Wingspan Oceania Expansion Review

Wingspan was one of our favourite games in 2020, and for good reason – it’s incredibly addictive, can be played again and again without seeing the same birds and elements in play, and is easy to teach to new players.

We have written extensively on how to play Wingspan and even done an in-depth review. You can also check our our thoughts on the first, European Birds expansion. While some of the how-to-play elements will be repeated in this article, we do suggest you read our how to play guide so you understand the basics before proceeding. Beside the game if you are a real bird enthusiast , help birds by buying real hummingbird feeders.

New Setup Instructions

Setting up the Oceania Expansion is similar to the original game, with a few key changes. First, replace the original Wingspan player boards with the ones included in your Oceania expansion. For those asking, we can confirm that the new boards do work with the original game as well, in case you opt in the future to play without expansions.

Next, replace the food dice from the birdfeeder with the new food dice included in the expansion, as these will have slightly different symbols to reflect the new food option, nectar. Finally, add the nectar food tokens to the supply, and the brand new yellow eggs to the rest of your egg collection, noting again that the colour is purely for aesthetics reasons, and does not matter for gameplay purposes. Mix the new goal tokens into the pile of unviersal goal tiles, replace the old turn-order guide with the new one, and you are ready to go.

Players follow the same process of selecting birds and food tokens to begin the game, but do not add in the nectar tokens until all players have selected their birds. Than give each player one nectar food token, and the game begins. While we have written out some of the additions below, we always recommend Watch It Played:

What’s Changed in Oceania?

The game follows the original process. Cards from the new expansion, as well as the original game and European Birds set can all be mixed together. Here are the changes to be aware of going forward:

• New column actions have been added in the forest and wetlands (columns 2 and 4) allowing you to spend one food token to replace all the dice in the birdfeeder. Another action allows you to pay a single food token and replace all three birds as well.
• Nectar resources are like a wild card – they can represent any of the other food types when paying costs. When paying with nectar – regardless if you are required to use nectar or are simply using it as a wild food – the nectar is stores on your player board and is worth points at the end of the game, based on whether you have the most or second most in each habitat. It is important to note that nectar cannot be used to satisfying specific bird powers, like when a bird of prey looks to see how many rodents are in the bird feeder. In this situation, only rodents count. There are a few additional rules to remember here, so consult your rulebook for detailed explanations.
• The game now has somewhat of a wild bird card in the form of wingless birds. Whenever you are satisfying a bird power that asks you to look at a birds wingspan, wingless birds – noted by the * in the wingspan area of the card – will always count.
• There are brand new Game End bird cards which can score you lots of points if played properly!

Is It Worth It?

When we reviewed the European Birds expansion, we ultimately said that expansion was just, “more birds.” The Oceania Expansion takes that one step further. Yes, the game does add more birds from the Oceania region, which is fantastic, but also introduces new gameplay elements that actually correct some of the issues we had with the original game. The biggest upgrades here, in my opinion, is that there are now more ways – and easier ways – to replace the dice and birds form the feeder and bird stockpile.

But at the core – we are again talking about more birds, and more birds is always a good thing when you are talking about Wingspan. These birds also provides brand new unique bird powers that utilize the games new gameplay additions.

Right now, the addition of Oceania to the original experience turns the original title into the definitive version of Wingspan. The original version was great. This one is outstanding.