Wingspan Pocket, a new spin-off of Elizabeth Hargrave’s iconic bird board game, was revealed on July 1. Publisher Stonemaier Games says the compact box “is accessible to novice players yet also more compelling for more experienced gamers”. “Wingspan Pocket distills the Wingspan experience down to a lighter, shorter, card-driven game that has each player activate a single row of cards on each of their turns”.
Hargrave says in a Stonemaier YouTube video (see below) that Wingspan Pocket was partly inspired by repeat requests she’d had for an easier, more accessible version of Wingspan. Wingspan is one of the best board games in recent history, but some fans wanted a version they could play with children or on the go.
This is a small, standalone version that plays in less than 40 minutes. Bird cards are now double-sided, with food on their opposite side. Some also come with a new type of benefit, the green ongoing benefit.
Birds are played into your Flock and resolved from left to right each turn. When someone plays their sixth bird, everyone scores points based on their birds, eggs, tucked cards, and goals.
Wingspan Pocket features 106 birds from around the world. Many of these appear in previous Wingspan expansions, but Hargrave says their abilities have been modified to keep the new game balanced. Since this is a standalone game, there’s no mixing and matching with existing Wingspan cards.
Wingspan Pocket will be available from Stonemaier from July 15. If you’d like to talk more about the latest board game releases, we’re always up for a chat in the Wargamer Discord.
Source: Wargamer
