Wingspan

March 13, 2019 12:50 PM

How Elizabeth Hargrave turned a passion for ornithology and spreadsheets into a popular game about birds. By Siobhan Roberts at NY Times.
posted by bq (11 comments total)

I had a chance to play this at a recent boardgame meet up. It's really good! And you learn stuff! And you have bird cards that go eat other birds, but only if they have a small enough wingspan (you can't eat a turkey, you crazy raptor!)

Also the components are the most insanely over-produced I've ever seen. I have received wedding invites on significantly lower quality paper stock than is used for the rulebook.
posted by tocts at 12:58 PM on March 13, 2019 [5 favorites]

A bunch of friends and I are birdwatchers plus we play games once in a while. Unfortunately, we knew nothing about the game until we saw the article. It looks like we won’t be able to get it for a few more months, so we won’t be getting a chance to play very soon. On the other hand, migration season is about to begin here, so we wouldn’t have time until summer anyway.
posted by AMyNameIs at 1:26 PM on March 13, 2019

8.3 on Boardgame Geek, which is quite high.
posted by Nelson at 1:27 PM on March 13, 2019

I hadn't heard of this but wow, now I want to play. It sounds like it really falls into a sweet spot for us.
posted by LobsterMitten at 1:54 PM on March 13, 2019

Shades of endless rainy summer holidays playing the RSPB's Conservation game.

(and in other birb news,
.
for Fair Isle bird observatory, burned down on the weekend.)
posted by scruss at 2:34 PM on March 13, 2019

This is relevant to my interests. Also for those who have a Tabletopia subscription, you can play it online (solo against AI or with 2-5 people). Or you can just check out the rules for free to whet your appetite.
posted by sysinfo at 5:03 PM on March 13, 2019

I'll likely get to play this at a con I go to in the summer. Good games combined with neat themes are awesome.
posted by Windopaene at 9:51 PM on March 13, 2019

Oooh, this would be perfect if it's translated to Norwegian so I could play it with the kids.
posted by Harald74 at 2:00 AM on March 14, 2019

Just ordered the dutch version based on this article :-) I hope the first expansion includes european/asian birds.
posted by Pendragon at 3:35 AM on March 14, 2019

For those into board game reviews culture: No Pun Included have done a video review, and Shut Up & Sit Down talked about it recently on their podcast.
posted by fire, water, earth, air at 5:01 AM on March 14, 2019

*grabby hands talons*
posted by carrioncomfort at 6:16 AM on March 14, 2019 [1 favorite]