Finspan: Sharks & Reefs Board Game Expansion Review
- Jim Gamer
- 4 hours ago
- 6 min read
WBG Score: 9
Player Count: 1-5
Published by: Stonemaier Games
Designed by: Michael O'Connell (II)
This is a review copy. See our review policy here
Finspan, but with teeth
I really liked Finspan. In fact, I liked it more than a lot of people seemed to initially. While some felt it stripped too much away from Wingspan, I actually thought that was the point. It took the satisfying engine-building core of Wingspan and streamlined it into something faster, cleaner, and easier to table. Less fiddly. Less intimidating. More elegant.
But even I admitted in my original review that it perhaps lacked just a little of the strategic texture and variety that made Wingspan and especially Wyrmspan so endlessly replayable.
Enter Sharks & Reefs.
And honestly? This expansion fixes almost every tiny criticism I had of the base game without ruining what made Finspan work in the first place. That is harder to do than it sounds.
This is not one of those expansions that completely transforms the game. It does not reinvent Finspan. It does not suddenly make it a heavyweight strategy title. What it does instead is quietly deepen the experience in a way that feels so natural you almost forget it was not there originally. After a few games, the coral reef system feels less like an expansion and more like how Finspan was always supposed to play. Which is probably the highest compliment I can give it. Oh, and do you like me new board game table?
Finspan: Sharks & Reefs - How to set up
Setup is almost identical to the base game, which is one of the expansion’s biggest strengths.
Shuffle the new fish cards into the main deck, mix the new starter fish into the starter pile, and replace the scorepad and achievement board with the new versions included in the expansion. If using the variable achievement side, shuffle in the new achievement tiles and randomly assign them to the correct weeks.
Each player then takes a coral reef overlay and places it over the twilight zone section of their ocean board. This adds a reef track to each of the three dive sites. Place the coral tokens into the general supply and hand each player one of the new reference cards. That is basically it.
The expansion integrates into the base game incredibly smoothly. There is very little additional overhead, and I genuinely think you could teach this version to brand new players without them even realising parts of it are expansion content.
Finspan: Sharks & Reefs - How to play
The core game remains exactly the same. On your turn, you either play a fish card into your ocean or dive down one of the three columns on your board, activating benefits as you descend. The big addition here is coral reefs.
Each time you dive, your diver will pass through the new reef overlay section in that column. When this happens, you may discard the required resource to grow your reef by placing one coral token there. The cost depends on the column. One reef requires discarding an egg, another a young fish, and another a card from your hand.
At the end of the game, each coral is worth one point. Fully complete a reef and you also gain a chunky bonus depending on the column. Simple enough. But the cleverness comes from how the new fish interact with coral.
Some new reef fish require a certain amount of coral already present before they can even be played. Others gain enhanced abilities if enough coral exists in that dive site when activated. Suddenly, the reef system is not just another point source. It becomes part of your wider engine-building strategy. Then there are the sharks. And yes, they are cool.
Some sharks introduce powerful new abilities, including breaking schools apart into four separate young fish, consuming fish directly from your hand, or allowing fish to be played entirely for free. A few cards even create chain reactions around coral generation and consumption that can make certain columns explode in efficiency later in the game.
One particularly clever addition is the new two-stage activated abilities. Some fish now provide a standard benefit, but then give an extra reward if you have enough coral in that specific reef. It creates lovely moments where you suddenly realise your previously average dive has become massively more effective because of how you built your ecosystem several turns earlier.
And that is what this expansion really adds: layering.
Finspan: Sharks & Reefs - Is it fun?
Yes. Very. But perhaps more importantly, it makes Finspan itself more fun. That is the key thing here. The base game was already smooth and approachable, but there were moments where strategies could feel a little too straightforward. Sharks & Reefs gives you more to think about without dragging the game down into complexity overload. The reef system adds tension to your decisions constantly.
Do you spend your eggs growing coral now, or save them for fish costs later? Do you break apart a school for short-term flexibility? Do you prioritise filling an entire reef for the bonus points, or simply use coral to unlock stronger fish abilities? Do you commit heavily into one dive site, or spread your coral growth across all three?
These are not earth-shattering strategic dilemmas. This is still Finspan. But they are exactly the sort of small extra decisions the game needed.
The expansion also improves the rhythm of diving. In the base game, I often found myself repeatedly favouring one or two columns depending on my engine. Now, because each reef has different costs and scoring potential, I naturally found myself diversifying more often. I want to complete my collections of all the coral. The bonus is too enticing! This expansion subtly nudges you toward broader play without forcing it.
I also love how optional much of the reef strategy feels. You can absolutely lean hard into coral synergy if the cards appear, building a powerful reef-focused engine. But if the cards do not come, or another strategy opens up first, you can largely ignore coral and still compete.
That flexibility matters.
The new fish deck is fantastic too. The added variety massively helps replayability, especially at higher player counts where the original deck could occasionally cycle faster than ideal. And the shark cards genuinely feel thematic. There is something wonderfully satisfying about smashing apart a school into four scattered young fish and immediately turning them into new opportunities elsewhere in your ocean.
Finspan: Sharks & Reefs - The theme and presentation
Stonemaier continues to absolutely nail the presentation side of these games. The artwork is stunning once again. The coral reefs themselves make your ocean board look far more vibrant and alive, and the sharks add a little extra menace visually that Finspan perhaps lacked previously.
More importantly though, this expansion carries a stronger ecological message than the base game did. Designer Michael O’Connell has spoken openly about wanting Sharks & Reefs to highlight the fragility of marine ecosystems and the devastating decline of coral reefs globally. That passion genuinely comes through. Building and protecting your reefs does not just feel mechanically rewarding, it feels meaningful within the context of the theme.
No, a board game is not going to save the oceans. But games absolutely can make people care about subjects they otherwise might not engage with. And I suspect more than a few players will finish a game of Sharks & Reefs and suddenly find themselves Googling coral bleaching afterwards. That matters.
Pros
• Adds meaningful strategic depth without complicating the core game
• Coral reefs integrate beautifully into the existing systems
• The new fish abilities and increased card variety massively improve replayability
Cons
• Will not convert people who fundamentally disliked base Finspan
• Coral requirements can briefly confuse newer players early on
Final thoughts
Sharks & Reefs is exactly what a good expansion should be. It does not bloat the game. It does not “fix” Finspan by changing its identity. Instead, it understands what Finspan already was and carefully builds upon it in ways that feel natural, elegant, and surprisingly impactful.
For me, this moves Finspan from “really good streamlined Wingspan variant” into something that genuinely stands alongside the other Span games confidently on its own terms.
Wyrmspan probably still offers the deepest strategy of the trilogy. Wingspan still has the broadest appeal and legacy. But Finspan with Sharks & Reefs may honestly now be the one I most want to actually play.
And perhaps the best compliment of all? I do not really want to play Finspan without this expansion anymore. Turns out the ocean was just missing a few sharks. And let's be honest, most ecosystems improve slightly when you add sharks.
