WBG Score: 8.5
Player Count: 1-5
You’ll like this if you like: Wingspan, Everdell, Lost Ruins of Arnak
Published by: Stonemaier Games
Designed by: Connie Vogelmann
This is a review copy. See our review policy here
Wingspan is one of the best selling games of the modern era. It has won numerous awards and is widely regarded as one of the best gateway games in terms of bring new players to the hobby. My review for Wingspan can be found here. When a publisher has a huge hit like this, it is rare they leave it alone. And Wingspan has seen seen a number of expansions, add-ns, and even a two-player version. You can read more about that here.
But when at the start of 2024, the publisher announced there was to be a new version of the game, offering a slightly higher complexity, aimed at a more serious gamer, called Wyrmspan, you would be excused at confusing this release with something a lot more controversial. Some people seemed outraged at this idea. Why, when games like Ticket to Ride and Pandemic have multiple versions out, this was a surprise to anyone is beyond me. But this seems to be the curse that successful publishers like Stonemaier Game have to suffer. They are criticised for most things they do, seemingly just because they are seen as being big and successful. Interestingly this all seemed to begin with Wingspan. Simply because of it's huge success. Stonemaier were seen as more indie prior to then. as nothing has changed.
Since Wingspan, Stonemaier have seen mixed success with their releases. Games like Red Rising and Pendulum have received muted responses from critics. Tapestry was attacked for its over production and lack of balance. Libertalia was criticised for lacking the heart of the original. And Expeditions has been suggested by some to be a cash grab based on the success of Scythe (the original game this release shared a theme and art style with) and failure of the previous releases, just mentioned. But all are good games. It seems some people cannot see beyond the trolls and bandwagon that all started from the huge success Wingspan brought to the publisher and now cannot just judge each game for what it is. They look for problems. Or simply it's because people just enjoy hating on Stonemaier as it is seen as cool. It's hard to like the big guy, right? The Coldplay effect in full force. But again, that's odd as Stonemaier are hardly big. They have three full time employees. They are nothing compared to Cool Mini Or Not or Asmodee.
I prefer to simply judge each game on its own merits. Not the history or legacy of the publisher. So, that is what I will do here.
BUT! I would say I am a fan of Jamey Stegmaier, and Stonemaier games. So, perhaps I have a different bias pushing me the other direction? All I would say on that is this. I own over 700 games in my collection, and know which ones I get to the table most, and I only pick the games I want to play. I certainly play games more when I first get them so I can review them, but I know which ones then see repeat plays after I hit publish. And all these criticised Stonemaier games have seen many repeat plays since the pressure of the review has gone.
With all that said, Wyrmspan is a very interesting game on it's own merits. But it has to be looked at within this context. There is an important history that I believe is worth being aware of to help judge this game, and assess my own ability to critique it fairly. So, after the longest introduction in the history of What Board Game, let's get this game to the table and see how it plays.
How To Set Up Wyrmspan
First place the Dragon Guild Board on the table. Randomly pick one of the four Dragon Guild tiles and put it on the middle of the board with your chosen side up, depending on how many players there are. Then shuffle all the Dragons cards together and put three of them face up on the card display board in the marked spots. Keep the rest of Dragon deck nearby, face down. Do the same with the Cave cards. Next, place the round Tracker Board down with the round marker on the first round space. Mix up the objective tiles and put four of them randomly onto this board with a random side up for each one. Put the rest back in the box. Now set up the public supply by putting all the coins, eggs, and tokens in a spot where everyone can reach them.
Each player will now take a player mat and place it in front of them. Put your starting resources of six coins and eight player markers, on the left side of your mat. Take one egg and place it on one of the two nest icons on your player mat. Place your Adventurer on the space on your board marked as Base Camp. Then put your guild token on the starting Dragon Guild space.
Now deal three Dragon cards and three Cave cards to each player. Everyone can choose to keep any four of these six cards. Discard the rest. All players can now choose any three starting resources based on the cards they chose to keep. Give the starting player token to the last person to ride a Dragon, or a random player; your choice. You are now ready to begin.
How To Play Wyrmspan
If you have played Wingspan then a lot of the below will be familiar to you. I have managed to teach Wyrmspan to people who have played Wingspan in around five minutes. I do this by highlighting the differences. Then talking through the three main actions. Let's do the same now.
Much like Wingspan, players will take turns to carry out one action per turn over four rounds. But whereas in Wingspan you do this with an action cube, in Wyrmspan this is done by spending coins. Players start with six coins and will get six new coins each round. You can save coins round to round if you want, but I doubt you ever will. And you can get extra coins during rounds through certain card and Guild effects, but these won't carry over to later rounds unless you save them. You can never start a round with less than six or more than nine coins.
On your turn, you will place a coin on your player mat by the action you want to do, then carry out that action. On the left of the mat, it shows you your three main options: Excavate, Entice, and Explore. Let's go through them now one by one.
Excavate is a whole new action compared to Wingspan. To Entice Dragons to your player board, they first need a cave to live in. Excavate is how you do this. Simply pay a coin and egg (if needed depending on the column) and place a Cave card from your hand onto the leftmost space on one of the three rows on your board. The first space on each row will have a Cave already present, so you don't need to Excavate there. Cave cards have a when-played power that you can now activate.
Entice is how you get Dragons onto your board and is very similar to adding birds in Wingspan. You will pay one coin then the shown cost on the dragon card itself, placing any required resources from your personal supply back into the main supply. The Dragon card will show which of the three rows it can go to, ensure you pick a legal space. Some Dragons have a when-played action, others will show end-of-round or end-of-game abilities, or powers that activate when you explore.
Explore is similar to activating Birds in Wingspan when you carry out certain rows actions. Here, explore is its own specific action. Pay a coin, then take your Adventurer meeple from its position on your player mat, pick one of the three rows you want to explore, and place it on the first Explore icon on that row. Then move your Adventurer right to left, stopping at each Adventure symbol until you see a red hexagon with a white line in the middle. The top row will help you gain resources. The middle is about Dragon cards. The bottom is about Cave cards. As you place more Dragon cards down on each row, this action becomes stronger as your Adventurer can move further right, as the Dragon cards not only bring new Explore powers but block the symbol that shows where you have to stop when Adventuring.
Whenever you see the Dragon Guild symbol, you can move your guild token one space clockwise around the Guild track. You will then take the shown item or resource. Whenever you move to the bottom or top space, you can move a colored cube into one of the boxed spaces on the Guild tile. This will give you an instant or end-of-game bonus. This is the main addition from Wingspan and introduces a lot of new ways to combo turns.
Players will continue placing coins and taking one of these three actions until they run out of coins or choose to stop. Then you will run through the phases shown on the round tracker board.
First, each player will activate all end-of-round Dragon cards they have on their player mat. Then players will score based on that round's objective. Then all Cave cards and Dragon cards on the display board are refreshed, before finally all players getting six new coins and one egg. The next round will then take place. After the end of the fourth round, the player with the most points wins.
Is It Fun? Wyrmspan Board Game Review
If you like Wingspan, you will most probably like this. The game is a little better with the added element, such as the Dragon Guild. But two big things will affect your opinion.
Do you like Dragons more or less than birds?
Are you happy about Wingspan getting this treatment?
A lot of people prefer the real-world nature of Wingspan. Some like the mystical fantasy Wyrmspan brings. Some may not mind at all and just enjoy the enhanced mechanics.
Some are very loyal to Wingspan and find this adapted version hard to accept. Others enjoy the fact that one of the most popular games in the modern-day hobby has a new version and are excited to see how this develops.
If you have some prior knowledge of Wingspan, then let the above affect your opinion.
If you don't like Wingspan, I doubt this will change your mind that much about the mechanics of the game. I think it is a little better myself and see the improvements that have been made. The luck of the dice tower being removed. The control with the Guild being added. Just as two examples. But 90% of the game is the same and if you don't like one, the other won't be that different. Unless of course, it was simply the theme of Wingspan that you did not enjoy. In which case, how do you feel about Dragons?
Another major factor in this will be the art and card layout. Some say it is busy. Others are not fans of the light, airy watercolor style. Personally, I like it. I think it suits the game. The Dragons looked gorgeous in my opinion. And the card layout is very clear. I don't like the lack of space for eggs. When you start adding multiple eggs to the cards, you do block the art somewhat. But this is merely aesthetic. You can keep the important text at the bottom open. But Dragon size and personality matter towards the round objectives. And it is easy for eggs to block these stats. Making it harder for other players to see and track how you are doing on these round goals.
The solo mode is excellent, runs very smoothly, and offers an interesting challenge. In a two-player game, the game flows well and is my ideal number to play this in. Three and up work fine, but there can be some downtime as players start to really combo their turns in the later stages. It can be frustrating to wait when you are eager to carry out a cool turn of your own. Take your own personality into account here!
And on those combos. Oh my! This is where Wingspan really shines. And I have found with my plays of Wyrmspan so far that I have been able to get this working a lot quicker. A lot more effectively. And with a lot more satisfaction. There are fewer card spaces to fill in Wyrmspan compared to Wingspan. Most games you will complete your board, or at least come close. The most empty spaces I have seen at the end of the game so far was four. I would say usually players average two or three empty spaces by the end. More cards mean more powers. And completing rows is easier with one less space per row. The end of row bonus in Wyrmspan gets you another coin, which is an extra turn. In Wingspan, as the game moves on, you will have one less turn per round as you use your turn cubes to track your end of round objective score. In Wyrmspan, you always have the same amount of turns as a minimum each round. But tend to get more as your card powers and end of row bonus kick in. That, for me, is more fun.
The combo options provided by the Hatchling cards alone are worth the entry fee to this game. They work a little differently from the other cards in the game, whereby they increase in power the more often they are activated. Typically maxing out their power on the third activation. There are some pretty clever ways that you will be able to activate these a number of times during each game, providing you with extra cards, resources, and points, that in turn will begin to combo with other cards, creating a cascading effect of combo turns in the mid to late game. It is for this reason that I rate Wyrmspan slightly higher than Wingspan, and I am a fan of Wingspan.
Personally, I much prefer the real-world nature of Wingspan. Learning about the birds as I play is a great joy to me. The made-up nature of Wyrmspan is fine. It's just less interesting. And the attempted world-building in the supplementary Dragon facts booklet is very odd. To avoid cluttering the cards, the information of the Dragons is taken from the card itself and instead, placed into a glossy 32-page booklet. A good idea to keep the cards clean. But utterly pointless because I have zero interest in learning facts about made-up Dragons in a game where the lore is redundant. No harm in the booklet being in the box, but it must add to cost and this game is not the cheapest. I understand why it is in the box, but it seems odd and superfluous to me.
That said, if you judge Wyrmspan on its own, it is a very good game. But no one will do that. It will always be judged against Wingspan. And I suppose rightly so. It just adds to me why this happens so much more for games like that, over the multiple versions of Ticket to Ride and Pandemic that we see that seem to bother no one. But even when judging against Wingspan, Wyrmspan is still very good. A little better. So, the one to get if you only buy one and are not judging on theme. But do you need both? Well, that's up to you. For me, I do as I am a completist and own every Stonemaier game to date. But would I buy this on its own merits even if I was not such a Stonemaier fanboy and already owned Wingspan? Yes. I like the options both bring and how I can bring either out based on who I am playing with. But if I only planned to play solo, had to pick just one, or was judging this based on which one was the best game, Wyrmspan wins for me every day of the week.