Wingspan: Americas Expansion Review

Jim Gamer
4 hours ago
6 min read

Wingspan : Americas

WBG Score: 8.5

Player Count:1-6

You'll like this if you like: Everdell, Lost Ruins of Arnak, Furnace.

This is a free review copy. See our review policy here.

Wingspan doesn't need an introduction at this point. It's a modern staple, and its expansions have steadily added more birds, more bonuses, and more ways to score. You can read our full review here.

Americas is the first one that genuinely changes the feel of every turn. If you've ever finished a turn thinking, “If only I had one more egg, one more card, one more anything,” this is the expansion that keeps handing you that little nudge. Let's get it on the table and see how it plays.

How to set up Wingspan: Americas

Set the game up as usual, but add in the two new boards. One is the hummingbird garden board to hold the new hummingbird cards. Shuffle the new deck, place it next to the board, and deal five face-up cards into the slots. Give one hummingbird card to each player. The other new board is for the hummingbird tracker track. Give one to each player along with the five trackers. Place each one on the starting spot. Finally, give each player a mat overlay, and have them place this over the left side of their player mat. They will place the hummingbird card they took during set-up into the middle grasslands space.

And of course we have new bird cards! Add them to your existing cards, or use just these if you prefer. There are new goals which you can also add in, or exclusively use. They only work with this expansion. There are also new green eggs and some more nectar tokens, and eight new bonus cards you can use with this expansion.

How to play Wingspan: Americas

The game works as usual, but when you activate a row, after triggering any bird cards present, you will activate the final hummingbird space. This will either be empty or full. If it is empty, you will bring over one of the five hummingbird cards present on the hummingbird garden board. This is placed into this free space on the mat overlay, and then the action on the bottom left of the hummingbird card is taken. This lets you gain a resource of your choice, a new card or an egg, trigger another action on any bird card in this row, or move up a track on the hummingbird tracker mat. More on that later. Or if the space is full, you will move this hummingbird card back to the hummingbird garden board, placing it on top of one of the other cards there. You will then move up the track on the hummingbird tracker board for either the symbol shown on the card you just placed, or on the card you just placed this card on.

Moving up the tracks allows you to gain extra points at the end of the game. Each tracker starts on a minus three position, but you can move it up to a maximum of ten points for each one. Along the way, there are hummingbird symbols which allow you to carry out another hummingbird action. Either to attract a new hummingbird card, or fly one back to the hummingbird garden board. Again, taking the benefit associated with either action.

Is it fun? Wingspan: Americas Expansion Review

The hummingbirds bolt a bonus step onto each habitat activation, so even a “meh” row suddenly has teeth. It's brilliant at two or three players. But take note. At five or six, it can noticeably stretch the runtime.

The hummingbirds don't feel bolted on. They slip into the flow so naturally that after a round you'll wonder why the base game never had a “final little flourish” at the end of an activation. The loop is simple: invite a hummingbird in for an immediate perk, then send it back later to climb a tracker and score. The hummingbirds fly back and forth, just as they do in the world. It's thematic, snappy, and quietly addictive.

In our first game, I finished a grasslands activation, grabbed a hummingbird that let me draw the extra card I was missing, and that single draw set up a wonderful chain the following turn. It's that kind of expansion: small decisions that keep paying dividends.

The addition of the hummingbirds is a great bit of design because it makes the row activation feel alive, even if you don't have many birds there, or birds with "when activated" powers. Just think, how often have you played this game when you needed just one more card, or one more egg or resource? Now, you may well just end your turn by getting just what you wanted, setting up your next turn to be that much more efficient. It's a great new addition and one that I personally adore. But it does not come without a very real and important cost to consider when deciding if this expansion fits your group.

Time! The hummingbird action is quick. Choose from one of five cards, add it to your board, and take the associated benefit. Or fly a card back and move up one of five tracks. But you can sometimes gain an extra hummingbird action this way. And the choice of which track to go up can be crucial for end-of-round or end-game scoring. As well as the choice of which bird to choose to get the right benefit, this needs to be right. This all takes time.

As such, at higher player counts, the rulebook suggests removing one action cube from the game for all players to reduce the bloated game length. I hate this. I think Wingspan has a tight and correct action number with the current diminishing numbers each round. It's genius and perfect. I don't want less. But I understand the need to cull the game length at higher player counts. Therefore, I can only really recommend this expansion for one to three players, or for those who are happy to play a longer game. This will add on 10-25 minutes per game, maybe more with five or six players. Playing at higher counts with this, you need to accept that. I am not sure that would be for me. But at two or three, it's fine.

At two or three players, Americas is an instant yes from me. The hummingbirds turn “fine” activations into satisfying turns, and the tracker gives you a new little race to care about without changing what Wingspan fundamentally is.

At four plus, it becomes more about your group's tolerance for extra thinking time. Everyone now has a meaningful decision at the end of every activation, and those decisions add up. If your table already has a bit of “hang on, did I trigger that bird?” energy, this will magnify it.

One of our games had an end-of-round power that effectively handed me two hummingbird actions, and it was brutal in a way that surprised us. Two rounds in a row the end-of-round goal was “highest on a specific hummingbird track” and I pinched it late, after someone had led all round. I had a great time. The table… less so. That’s not necessarily a flaw, but it's worth knowing: Americas can create last-minute steals that feel spicy to some groups and maddening to others.

This expansion is a nice fit for players who like their expansions to feel integrated rather than bolted on, since the hummingbird step becomes part of every activation. I prefer it to Asia in this way. But if you're someone who already thinks Wingspan can run a little long, or you prefer your turns to be clean and fast with minimal extra triggers, Americas may add just enough extra fiddle to irritate.

The hummingbird tracker starts at minus three, which is a fun little nudge to engage with it as soon as possible, but it also means you'll feel obliged to babysit yet another scoring lane. And if your table already struggles with “trigger everything in the right order,” you may end up with a few more wait-a-sec moments per round. I can understand why this may deter some, so my score has to reflect this.

Pros

Hummingbirds add a smart, satisfying loop to every row activation.
Tracker paths create meaningful, visible progress and payoff.
Feels integrated into the core flow rather than disruptive.
New bird cards are gorgeous as always, with some wonderfully thought out and well-integrated new powers.
Theme of hummingbirds flitting back and forth is just delightful.

Cons

Adds extra steps that can slow down already-long turns
Another set of components to manage and remember
Can feel like “one more system” if you prefer leaner Wingspan

Americas is a proper “one more turn” upgrade for Wingspan. At two or three players, I'd happily keep it in the box permanently (not that it fits!) because it makes every activation feel like it matters. At five or six, I'd only bring it out if everyone at the table is up for a longer game. Either way, it's clever, thematic, and just a little bit sneaky. Hummingbirds, eh? Always stealing your nectar and your patience.