Stonemaier Games has just announced Wingspan Pocket, the mini card-based version of Wingspan hinted at several months ago.
In this light 1–5 player game, players build up a single row of birds known as the ‘flock’ (kind of like a single habitat within its older sibling), and the game ends when someone has 6 birds in front of them. The cards (which are not compatible with Wingspan) are double-sided: one side shows the bird and its ability, while the reverse shows 1 or more food icons—when you draw a card, you choose if it is a bird or acts as food for other birds, essential combining 3 components of the bigger game (cards, food tokens and the dice) into just 1. The game’s designer Elizabeth Hargrave has said this multi-use cards mechanism took some inspiration from Point Salad.
In more detail, players are dealt 6 cards to begin with, 2 of which are kept in your ‘reserve’ bird side up and the others food side up, and the remainder are split into 4 draw decks, food side up; then the top cards of each deck are placed bird side up alongside. When you choose a card, you can take one of the 4 birds or one of the 4 foods, with the bird row being replenished at the end of a player’s turn. Once taken, the cards cannot be turned over: they remain either as food or a bird.
Turns have two parts—first, perform one of: playing a card from your reserve into the flock area (paying its cost in eggs and/or food), drawing 2 cards into your reserve, or laying up to 3 eggs; then activate your flock (from left to right—the opposite of Wingspan). Those initial actions are illustrated on a ‘nest’ card, alongside which you build up your flock. On that note, the game’s components are fairly minimal: the cards, the nest card, eggs (of course!), a feather token to remind you where you are when activating your flock, and optional goal cards; there are also automa cards for solo play.
Bird abilities are generally similar to those in Wingspan (taking food, laying eggs, tucking cards, and so on), though with the addition of on-going powers, which are kind of like levelling up your flock, e.g., being able to treat a particular type of food as a wildcard for the rest of the game, or ignoring some costs. Artwork is by Ana Maria Martinez Jaramillo and Natalia Rojas, which is not surprising since the 106 bird images are the same as those from Wingspan and its expansions (as well as a few African ones which will be coming in a future Wingspan expansion).
Overall, this is a pretty game, suitable for people who find full Wingspan a bit complex (though I imagine that after a few games of this, they’ll be more willing to give Wingspan a go). It’s also good for getting a quick *span fix on the go, where the full game just wouldn’t be feasible.
You can find more information on the Stonemaier Games site, including the rulebooks.
