Our favorite Wingspan expansion?

🐦 Wingspan probably needs no introduction. This game has a huge fan base, and it’s currently sitting at 25th place on BGG. 😮 But what is Wingspan Asia about you might ask? 🤔 One could think it is just another infusion of new cards similar to the European and Oceania expansion, but not exactly.

It is actually a standalone version of the game for 1-2 players 🧑‍🤝‍🧑, though you could also add the cards to the base game and play normally that way. There is also a so-called “Flock mode” included, which is a way to play the base game with 6-7 players: this is basically a marker that will speed up games by always pointing to 2 players that can play simultaneously. To be honest I cannot imagine playing at this player count, but it’s a nice plus.

The meat of this box however is the Duet mode! ☯️ You won’t just play the normal game with fewer components, but have an additional Duet board to involve in your strategy! Any time you play a new bird to your tableau, you get to place down one of your Duet tokens. It has to go on a color matching the habitat, and on a space with an attribute that is present on the bird card - e.g. their nest type or preferred food. ☝️Your goal is to have as many of your Duet tokens in a contiguous group as possible, as the biggest group will earn you bonus points - of course your opponent is doing the same, so your secondary goal is to block good placement opportunities. 😈

The only problem with the Duet board is the same thing that you might encounter in games due to bonus cards or your general strategy: card draw randomness. 🃏 You might need a forest bird that eats worms to connect two groups of your duet tokens for big profit, but if there is none in the display and you don’t have access to lots of card draw, then tough luck.

💬I think if you are playing the game at 2p, this is a strictly better way to do so. The Duet board adds a fun new layer to the game. However if you aren’t a fan of Wingspan, this won’t be enough to change your mind.