Are you in love with Wingspan, but hesitant to venture out of your comfort zone? That’s OK! There are many games that give the same feel or have the same light-hearted theme as Wingspan. Wingspan is easily one of the most popular modern board games released in the last decade.
In the four years it has been on shelves, Wingspan has sold over 2.5 million copies. Besides being aesthetically pleasing, Wingspan captures players' attention by giving them a satisfying mix of playing cards that trigger actions to meet goals and resource management. For some people, Wingspan is their game, and they are nervous about trying other modern board games. If you want to try a new board game similar to Wingspan, check out these games.
Dog Park
Become A Dog Expert
Dog Park is a game about taking dogs on walks and gathering resources like sticks, balls, toys and treats. Players use resources to recruit more dogs and earn reputation points. The player with the most reputation points at the end of the game wins.
Dog Park has the same lovely, relaxed feel that Wingspan has, and is all about recruiting dogs and walking them through a park to collect resources. Players first bid reputation points to secure the dog cards they want and then put them in their kennel. When taking the dogs for a “walk”, the dogs trigger effects that include anything from gaining additional resources to moving up on the reputation track. The game has the cute factor as well as intuitive card play that Wingspan does.
Wyrmspan: A Wingspan Game
Excavate, Entice, and Explore
Wyrmspan is a game about excavating caves and enticing dragons to dwell in them. It is an engine-building game in the same vein as Wingspan.
Wyrmspan should be an immediate buy for those who love Wingspan. The company basically tweaked the base gameplay of Wingspan and replaced the birds with dragons. The game even comes with a booklet of dragon lore. However, it is not a carbon copy of the game.
Instead of relying on the luck of the dice to gain resources, which in this game are gold, milk, amethysts, and meat, players play cave cards or move along a dragon guild track to earn them. This takes a big chunk of luck out of the game. Seriously, get this game first if you love Wingspan (or dragons.)
Creature Comforts
Make Clever Combinations
Creature Comfort is a dice placement game about gathering resources and playing cards to create the most comforting home.
Besides having the cute factor in spades, Creature Comfort features resource management and action selection that are similar to Wingspan. However, in this game, players place dice to trigger what actions or resources they get. Instead of playing animal cards, players spend resources in order to play cards that will “improve” their home and gain them victory points. This may not be an exact match to Wingspan, but it still gives that same comforting feel.
Everdell Standard Edition
Build A Cute Forest Town
Everdell is a worker placement game about gathering resources and building a town with cards. The cards trigger abilities that can be used to complete goals that earn victory points.
Everdell is the game that might have Wingspan fanatics immediately reaching for their wallets. In Everdell, players play as woodland creatures with the goal of building a grid of cards in front of them that trigger actions in different “seasons” of the game. Instead of losing a worker per round, like in Wingspan, players gain a worker with each new season. This gives players more options, and they can keep playing until they decide to advance to the next season. The game doesn’t have dice, and resources are earned by placing workers at different locations.
Meadow
Cute, But A Little Complex
Meadow is nature themed game in which players play cards that build off of each other. The game features a worker placement/action selection mechanism.
While this board game can give similar Wingspan vibes, you will definitely want to try some of the other games on this list first before jumping to this game. Meadow is a gorgeous game and has fantastic intuitive card play mechanisms as well as a worker placement element. But it can also feel a little overwhelming due to the amount of choices the game gives players. This can cause analysis paralysis for people when they are trying to plan their turns. But don’t let that scare you. It is a fantastic game and scratches the Wingspan itch.
Earth
Engine Building Deliciousness
Earth is an engine building game that allows players to create synergies with nature-themed cards.
Even though Earth doesn’t have a cutesy theme, it definitely leans into the nature theme. As players lay down cards into a grid, they select actions that not only trigger effects on their own tableau of cards, but other players' cards as well, similar to Wingspan. This can include putting cards into compost by placing them face down and are worth 1 victory point per card, just like the tucked cards under birds. The goal cards also change from game to game, which is also like Wingspan.
FAQ
What makes Wingspan so popular?
For most people, Wingspan is attractive because it has a relatable theme of birds and it makes sense that certain birds only live in certain habitats and eat certain foods. Some games just click better with a wider audience.
