I just got this game from my wife as a present. I am totally addicted to it but I suck at it. I searched for tips and this video does the best job of explaining how to succeed at this great game. Thanks!
I just started playing this game and youtube recomended your video. Incredibly well designed video, please keep doing strategy guides, A+, orders of magnitude better than other strategy videos I watched.
In the final tips section you mention you can skip brown powers. You have to remember that you can skip ALL bird powers, no matter what the colour is. All powers are optional.
I play this game on Steam too, so I have screenshot evidence, but my top score is 118😊 Wetlands from left to right: 1egg=2 resources, Tuck card=1 egg, 1 Wheat=2 Tucked cards, Tuck card=Get card, Repeat. Wetlands had me drawing 5 cards each time. Went into final round with 11 cards in hand.
Let me tell you a secret, if you cheat the game on Steam, with the base game + european expansion, it's possible to get more than double that amount. I once got 268 points in a 5p game. In the end, the board looked like this: In the forest: dunnock (4 eggs), red eye vireo (2 eggs), bonneli's eagle with 3 tucked cards, eurasian golden oriole (1 egg), european goldfinch with 7 cards tucked. In the grasslands: ruff (9 tucks), common starling (15 tucks and 4 eggs), eurasian tree sparrow (4 eggs), eastern bluebird (5 eggs), common swift (5 eggs and 1 tuck) In the wetlands: common chiffchaff (15 tucks, 4 eggs), savi's warbler (15 tucks), gray catbird (14 tucks), canada goose (36 tucks, 2 eggs), black bellied whistling duck (36 tucks, 5 eggs). Bonus card: behaviourist, with 12 points. Also 16 points from end of the round goals. Without cheating, you can get high scores as well, just not as high of course. It usually involves having a raven and or a killdeer/franklin's gull and a catbird/mockingbird in the grasslands (paired with other tucking abilities like sandhill crane, dickcissel, etc) or going for the kind of tucking engine you built + pink powers on other habitats. I've seen people scoring higher than 140/150 with such engines. If you love the game, I absolutely recommend you to play it with the asia and oceania expansions, those add so many other different mechanics to the game, so many more ways of scoring points that having a killdeer and a raven in your starting hand wont even guarantee you a win anymore. The Sri Lanka Blue-Magpie for example became the new OP card to have and for that reason we've banned it from being played. Other cards, when played, just end up leading to a high scoring game for EVERYONE at the table, like the blue rock-thrush, besides allowing all the interesting interaction between players, who keep passing the card pass around. Unfortunately, the fact that all these new cool abilities were added with the expansions, a lot of birds from the base game became completely obsolete and no one wants to play them EVER unless they really have to, for specific reasons. Wish you lots of fun playing the game, it's one of the best engine building games ever created imo =)
@@TabletopShop The localization of the base game in Serbia by "Mipl", a small company which sells and translates games, included an ornithologist and linguist. Some birds not native to Serbia got translated for the first time ever. These translations are officially included into the Serbian language. I heard this is the first time ever the translation of a board game directly influenced a language.
I'm late to the game, ha ha but find i really like Wingspan despite not being a big fan of birds. This is the the best strategy video I've watched!!! Thanks 👍 🎉
It may partially be the use of the expansions, but tucking with a full engine in the river is far superior to the egg option. Primarily because eggs have a cap, while you can tuck infinitely. My best engine gave me over 70 points from tucking. IDK that you could even get 70 egg spaces with all the biggest nests. I do totally agree on predator birds though, they really need a buff.
To be honest, I once played a game of base + european expansion with 5 players. 2 of them had full on tucking engines and a third hard a partial tucking engine. Do you know what happened? Last round of the game, they couldn't tuck anymore, we ran out of cards. they tucked the entire deck + the discard pile that had already been reshuffled. So it's not exactly unlimited as you say, but yeah, it's a better engine than egg spamming. The issue with going for the tucking engine is that not only do you need to have those birds in your hand early on to start working towards your engine but you also need to be lucky enough to have the right combos, and that's extremely rare to happen, while the egg spamming strategy works with a lot more different birds, so it's easier to build the egg spamming one. If you are lucky enough to start with a maned duck + a sandhill crane and a mute swan then, by all means, go for the tucking engine! But otherwise, the majority of the times you'll have to pick a different strategy to go with and with the base game + european expansion, there really isnt anything better than egg spamming.
Can't say this is advanced, cause it doesn't include Europe and Oceania expansions. Base game is easily spammed with eggs. Also, cards like Raven are usually excluded from the deck. Would like to see a video with the expansions (maybe it already exists).
I've played a bit of the European and Oceania expansions, and they're not bad. However, I think the nectar mechanism breaks the game experience, and prefer to play without. Haven't had a chance to try Asia yet, but I have played Wyrmspan, and I think it's a great reimplementation that streamlines some of the clunkier aspects of the original/expansions.
Not bad! It depends on player count (more players results in higher scores), but as you start studying combos and get more familiar with the game, you'll start seeing scores of 100+. My personal record is 160, but I've heard of scores much higher than that.
😅 It was actually a parody card included in "Farms Race", a parody Euro game Kickstarter that was cancelled because of the IP dispute with Stonemaier: www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/15r02n1/farms_race_v_stonemaier_thoughts_on_ip_from_an/
I just got this game from my wife as a present. I am totally addicted to it but I suck at it. I searched for tips and this video does the best job of explaining how to succeed at this great game. Thanks!
Thank you, I'm glad to hear it was helpful! Lay those eggs!
My wife and I have been playing this game for a year, she destroys me every time... I'm here to study so I may defeat her one day...
Study up, you've got this!
I just started playing this game and youtube recomended your video. Incredibly well designed video, please keep doing strategy guides, A+, orders of magnitude better than other strategy videos I watched.
Thank you very much, I'm glad it was useful for you! It was a labor of love.
In the final tips section you mention you can skip brown powers. You have to remember that you can skip ALL bird powers, no matter what the colour is. All powers are optional.
Indeed: my focus was simply on the aspect that you can skip the more common negative effects that some brown powers have, but that's a good point.
Thanks, I didn't know this
No idea how your channel hasn't blown up - this is the best guide I've found! Thanks so much for creating this.
No problem, glad it could be useful!
I play this game on Steam too, so I have screenshot evidence, but my top score is 118😊 Wetlands from left to right: 1egg=2 resources, Tuck card=1 egg, 1 Wheat=2 Tucked cards, Tuck card=Get card, Repeat. Wetlands had me drawing 5 cards each time. Went into final round with 11 cards in hand.
That's a pretty strong Wetlands engine right there, well done!
Let me tell you a secret, if you cheat the game on Steam, with the base game + european expansion, it's possible to get more than double that amount. I once got 268 points in a 5p game. In the end, the board looked like this:
In the forest: dunnock (4 eggs), red eye vireo (2 eggs), bonneli's eagle with 3 tucked cards, eurasian golden oriole (1 egg), european goldfinch with 7 cards tucked.
In the grasslands: ruff (9 tucks), common starling (15 tucks and 4 eggs), eurasian tree sparrow (4 eggs), eastern bluebird (5 eggs), common swift (5 eggs and 1 tuck)
In the wetlands: common chiffchaff (15 tucks, 4 eggs), savi's warbler (15 tucks), gray catbird (14 tucks), canada goose (36 tucks, 2 eggs), black bellied whistling duck (36 tucks, 5 eggs).
Bonus card: behaviourist, with 12 points. Also 16 points from end of the round goals.
Without cheating, you can get high scores as well, just not as high of course. It usually involves having a raven and or a killdeer/franklin's gull and a catbird/mockingbird in the grasslands (paired with other tucking abilities like sandhill crane, dickcissel, etc) or going for the kind of tucking engine you built + pink powers on other habitats. I've seen people scoring higher than 140/150 with such engines.
If you love the game, I absolutely recommend you to play it with the asia and oceania expansions, those add so many other different mechanics to the game, so many more ways of scoring points that having a killdeer and a raven in your starting hand wont even guarantee you a win anymore. The Sri Lanka Blue-Magpie for example became the new OP card to have and for that reason we've banned it from being played. Other cards, when played, just end up leading to a high scoring game for EVERYONE at the table, like the blue rock-thrush, besides allowing all the interesting interaction between players, who keep passing the card pass around. Unfortunately, the fact that all these new cool abilities were added with the expansions, a lot of birds from the base game became completely obsolete and no one wants to play them EVER unless they really have to, for specific reasons.
Wish you lots of fun playing the game, it's one of the best engine building games ever created imo =)
Great tutorial without a lot of fluff! Thanks for the great tips for this very fun game.
No problem, I'm glad it was helpful!
Great video. I just starting playing this game and love it. You gave me the types of tips I was looking for. Thank you
Glad it could be helpful! Wingspan never gets old.
Went through a few other guides and this was by far the best and most efficient video (in line with the wingspan strategy itself lol)
Thanks a bunch, I'm really glad it was helpful. Wingspan is quite the game.
This is a fantastic guide, thank you so much!
No problem, glad it was helpful!
Great overview of strategies
Thank you!
3:19 I never thought I would see a Hi-Point gun joke reference in a gaming video. Well played (wink wink)
Haha thanks, glad you caught that!
@@TabletopShop It’s the Brick that keeps giving
Very good advices. Awesome video. WS is my all-time favorite game + I play the digital version too.
Thank you! I love the game too, I never get tired of it.
@TabletopShop wanna hear a cool fun fact about a localization?
Go for it.
@@TabletopShop The localization of the base game in Serbia by "Mipl", a small company which sells and translates games, included an ornithologist and linguist. Some birds not native to Serbia got translated for the first time ever. These translations are officially included into the Serbian language. I heard this is the first time ever the translation of a board game directly influenced a language.
Fascinating, you don't often hear about board games having that sort of result!
I'm late to the game, ha ha but find i really like Wingspan despite not being a big fan of birds.
This is the the best strategy video I've watched!!! Thanks 👍 🎉
Thanks a bunch, I'm glad it proved helpful!
“ Happy Day” Are you a fan of Children of the Stones?
Very helpful video, thank you.
I'm actually unfamiliar with that one, I just like using the phrase. 😁 Glad the video was helpful!
Had no idea that you could skip brown powers, ty!
No problem, I didn't know either for a while!
Oologist is very strong bonus card
It may partially be the use of the expansions, but tucking with a full engine in the river is far superior to the egg option. Primarily because eggs have a cap, while you can tuck infinitely. My best engine gave me over 70 points from tucking. IDK that you could even get 70 egg spaces with all the biggest nests.
I do totally agree on predator birds though, they really need a buff.
Very interesting, I'll have to give that a try. Thanks for the tip!
70 tucked cards?!? That's INSANE!
To be honest, I once played a game of base + european expansion with 5 players. 2 of them had full on tucking engines and a third hard a partial tucking engine. Do you know what happened? Last round of the game, they couldn't tuck anymore, we ran out of cards. they tucked the entire deck + the discard pile that had already been reshuffled. So it's not exactly unlimited as you say, but yeah, it's a better engine than egg spamming. The issue with going for the tucking engine is that not only do you need to have those birds in your hand early on to start working towards your engine but you also need to be lucky enough to have the right combos, and that's extremely rare to happen, while the egg spamming strategy works with a lot more different birds, so it's easier to build the egg spamming one. If you are lucky enough to start with a maned duck + a sandhill crane and a mute swan then, by all means, go for the tucking engine! But otherwise, the majority of the times you'll have to pick a different strategy to go with and with the base game + european expansion, there really isnt anything better than egg spamming.
A new addition to our house. 6 or 7 games in our son hit a high score of 104. My best is 88
Excellent! This game never gets old.
Can't say this is advanced, cause it doesn't include Europe and Oceania expansions. Base game is easily spammed with eggs. Also, cards like Raven are usually excluded from the deck. Would like to see a video with the expansions (maybe it already exists).
I have Wingspan Asia and I haven't seen a lot of the powers you are showing here. Are these cards from the base game?
Yes, this is from the base game only actually.
I love the automata in the digital version. What do you think of the current expansions?
I've played a bit of the European and Oceania expansions, and they're not bad. However, I think the nectar mechanism breaks the game experience, and prefer to play without. Haven't had a chance to try Asia yet, but I have played Wyrmspan, and I think it's a great reimplementation that streamlines some of the clunkier aspects of the original/expansions.
@@TabletopShop I came around on the nectar mechanic but only after awhile. I’ve wanted to try Wyrmspan but I haven’t had a chance.
@@mxandrew It's definitely worth a shot. Gives you a new type of puzzle to solve if Wingspan becomes bland.
What is a good score ? I had 68 points on my second game with 4 players.
Not bad! It depends on player count (more players results in higher scores), but as you start studying combos and get more familiar with the game, you'll start seeing scores of 100+. My personal record is 160, but I've heard of scores much higher than that.
Nice guide! Where can I find that military drone card 😅?
😅 It was actually a parody card included in "Farms Race", a parody Euro game Kickstarter that was cancelled because of the IP dispute with Stonemaier: www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/15r02n1/farms_race_v_stonemaier_thoughts_on_ip_from_an/
Love the info. It would be better without the annoying background music.
i think now rules was changing you can`t get two eggs from the start
Background music is VERY distracting, but thanks for the info, anyway.
Good to know, glad it was still helpful!
I enjoyed the background music