand you must be able to play the food cost, shown in the upper left corner of the card. Birds need between nil and three food tokens to play. These food tokens must come from the player’s supply. Some birds require their food cost to be met by specific tokens (fruit, seed, invertebrates, fish or rodents). Other birds can be played using any food token. These birds have a wild symbol on their card. This is a circle with a section of each of the five colours. When playing a bird, you can spend any two food tokens as if they were one other food token. For example, a rodent and a fish instead of fruit.
Players should then check which habitat the bird will be played in - forest, grassland, or wetland. The habitat is also shown in the upper left corner of the card. Some birds can be played in more than one habitat. If this is not the first bird played in a particular habitat, you must also pay the egg cost. Egg cost is printed at the top of the column where you are playing the bird. If you cannot meet both the egg and the food cost, you cannot play the bird.
Once you have paid the cost for playing the bird, place it in the leftmost exposed space in the habitat. Then place your action cube next to the 'play a bird' text.
Some birds have a power that can be used when they are played. These powers have a white background and say “When Played” on. You do not have to use this power when you play a bird, but you also cannot reactivate it later on.
Gain Food Tokens
Players need to gain food to be able to play bird cards.
To gain food, you place an action cube on the leftmost empty space in the gain food row. You then take the amount of food shown from the birdfeeder. To do this, take one die from the birdfeeder and place a matching food token in your supply. You can only gain one food token per die. Some spaces show that you may convert one bird card to an extra die from the birdfeeder. This may only be done once on a turn and is optional.
You may then choose to activate any brown powers you want to on your forest birds, from right to left. It is optional to activate these powers. When you have activated all the brown powers you wish to, move your action cube to the left side of the gain food row, placing it underneath the text.
When a die is taken from the birdfeeder it is not placed back immediately. Instead, all dice are rerolled when the birdfeeder is empty. If all the dice in the birdfeeder tray show the same face when you go to gain food, you may choose to re-roll all the dice.
Lay Eggs On Birds
Eggs are necessary to play more birds in your habitats. They are also worth one point each at the end of the game.
To lay an egg, place your action cube in the leftmost space of the lay eggs row. Then take the number of eggs matching that space on your player board. It does not matter what colour eggs you take. Some spaces allow you to trade one food token for an extra egg. This can only be done once each turn and is optional.
Once you have taken your eggs you must then place them on bird cards. You can lay eggs on any combination of birds that you wish to. It is important to note, however, that each bird has an egg limit. You cannot place more eggs on a bird than shown by their egg limit. If you cannot lay the eggs you take, they are lost.
When you have laid your eggs, you may then activate any optional brown powers on your grassland birds. These are activated from left to right. When you have activated all the powers you want to, place the action cube on the left side of the lay eggs row.
Each bird card shows a nest icon down the left side, just above the egg limit. There are four main types of nests: platform (twigs), cavity (hole in a tree trunk), ground (stones), and bowl. There are also some birds that have a wild nest type (not in one of the previous four categories). Birds with a wild nest type have a star symbol on the card. Wild nests are useful. They can be used as any other nest type for the purpose of bonus cards, end of round goals, and bird powers.
Drawing Bird Cards
When choosing this action, players can choose whether to draw a face-up bird card from the tray or a face-down bird card from the deck. If you draw a face-up bird card the space on the tray is not refilled until the end of your turn.
Place your action cube on the leftmost exposed space of the 'draw bird' cards row. Then draw the number of bird cards indicated by that space. Some spaces show that you can trade in an egg to draw an extra card if you should wish to do so. You can only trade in one egg for one bird card in this way.
Activate any brown powers you wish to on your wetland birds, from right to left across the line. You do not have to activate any brown powers if you do not wish to. Once you have done this, place your action cube on the left side of the draw bird cards row, underneath the text.
End Of The Round
The round ends when all players have placed all of their action cubes. In round one, the players will have eight actions. They will have seven actions in round two, six in round three, and five in round four.
The players should then remove all action cubes from their player mat. The end of round goal is then scored. For example, the goal may be for players to have birds in their forest, or the most eggs on a bird with a particular type of nest. Players place one of their action cubes on the correct space for their score in that particular end of the round goal. There is an appendix book that comes with the game to explain all of the end of round scoring goals.
The face-up birds in the bird tray are discarded and replaced with new birds. Finally, the first player token moves one space clockwise.
So… Who Wins?
The game ends after four rounds. Players then score points according to the included scorepad. These points are for: points on the bird card. Points for each bonus card. Points for end of round goals. One point for each egg and food token on a bird card, and for each card tucked under a bird card. The points are added up and the player with the most points wins.