While time has been at a premium lately, we had to make time to table the latest addition to the Wingspan birdiverse: Wingspan: Americas. Wingspan is a favorite in our household. We love the bird theme, we love the art and flavor text, and the game remains fun and replayable after years of play. It’s one of our most-played games of all time. Check out our review following the table to see if Wingspan: Americas might be a good fit for your game collection.
| Player Count | 1-5 | Age Range | 14+ |
| Time to Play | ~75-90 minutes | Setup Time | ~10 minutes |
| Mechanics | Engine Building, Hand Management, Point Tracks, Tableau Building | Vibe | beautiful, thoughtful, scientific, cozy, competitive |
| Designer/ Developer | Elizabeth Hargrave | Publisher | Stonemaier Games |
| Illustrator | Martha Clare, Ana Maria Martinez Jaramillo, Natalia Rojas | Graphic Designer | Christine Santana, Karel Titeca |
| Table Space Needed | ~32" x 40" | # of Cats Fit in Box Lid | 1 small cat |
| Component/ Production Quality | High | Rule Book Quality | High |
| Box Quality | High | Storage Design | Medium |
| Theme Quality | High | Graphic Design Quality | High |
| Interactivity Level | Medium | Hostility Factor | Low |
| Complexity/ Strategy | Medium | Replayability | High |
| Originality | 8 | BGM Rating/ Recommendation | 9/Recommended |
So What’s New in Wingspan: Americas?
The latest expansion introduces a deck of 40 hummingbird cards that players can attract to a new section of their habitat boards by drafting them from the hummingbird garden board.
When players trigger effects in one of their 3 habitat rows that happens to contain a hummingbird, the hummingbird will give them one of 5 different abilities. New abilities include getting an egg, food, or card, or advancing a token on their hummingbird track.
“What is this ‘hummingbird track,’?” I can hear you asking. Well, it is the new mechanism that is going to inflate your scores to new heights and give you happy feelings in your belly.
Each hummingbird card belongs to a “suit” that is based on actual scientific taxonomical groups—because it wouldn’t be Wingspan without the scientific accuracy that earns this series such respectability. Returning a hummingbird to the hummingbird garden board will move the token matching its suit up the player’s hummingbird track. Don’t ignore any suits if you don’t want to lose points—meanwhile if you go all-in on a couple of suits, vast points riches await!
What’s Included in the Americas Expansion?
The Americas expansion is both a more-stuff expansion and a new-mechanism expansion with the new hummingbird track. With new goals, new bonus cards, gorgeous new bird cards in addition to the hummingbird deck, we were able to play with only the new stuff—no cards or goals from the base game were used. We thought that would give us the best feel for the expansion.
Americas also comes with shiny new green eggs and nectar tokens, although more eggs than are provided with the expansion will be necessary to play the game. It also includes a card tray that will hold both the new bird cards and the smaller-sized hummingbird cards, which is a nice touch for an expansion.
How Is Component Quality?
Quality is the same as usual, which is to say: high. Resilient cards, wood eggs and tokens, chipboard hummingbird mat and hummingbird tracks. Really good stuff. First player token is nothing special, but I never use them anyway so its quality is of low importance (to me).
Integration with Previous Wingspan Expansions
It would be premature for us to comment on how well Americas integrates with all previous expansions since we have so far only played Americas with the base game. However, we have played all other expansions (see our Wingspan: Asia review) so we have an idea of how they would play together.
Americas utilizes the nectar-as-wild-food mechanism that was introduced in the Oceania expansion, though Americas comes with additional nectar tokens, so having Oceania is not required. The alternative playmats that were also introduced in Oceania could be used with Americas based on preference, but are not required. Yellow, blue, and pink bird card powers that were added in previous expansions are all present, in addition to the original white and brown powers. So, as with previous expansions, players should feel free to mix and match bird cards from any or all expansions plus the base game (see our short reviews of Wingspan: Europe and Wingspan: Oceania).
How Fun Is Wingspan: Americas?
I had high expectations given how much I have enjoyed all the previous expansions… but at the same time, I was skeptical that the franchise could maintain the quality of previous offerings. I mean, how often does sequel number 4 hit the mark?
But Elizabeth Hargrave and the development crew at Stonemaier Games have delivered on new and engaging ways to expand Wingspan yet again, as have the amazing scientific rendering artists, Ana Maria Martinez Jaramillo and Natalia Rojas. New to the art team this time is Martha Clare, and the art quality is as high as ever.
Wingspan: Americas is yet another excellent addition to the Wingspan birdaverse, comparable in quality to those that came before it. It was easy to pick up and learn, thankfully, and we are looking forward to playing again.
Where to Buy
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