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In this guide
Wingspan is a competitive, card-driven engine builder from designer Elizabeth Hargrave, illustrated by Natalia Rojas and Ana Maria Martinez Jaramillo, and published by Stonemaier Games. Each player runs a wildlife preserve with three habitats, plays bird cards into those rows, and uses the habitat actions to gather food, lay eggs and draw more birds. The game runs four rounds with a shrinking number of actions per round, and the highest total from birds, eggs, bonus cards and round goals wins. It took the Kennerspiel des Jahres in 2019 and has since spawned four regional expansions, a pocket version and a digital port.
This piece covers the base game only, as sold on Stonemaier's US webstore for $55 with a $65 crossed-out regular price, SKU STM910. The publisher states that this printing is the current version and includes the swift-start pack, a guided first game. The Exploding Kittens Original tin already reviewed on this site sells for $19.99, so Wingspan sits at nearly three times that outlay; the two are different kinds of purchase, and the comparison is only useful for setting a budget.
Our verdict
Wingspan is the safest $55 in hobby board games for a household that likes quiet, puzzle-like play and will get the box to the table more than a handful of times. The current printing includes the swift-start pack and an Automa solo deck, so one purchase covers group nights and solo evenings.
- A good fit for
- Groups of two, three or four adults or teens who enjoy building a small engine over four rounds, solo players who want a competent automated opponent, and gift buyers who need something that looks good on a shelf and still gets played.
- We would skip it if
- You want a loud, fast party game, you play mostly with five people and short attention spans, or your group already owns Terraforming Mars and plays it every week and wants something structurally different.
Reasons to consider it
- Component count is generous for the price: 170 unique bird cards, 75 egg miniatures, 103 food tokens, custom wooden dice and a birdfeeder dice tower are all in the base box
- Stonemaier's Purchase Promise covers free replacement parts through an online form, plus a 20-day price guarantee and rules help in its forums
- Plays from one to five with the Automa deck included, so the solo mode is not an add-on
The compromises
- The publisher lists 40 to 70 minutes on the store page and 40 to 90 in the description; a first game with new players lands at the long end
- English-language product only when bought direct from Stonemaier; other languages go through separate localization partners
- The store page and the publisher's game page disagree on the insert (Game Trayz tray versus eco-friendly food and egg trays), so the exact storage solution in your copy may vary by printing
What we have not verified: Stonemaier does not print a recommended minimum age on either its store page or its game page, so the age figure is not established here from the publisher. Interaction between players is light, which some groups read as relaxing and others as solitaire.
The things in this guide
A closer look at the products, who they may suit, and what to check before buying.
Wingspan (base game, current printing with swift-start pack)
Stonemaier's own store carries the version with the swift-start pack, charges $10 flat for US shipping, and backs the copy with its free replacement parts form. At $55 it is also below the $65 regular price as this was written.
Before you buy: The publisher caps orders at four copies and ships from its US fulfillment center within about a week, so it is not a same-week gift solution.
Price checked September 11, 2026. Retailer prices can change.What is in the box
The store page itemizes the contents: 170 unique bird cards and 26 bonus cards at 57 by 87 mm, 16 Automa cards for solo play, 103 food tokens, 75 egg miniatures, five custom wooden dice, five player mats, one birdfeeder dice tower, a goal mat with eight goal tiles, a first-player token, 40 action cubes (eight per player), a 50-sheet scorepad and three rulebooks covering the core rules, the Automa and an appendix. The publisher's game page adds that the swift-start teaching guide brings ten more unique bird cards and that each player mat measures 400 by 280 mm.
One inconsistency is worth flagging. The store page lists a two-piece Game Trayz custom tray, while the game page lists two eco-friendly food and egg trays and points to sealable containers as an optional upgrade. Both pages describe the same $55 product, so the insert appears to have changed between printings. The publisher gives the box as 30 by 30 by 7 cm and 2.4 kg, and the Shopify variant record carries the same 2.4 kg shipping weight, which matches a full-size square box, not a compact one.
How it plays and how long it takes
Every turn is one of four actions: play a bird into a habitat by paying its food and egg cost, gain food from the dice in the birdfeeder tower, lay eggs on your birds, or draw bird cards. Each action also triggers the brown powers of birds already sitting in that row, so a forest full of food-gathering birds turns the gain-food action into a small combo. Round goals and private bonus cards push you toward particular habitats or bird types, and the action count drops from eight in round one to five in round four, which forces you to stop building and start scoring.
Stonemaier lists 1 to 5 players, a 5-minute setup and a game length of 40 to 70 minutes in the spec block on its store page, while the body text on the same page says 40 to 90 minutes. The longer figure is the one to budget for with newcomers, because the card powers are read aloud and checked. The swift-start pack included in this printing walks a first table through a scripted opening, which is the publisher's answer to that learning curve. The company rates the game as medium weight on its own scale.
Player count and the solo mode
The 16-card Automa deck is part of the base box, not an expansion, and it comes with its own rulebook. The Automa takes a simplified turn each round and competes for round goals and end-game points, so solo play uses the same board and the same scoring rather than a beat-your-own-score puzzle. For a player who lives alone or has a partner who is not interested, that is what separates a game that gets played from one that waits for guests.
At the top end, five players share one birdfeeder and one bonus-card deck, and each player's turns are independent enough that downtime grows in a straight line with the head count. The action-cube system means a five-player game still lasts the same four rounds, but with more table space taken by five 400 by 280 mm mats plus the goal mat. Two and three feel like the intended count; five is supported but slower.
Buying direct, shipping and replacement parts
Stonemaier's US store charges a flat $10 for US shipping, waives it on orders over $125 (or $100 for members of its paid Champion program, who also get 20 percent off webstore orders), and says orders ship within one week outside of launch and holiday periods. The store page limits Wingspan to four copies per order. There is also a pickup option at two Miniature Market locations in the St. Louis area. The refund policy is a single line asking buyers to email quickly if an order was placed in error, so casual returns are not part of how this store operates.
The Purchase Promise printed beside the price has three parts: a 20-day price guarantee, free replacement parts and rule support in the publisher's forums. The replacement-parts page directs owners of English-language copies to an online request form and asks that you empty every inner bag before reporting something missing. It also sets expectations: the company says it will answer every request but asks for understanding on tokens whose absence does not affect play, and it no longer ships spares directly to Mexico, South America, the Middle East or Africa. A dented box is treated as a whole-game swap that requires sending the original back with a prepaid label.
When to skip it
Skip Wingspan if your group wants direct conflict or table talk. The design has almost no take-that; the closest thing to interaction is racing for a round goal or a bird another player wanted from the display. Players who enjoy Terraforming Mars for its engine may like it, as the publisher itself suggests, but players who enjoy that game for its trading and blocking will find Wingspan quiet to the point of feeling solitary. It also suits a table badly that needs a game under 30 minutes, since even experienced groups sit closer to the 40-minute floor than below it.
Two smaller reasons to hold off: language and space. Stonemaier's own store sells an English-language product and points other languages to 27 localization partners, so a household that reads primarily in another language should buy from that partner instead. The 30 by 30 cm box, five mats, a goal mat and a dice tower need a dining table, not a coffee table. And if the appeal is mainly the art or the theme, Stonemaier sells Wingspan puzzles and a $20 Wingspan Pocket card game that get there for much less than $55.
How we put this together
Built from the product pages and listings below, without test scores or results we have not measured. Specifications and prices change, so check the original page for the exact model, current price, delivery, and returns.
- Stonemaier Games webstore: Wingspan product page (opens in a new tab)
- Stonemaier Games: Wingspan game page (opens in a new tab)
- Stonemaier Games: Replacement Parts (opens in a new tab)
- Stonemaier Games webstore: Shipping Information (opens in a new tab)
- Stonemaier Games webstore: Wingspan product JSON (opens in a new tab)
