Board Games
How to play Wingspan
Build bird habitats that produce food, eggs and cards while scoring birds, bonuses and four round goals.
What you need
Base mats, bird/bonus cards, food, eggs, feeder dice, cubes, goals and score pad
Set up the game
- Take five birds, two bonuses and one food of each type. Keep one bonus; discard one food per bird kept. Set feeder, three faceup birds and four goals.
- Start with eight cubes. Choose the green or blue goal-scoring side.
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Playing Wingspan
- Spend a cube on one action: play a bird, gain food, lay eggs or draw cards. Use the leftmost uncovered action space in that row.
- A bird needs its food, column egg cost and a valid habitat. Resolve when-played text. Two food may substitute for one required food.
- Food, egg and draw actions gain their printed benefit, then optionally activate that row’s brown powers right to left. Respect egg capacities. Pink powers use their trigger once between your own turns. For the card-draw action, choose visible birds or facedown draws; refill the display at turn end.
- After all cubes are used, score the goal and leave one cube on the goal board. Later rounds have seven, six and five actions. Refresh display and pass first player.
- After four rounds add birds, bonuses, goals and one each for eggs, cached food and tucked cards. Highest wins, then unused food; remaining ties shared.
Playing is not activating
You pay to place a forest bird with a brown power. It does not trigger the whole forest. Its brown effect becomes available on a later forest food action; only a separate when-played instruction resolves immediately.
Make feeder choices visible
Select dice one at a time. If all remaining feeder dice have the same face, including a lone die, you may reroll before a selection. Do not take several imagined foods from one die. Keep removed dice alongside the feeder until the food action ends.
Look at action density
Birds can improve the basic habitat action as well as add powers. Filling a row with unrelated powers may look busy while producing little of what your next bird needs. Consider what a single future activation will accomplish, and whether you can repeatedly use that combination before the final round.
Beginner decisions
- An early habitat improvement may trigger many times; a late bird has fewer activations. Compare remaining uses against a simpler points action.
- Choose visible birds solving a real problem. A hand of interesting but unaffordable birds can consume turns without improving the mat.
Common rule mix-ups
- Activating every brown bird after one action.
- Scoring all loose food tokens as points.
Questions about this game
Can eggs go outside grasslands?
Yes, onto any bird with capacity.
Must brown powers trigger?
No. You may decline them.
Sources and edition notes
Original base-game mats, competitive rules; no nectar, duet or expansion-only powers. Solo Automa differs.
Sources and stated format checked October 14, 2026. This records a document check, not a claim of hands-on testing.
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