Wingspan Asia – Stonemaier Games

Wingspan Asia

Wingspan Asia

  • Designer Elizabeth Hargrave
  • Artists Natalia Rojas and Ana Maria Martinez Jaramillo

This third expansion to Wingspan focuses on birds in Asia.

Expansion
40-70 mins Game Length
5 mins Setup Time
(with base game)
1-7 Players
Medium Game Weight
Stonemaier Champion

Become a Stonemaier Champion to save 20% on every webstore order.

In this third expansion to Wingspan, we welcome new species to our habitats by exploring the vibrant, intriguing, and magnificent birds of Asia. These birds were chosen from the over 2,800 species that live in Asia.

Wingspan Asia is several different things: A stand-alone game for 1 player or 2 players (Duet mode that can be used with any bird/bonus cards), a card expansion to the original Wingspan (any bird/bonus cards across any Wingspan game or expansion can be combined), and a 6-7 player expansion via the new Flock mode (for which the player components from the core game are necessary).

We welcome speculation and discussion about Wingspan Asia on our website, in the Wingspan Facebook group, and on BoardGameGeek.

Components

  • 2 rulebooks (multiplayer and Automa)
  • 1 appendix
  • 2 player mats (double-sided with standard and Oceania sides)
  • 16 action cubes (8 in each color)
  • Duet mode (2 players): 1 duet map, 6 goal tiles, 30 duet tokens, and 2 swift-start guides
  • Flock mode (6-7 players): 1 turn-order dial, 1 round-end goal board
  • Automa (solo mode)
  • 81 food tokens
  • 30 egg tokens (wooden)
  • 5 food dice
  • 1 birdfeeder board
  • 1 bird tray
  • 1 first-player token
  • 1 scorepad (custom printable scoresheets available here)
  • 1 box (296x215x40mm; 1.2 kg)
  • 90 bird cards (57x87mm)
  • 14 bonus cards (57x87mm)
  • 18 Automa cards (57x87mm)

Media

Release Details: Wingspan Asia was available for preorder from Stonemaier Games as of November 2, 2022, followed by preorder fulfillment throughout November from fulfillment centers in the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia. The retail release followed in December (Dec 2 for local retailers and Dec 9 for online retailers). Wingspan Asia is available on Tabletopia.

Product Details: The SKU for Wingspan Asia is STM906.

UpdatesSee this first-printing fulfillment update (November 14).

Localization: The following partners offer Wingspan Asia in their language; the exact release times for these partners is up to them (feel free to ask them directly). Grok (BR Portuguese), Surfin Meeple (Chinese), Mindok (Czech), Regatul Jocurilor (Romanian), Rebel (Polish), Igromag/Tower Rex (Ukrainian), Matagot (French), Arclight (Japanese), Maldito (Spanish), Kaissa (Greek), Ghenos (Italian), Feuerland (German), Korea Board Games (Korean), 999 Games (Dutch).

Donation: For every preorder launch notification request we received for Wingspan Asia, Stonemaier Games donated $1 to charitable organizations that benefit birds in Asia. We split the donation total of $13,130 equally among BirdLife International, Animals Asia, Flight, and the International Crane Foundation.

FAQ: Gameplay Questions

How do you get the first fish on the Great Cormorant?

The Great Cormorant’s ability reads, “You may move 1 fish from this bird to your supply. Then, roll any 2 dice. If any are fish, cache 1 fish on this bird from the supply.” So how do you get the first fish on this bird? The first time you use the Cormorant, you ignore the first clause and skip right to rolling 2 dice (that clause doesn’t apply to you until you have a fish on the bird). After that, hopefully you’ll have a fish on the bird to consider moving to your supply; if not, continue to skip to rolling 2 dice when activated.

When taking a bonus from the duet map, do you take the food from the birdfeeder? What about the card?

The bonus on the duet map is a “food die” icon. That means you take an available food from the birdfeeder, removing the die as usual. And the card is a normal “draw card” effect, which means you can draw from the tray or deck.

How many tokens can be placed in the reset box of the duet map?

Each space of the duet map can only have one token from each player, but the “reset box” is different. It can have an unlimited number of tokens from either player.

Can you mix the duet end-round goals with the normal end-round goals?

Asia’s end-round goals are only for playing in duet mode (2-player). But as an unofficial variant, when playing with duet mode, you can mix the duet end-round goals and the normal end-round goals. This will de-emphasize the duet map tokens, but it is an option.

Wingspan Asia introduces more opportunities for birds to cache [wild] foods. Does that mean I can cache nectar? Does the nectar get cached on the bird or placed in the “spent nectar” spot of the player board?

If you’re playing with nectar from the Oceania expansion, yes, you can cache nectar when a bird allows you to cache [wild] food. Because a single nectar cannot be in two places at once, the cached nectar remains on the bird. It does not get placed on the “spent nectar” spot of your player mat. Cached nectar does not get discarded at the end of the round.

The Anatomist bonus card has a different point value than the base game’s. Is this true?

That is correct. Play the card as it’s printed. If you have both cards, I’d recommend using the card with the updated word list.

FAQ: General Questions

My cards have a strong odor. Is this normal?

We’ve heard some reports of the varnish coating on the first printing of Wingspan Asia’s cards presenting a strong smell. This is because the cards were not aired out enough before being shrink-wrapped at the factory. The chemicals and resulting odor are completely non-toxic, and the smell should dissipate within days or so, especially if laid out in a single layer in a ventilated room. If you’ve tried that and continue to have issues, please fill out the replacement parts form.

Does the expansion fit in the original Wingspan box?

The Asia expansion components can fit tightly into the original box…if you don’t have any other expansions. We’re creating a Nesting Box solution to hold all official Wingspan components, and the Nesting Box easily fits the components found in Wingspan Asia (player mats and the duet map on the top layer, followed by cards and tiles in the middle layer, and duet tokens in the bottom layer).

Is this expansion balanced if I mix and match various components with the core game and other expansions?

You can mix and match as you wish. The various mixes are balanced (including bonus card percentages, within a percentage point or so).

Can I play this expansion without other expansions?

Absolutely. We don’t make any expansions that depend on other expansions.

Will this expansion include any components (i.e., new player mats) that invalidate previous components, expansions, or accessories?

We don’t release new products that invalidate old products. It’s entirely possible that we will someday (sooner or later) release components that add to the game or are used when playing with a specific configuration, but they will not invalidate the utility of previously released components, expansions, or accessories.

Can you explain the compatibility of the Duet mode?

The Duet mode is competitive (we used the term “duet” because birds like to sing), and you can use any bird cards and any bonus cards for it. Whenever you play a 2-player game of Wingspan, you can play with or without the Duet mode—it’s your choice.

What’s up with the Historian bonus card and no birds with the names of people in their names?

If you mix this expansion with the base game, you’ll probably want to leave out the base game’s Historian card: There are no birds named after people in this expansion.

There is a growing movement to change English common bird names that are based on people’s names—the birds that would qualify for the Historian card. The collectors, explorers, funders, and friends memorialized in birds’ common names are almost always North Americans and Europeans, no matter where the birds are from. Worse, some of those people had unsavory histories in addition to (or as part of) their ornithological exploits. As I was putting this expansion together, I wasn’t excited about many of my options for birds named after people. I decided not to force them to be included just to make the distribution of cards work for the Historian card. —Elizabeth Hargrave.

Why should I preorder from Stonemaier Games instead of waiting a few months for the retail release?

We offer delivery much earlier than the retail release date (shipped from a fulfillment center in the US, Canada, Europe, or Australia) and a guarantee that you’ll actually get a first-run copy in a timely manner, as we only sell products we actually have in stock. We will offer a special preorder price. We also support anyone’s choice to order from their retailer of choice on the retail release day.

Can I buy all Wingspan stuff all at once?

Absolutely! All Wingspan products are available on our webstore, so you can buy anything and everything you’re interested in. Here’s a bundle for your convenience. You’ll receive an additional 20% discount if you’re a Stonemaier Champion.

Can I buy just the cards?

In the vein of accessibility, we are working on packs of vision-friendly bird cards for release in late 2023, each set available separately for $20-$30. These bird cards will feature only the necessary information for each card—i.e., bigger/bolder mechanical text made possible by omitting flavor text and Latin names (the cards themselves will remain the same size to fit properly on the player mats). The standard format used in the core game and expansions will remain the same; these revisions are only for the vision-friendly bird card packs.

I’m letting you know this because if you really, truly want ONLY the 90 bird cards in Wingspan Asia in a modified vision-friendly format—not the bonus cards, not the consolidated rulebook, not the Appendix, not the red eggs, not the player mats with new art, not the Automa cards, not the Duet map/tokens/tiles, not the Flock mode dial and board, not the extra food tokens, not the scorepad, etc—again, ONLY the 90 bird cards, you will have that option in late 2023 for around $25 plus shipping directly from Stonemaier Games. Or you can get Wingspan Asia from us in a few weeks. In late 2023, you will also be able to by the vision-friendly version of cards from each other Wingspan expansion and core set–each region’s cards will likely cost between $20 and $30, depending on the number of cards in the set.

Which photographers’ work was used as reference material for the birds illustrated by Natalia, Ana, and Catalina?

Ana

  • Omprakash Hatua
  • M.V.Bhaktha
  • Dr.R.Rajasekar
  • Muhammad Mahdi Karim
  • Raghunath Singh
  • Stanislav Harvancik
  • Parag Damle
  • Dubi Shapiro
  • Hospet Karnataka
  • Christoph Moning
  • Kavi Nanda
  • Mukesh Mishra
  • Nikhil Devasar
  • Natthaphat Chotjuckdikul
  • Alvin Francis
  • Людмила Соколова
  • Leoncio Hernandez
  • Abhishek Das
  • Tim Melling
  • Patrick Donini
  • Jainy Kuriakose
  • Kevin Agar
  • Arun Prasad
  • Lars Didricksson
  • John Fielding
  • David Beadle
  • Ben Williams
  • Daniel Glenn
  • Klaus Rueffer

Natalia

  • Hakimuddin F Saify
  • David Lee
  • Stanislav Harvancik
  • Haniel Pulido Jr
  • Gary Spicer
  • Natthaphat Chotjuckdikul
  • Ian Hearn
  • Swapna Nelaballi
  • Mukesh Mishra
  • Nikhil Devasar
  • Lars Peterson
  • Imran Shan
  • @InSpider’sWeb
  • Dubi Shapiro
  • Pradeepkumar Devadoss
  • Viral Patel and Dr Pankaj Maheria
  • Kev Chapman
  • Alan Fieldman
  • Abhishek Das
  • Anne Kurasawa
  • Vishesh Kamboj
  • Abhishek Das

Catalina

  • Kevin B Agar
  • Henry Koh
  • Roger Wasley
  • Dr Amar-Singh HSS

For those who order Wingspan Asia in the Nesting Box and don’t have a Wingspan Asia box, here are the people listed on the box:

Lead Playtesters: Jared Bangs, Miles Bensky, Zaim Hazin Bin Onn, Joshua Calandrillo, Kent Davies, Subhadra Devi, Charles Dionne, Eric Fersten, Vitaliy Fuks, Jennifer Graham-Macht, Jeff Grey, Ossian Hawkes, Kim Kieffer, Nick Korte, Siddhartha Mandal, Rien Moeyaert, Gheorghe Orbesteanu, Uriah Otting, Todd Sattersten, Jen Specht, Jennifer S Stearns, Li-Li Williams, Amber Yanyo

Playtesters: Charles Azuelos, Lindsey Baldwin, Priti Bangal, Emma Bangs, Gray Bangs, Martha Bangs, Riley Bangs, Karen Bell, Jessica Bensky, Leona Bensky, Garima Bhatia, Karen Bingham, Jon Boughtin, Thomas E. Brashear, Daniel Brown, Amy Buckley, Michael Burr, Jason Calandrillo, April-Lyn Caouette, Alexa Cavaseno, James Chang, Matt Cohen, Emily Conrad, Caroline Corcos, Liz Cosharek, Oana Elena Cozmei, Dominic Crapuchettes, Michelle Davies, Eloise Dionne, Kimberly Doremus, Asher Doremus, Lizzy Doremus, Zane Doremus, Cody Doreums, Julia Eckelmann, Nathaniel Endicott, Ryan Ferguson, Samantha Fersten, Rebecca Fletcher, Mittal Gala, John Galietta III, Klara Galperina, Lyndsey Grey, Lindsey Griffith, Chris Gwaltney, Mel Harvey, Beth Hauck, Ned Hawkes, Jane Heeter, Jonathan Heeter, Tyson Hekking, Dan Hinderliter, Andrew Huddleston, Matt Hunt, Rob Johns, Jim Kangas, Michael Kieffer, Daniel Koch, Sarah Korte, Wellington Lee, Chadd Lin, Will Lippincott, Jonathan Lipsey, Tony Lombardo, Seth Losey, Boaz Losey, Kakumyo Lowe-Charde, Nidhi Luharuwalla, Miguel Meñez, Florin Ilarion Miertoiu, Pete Miller, Caleb Mitchell, Mehrab Modi, Daniel A. Nanto, Jessie Nanto, Dillon Nogy, Cate Norkus, Raja Nur Hazirah, Matthew O’Malley, Matthew Otting, Megan Otting, Amanda Pellerin, Ben Petersen, Chris Prayer, Kristen Prayer, Kristen Rahman, Joe Rakstad, Ranjeet Ranade, William Rave, Matt Rine, Jared Roberts, Drew Robinson, Dave Roderer, Dallin Rowley, Kellly Salanski, Stefan Salanski, Justin Schenck, Sally Schoolmaster, Alexandra Schroeder, Kyle Schroeder, Dan Schulke, Carrie Seltzer, Dean Sestak, Stephen Shauger, Brian Stearns, Eric Stevenson, Anne Marie Stringer, Jay Thakkar, ”Timmy”, Sallie Tisdale, Gwen Troullier, Dana Troullier, Eric Tweten, Kaat Verhaegen, David Vestal, Ashwin Vishwanathan, Connie Vogelman, Douglas Ward, Kelley White, Heather Whitpan, Tom Williams, Ethan Yanyo

Lead Automa Playtesters: Kevin Brown, Bill Collins, Tyler McKinnon, John Neeve, Jamie Specht, Darren Wolford

Automa Playtesters: Larry Ambra, Cameron Art, Niles Baranowski, Amy Bills, Joshua Calandrillo, Kimberly Doremus, Rodney Eberly, Colin Evans, Richard Hanks, Mike Hatke, Chris Ingold, jeffs, Ben Julian, Robert Konigsberg, Josh Liss, Jason Martin, Grant Mason, Matt McCue, Jeff McNaughton, Tim Rushby, Jedaiah Schilling, Kassia Schodroski, Jacob Sicinski, Brennan Smith, Kimberly Stout, Mitch Tucker, JanWillem Vink, Chris Voysey, Christopher Yudichak

Proofreaders: Brian Chandler, Dusty Craine, Adam Fischer, Jake Frydman, Inga Keutmann, Dana Rickle, David Studley, Ian Tyrrell, Josh Ward

Design Diary

October 30: Tales from Production

October 14: What’s Next

Before I jump in for the final design diary, I just want to thank everyone who has read along, liked, and commented on these posts. I love composing them, but not in a vacuum—it’s you who make this journey special. I’m grateful for your enthusiasm and curiosity, and I look forward to continuing that journey in the coming days and months.

I’m also truly grateful to designer Elizabeth Hargrave, the Automa Factory, artists Natalia and Ana, photographer Tim Chuon, graphic designer Christine Santana, Panda project manager Shannon Lentz, and all of the playtesters, proofreaders, and team members who helped to bring Wingspan Asia to life.

On October 15 you’ll start to see other content creators talk about what Wingspan Asia is in their own words, followed on October 17 by review content. The Wingspan Asia and Nesting Box preorder is planned to launch on November 2 around 10:00 am Central, with shipping from fulfillment centers in the US, Australia, Canada, and Europe throughout November. These dates are subject to change based on when the products actually arrive at our fulfillment centers. The retail release of Wingspan Asia will be in mid-December (the Nesting Box will only be available from Stonemaier Games and our localization partners).

Also, someday in the future (probably 2024), you will very likely see Wingspan Asia brought to life in digital format via Monster Couch, the company who owns the digital rights to Wingspan. They’ve done a great job with Wingspan and Wingspan European.

For Wingspan Asia, we announced the continent well before the recent full reveal and proceeded to release 1 spoiler card a month (sometimes through our social media and sometimes through others). Did you enjoy that style of reveal? If so, we can do it again in the future.

In the photo on this post you can see the answer to a frequently asked question: The player mats in Wingspan Asia are double sided: One side has the Oceania art and mechanisms; the other side has the standard mechanisms and Asia art.

October 13: The Nesting Box

The Nesting Box, which will be available at the same time as Wingspan Asia in early November, is an organizer/storage box for all Wingspan content and cards (sleeved or unsleeved). This modular box is designed for all past, present, and future Wingspan content.

The first printing of the Nesting Box will contain Wingspan Asia but does not include the Wingspan base game or other expansions.

The first printing of the Nesting Box includes:

  • 1 dual-layered, individually numbered box (430x306x207mm; 4.4 kg)
  • top layer (removable cardboard tray): holds 5 neoprene mats (laid flat), 10 player mats, rulebooks, goal mat
  • middle layer (removable cardboard tray): includes 1 setup tray/lid, 3 food/egg trays, 1 dice tray, 1 card tray (fits sleeved cards), a long slot with separators for cards (fits sleeved cards), and room for the birdfeeder
  • bottom layer: modular space for bird trays, plastic containers, and third-party accessories
  • cardboard dividers for various types of cards from current and future continents
  • 1 cardboard birdfeeder dice tower
  • Wingspan Asia (everything but the box–thanks for making an eco-friendly choice! If you want the box art on your wall, buying this print directly and solely supports illustrators Natalia and Ana)

The first printing of the Nesting Box aligned with production of Wingspan Asia, so we packed the expansion inside the box for those who want to buy both from us at the same time, therefore reducing shipping costs (freight shipping is VERY expensive right now, particularly for big products like this, and it has a direct result on the price of the product). Wingspan Asia will also be available separately for those who don’t want the Nesting Box. When freight shipping costs permit, the box will be available by itself.

This is a very expensive product to make and freight ship, so it will only be available directly from Stonemaier Games and our localization partners (retail availability would require too much of a markup). There is a maximum of 1 Nesting Box per order, as they are prepackaged and will push our shipping size/weight thresholds.

The Nesting Box had very few changes over the last 9 months following a flurry of prototypes and public feedback in 2021, though this summer we faced the challenge of getting the top half of the box to align as best as possible with the bottom half. Due to the paper wrapping process, it’s unlikely that any box will have 100% perfect alignment, but we got pretty close, and I’m happy with the results.

How does Wingspan Asia fit into the Nesting Box? The mats, duet map, and rulebook go on the top layer. The action tokens and goal tiles go in their respective slots in the setup tray, and the eggs and Duet tokens fit well into any of the three trays used during the game. The cards go in any of the three areas designated for cards (the upright section of the middle layer, the bird card insert in the middle layer, or any bird card inserts you keep in the bottom layer).

You can learn more about the Nesting Box here: https://stonemaiergames.com/games/wingspan/wingspan-nesting-box/

The Nesting Box will be available in early November at the same time as Wingspan Asia. Perhaps I’ll be surprised to learn that we made too many, but I think there’s a very good chance we will sell out of the Nesting Box during the preorder. I say this not to cause anxiety or fear of missing out—if there’s demand for more, we’ll certainly make more—but rather just to prepare you for that distinct possibility.

I’m excited to see how people organize their boxes! We have a recommended method printed on the inside of the box, but it also allows for quite a bit of modularity.

October 12: Birds, Appendix, and a Note About Future Options

One of the core features of any Wingspan expansion are the new bird cards! Wingspan Asia includes 90 bird cards that you can shuffle into your other cards, and they’re marked with a distinctive red “A” icon in the bottom right to help you separate them later (which isn’t ever necessary unless you like mixing and matching specific combinations of birds; you can play the new Duet mode with ANY combination of cards).

Asia is home to over 2,800 bird species, so it was quite a challenge for Elizabeth to narrow them down to a reasonable quantity for an expansion. She used suggestions from the Wingspan Facebook group and the bird request form on our website along with some of her favorites from research and top picks from each of our localization partners in Asia. If your favorite bird is missing, feel free to still suggest it here (we may someday make a promo pack of the most popular birds we missed): https://forms.gle/nxuaaT6H9r2NgGsa7

Among the bird powers in Wingspan Asia are all 5 core bird powers (brown, pink, white, teal, and yellow), but no new bird power. With Wingspan Asia as a standalone game for 1-2 players, we figured there were already more than enough power categories for new players to learn.

At the same time, there was still plenty of design space within the 5 power categories for Elizabeth to design a vast variety of birds with new mechanisms. Some of my favorites are the push-your-luck birds, which give you a chance to accumulate points (through caching or tucking) or stop when you already have a point or two.

I’ll include some photos from Tim Chuon of bird cards so you can look at some of the new birds. For a more detailed look at the birds, I’ve uploaded the Wingspan Asia appendix: https://bit.ly/3yAsXtD.

I’ve heard from a few people who primarily play with a total of 3, 4, or 5 players that they’re the most excited about the new bird cards in Wingspan Asia and wish they could just buy the cards. I appreciate the constructive feedback, and we will consider making the next expansion purely more bird cards and nothing more. I also appreciate all of the time that Elizabeth, the artists, Automa Factory, the playtesters, proofreaders, and others put into making Wingspan Asia inclusive and accessible to a wide variety of gamers (including those who are new to the world of Wingspan).

In the vein of accessibility, we are working on packs of vision-friendly bird cards for release in late 2023, each set available separately for $20-$30. These bird cards will feature only the necessary information for each card—i.e., bigger/bolder mechanical text made possible by omitting flavor text and Latin names (the cards themselves will remain the same size to fit properly on the player mats). The standard format used in the core game and expansions will remain the same; these revisions are only for the vision-friendly bird card packs.

I’m letting you know this because if you really, truly want ONLY the 90 bird cards in Wingspan Asia in a modified vision-friendly format—not the bonus cards, not the consolidated rulebook, not the Appendix, not the red eggs, not the player mats with new art, not the Automa cards, not the Duet map/tokens/tiles, not the Flock mode dial and board, not the extra food tokens, not the scorepad, etc—again, ONLY the 90 bird cards, you will have that option in late 2023 for around $25 plus shipping directly from Stonemaier Games. Or you can get Wingspan Asia from us in a few weeks. In late 2023, you will also be able to by the vision-friendly version of cards from each other Wingspan expansion and core set–each region’s cards will likely cost between $20 and $30, depending on the number of cards in the set.

Which Wingspan Asia birds are you most excited to play?

October 11: Bonus Cards, Swift-Start Guide, and Eco-Friendliness

Wingspan Asia includes 14 total bonus cards. Among them are 11 new bonus cards, and we saw this as a good opportunity to reprint 3 bonus cards with updated word lists: The Photographer, Cartographer, and Anatomist.

With one of the goals of Wingspan Asia being accessibility for new players (lower barrier to entry for anyone who primarily plays solo or with one other person), Elizabeth also designed 2 new Duet swift-start guides to walk players through exactly what to do on their first few turns and why to do it. Her innovative swift-start system includes specific bird cards—each marked with red corners for Wingspan Asia—to start with; these cards can be shuffled into the regular deck of birds when you’re not using the swift-start guides.

Also, as detailed in an article in August (https://stonemaiergames.com/are-our-games-eco-friendly-part-3/), eco-friendliness was a major focus in the product design for Wingspan Asia. It includes sugarcane pulp trays and wood eggs instead of plastic, a concise box size (same as Oceania) that required a more streamlined bird tray and birdfeeder board, and mostly biodegradable corn-based bags. We did discover something interesting along the way: Red paint specifically doesn’t interact well with biodegradable bags. So for the red eggs, we had to package them in normal plastic bags.

I’ll be back tomorrow to reveal lots of bird cards and the appendix!

October 10: Automa (Solo Mode: Duet mode gives solo players a duo of ways to play)

Today’s post features a special appearance from Wingspan Automa lead designer David Studley, who shares his insights into how the Automa works in Wingspan Asia and the stories behind it. I’ve added the Automa rulebook to the Wingspan Asia Dropbox folder.

***DAVID***

When I got my first look at the Wingspan Asia rulebook, things were still in flux, but it was clear that this expansion was going to give Automa some fascinating new features to work with.

Duet mode

With the Duet end-of-round goals of Wingspan Asia replacing the end-of-round goals from the base game, we needed to address the new feature and replace a core element of the solo gameplay.

For Wingspan, the way we allowed Automa to compete for the end-of-round goal tiles was to establish ‘reasonable’ values for each goal over each of the four rounds. It’s not a tool that we use very often, as it’s quite tedious to get right and needs to be updated anytime new goal tiles are added to the game.

Wingspan Asia’s Duet mode gave us a respite from ‘pricing’ end-of-round goal values and a chance to come up with something new. With this feature, the two players vie for spaces on the map, giving us an opportunity to teach Automa a new point of interaction. Like you, Automa places a Duet token on the map every time she takes certain actions. For the rules to place her tokens, we focused on three things: balance, ease of use, and Automa card reuse.

We found that the balance for the Duet goals was crucial to keep the competition fun. Automa scores the Duet end-of-round goals as you do and when she was too strong, players started ignoring the Duet map; too weak and the interesting, puzzly decisions lost their magic. For the design, we settled on an approach where sometimes she bases her choice on the Duet end-of-round goal and other times she places at random. Automa is still fierce on the Duet map but if you play well, those goal points are yours.

Because Automa places so many Duet tokens over the course of a game, it was especially important to keep the process easy to use. When she needs to place a token, the Automa card tells you the type of spot she wants, along with a corner of the map to start looking. You place her token on the first spot that matches… and you’re done.

Finally, even though Wingspan Asia comes with a full deck of Automa cards, we wanted to use the same structure and familiar elements of the cards included with the base game. To accomplish this, but still provide the information for Duet map decisions, we repurposed some of the icons on the cards. When you draw a card, it is placed on top of the ‘Duet map tracker card’ that operates like a secret decoder ring, telling you where to place her Duet token.

As a solo player, you will now be able to choose between the Duet or original end-of-round goal system each time you play, regardless of which other expansions and elements you choose to include. I expect some players to have strong preferences between the two and I’m very interested to hear which goal system will be your favorite.

Automa’s Cache and Hoard

As the Wingspan universe has grown to include more birds with powers that interact with other players, it has become obvious that the Automa needed to value the benefits she should receive when you trigger those powers (e.g., each player may discard 1 egg to draw 1 card from the deck). In the Wingspan Oceania expansion, we introduced Automa’s Hoard as a variant that roughly valued these benefits. The variant assigns different quantities of tokens to each type of benefit that Automa would gain, along with the different types of costs required to gain those benefits. Since these benefits only matter if you play a bird with one of these powers, the overarching goal was to create super-easy rules that stay ‘invisible’ until needed.

Wingspan Asia adds plenty of new bird powers that involve the other player at the table. All those extra interactive birds along with the fact that Wingspan Asia is designed as a stand-alone expansion meant it was time to implement a benefit system permanently. However, we still didn’t want to require players to use Automa’s Hoard. Automa’s Cache, a streamlined version of Automa’s Hoard, is now an official part of the Wingspan Automa rulebook. It works by simply giving her 2 tokens when she receives something from an action you take, but 1 token if it costs her anything to receive it. As with Automa’s Hoard, these tokens are converted to victory points at the end of the game.

Wingspan Asia includes rules for the Automa’s Hoard variant, which has been updated to ensure it covers the new birds and their powers. It also now triggers for When Played powers, in addition to the When Activated powers.

Bringing it all together

As a stand-alone expansion, Wingspan Asia offered an opportunity for us to revisit the Automa rulebooks and incorporate some of the disparate rules that were added within each expansion, into a comprehensive whole. Though polished, the rules remain the same.

This expansion provided a lot of fun challenges for the team, and we cannot wait to hear what you think when you give it a try. On behalf of Issy and the rest of Team Automa, we thank Elizabeth and Jamey for including us on this project. Have fun!

David can be found on Twitter @StudleyGamer and he actively participates on BoardGameGeek @DJStudley.

October 9: Rulebook and Compatibility

One of the biggest challenges of making Wingspan Asia both a standalone game for 1-2 players and an expansion was the rulebook. We needed the rulebook to stand alone yet also teach the Duet and Flock modes for people who already know the rules.

As a result, we decided to make a single comprehensive rulebook for all of Wingspan. That way you only ever need to reference this one rulebook instead of juggling rulebooks from the core game and other expansions (though please keep your appendices!). The result is the 16-page rulebook you can find on our website now (and, of course, in the Wingspan Asia box).

If you’re playing Duet mode and you already know Wingspan, all Duet instructions are found in red-bordered boxes throughout the rulebook. Similarly, all Flock instructions are found in blue-bordered boxes.

Wingspan Asia is also completely compatible with the core Wingspan game and the other expansions—we understand that most people who will buy Wingspan Asia will already have some combination of those products (no expansion is dependent on any other expansion). You can combine, mix, and match cards as you wish in any mode: There are 90 new bird cards and 11 new bonus cards in Wingspan Asia.

I’ll repeat that this was a VERY difficult rulebook to create, as we had so many different goals for it. We hope it serves your needs as best as possible!

October 8: Player Mats and Hidden Cats

A core component for each player in Wingspan is the player mat on which you play birds and select various actions. With Wingspan Asia being a standalone game for 1-2 players in addition to being an expansion, we needed to include 2 player mats.

Wingspan Asia uses the same player mat as the core game, but we thought it would be nice to create special art for it rather than use the original art. So Natalia and Ana illustrated the new mats, and in doing so they added an Easter Egg that has been missing (for good reason) from Wingspan.

In most Stonemaier products, my cats, Biddy and Walter, are in an illustration somewhere in the game. However, birds and cats rarely mix well—in fact, outdoor cats kill significantly more birds each year than windows, power lines, airplanes, and wind turbines. Biddy and Walter are indoor cats and have only ever seen birds from a distance, so Natalia and Ana found a way to sneak them into the landscape of the Wingspan Asia player mats.

For Oceania compatibility, each player mat includes a back side with the Oceania layout and art. In this way, the player mats in Wingspan Asia are functionally identical to the natural rubber playmats we sell individually. If you prefer the rubber playmats and see yourself playing 6-7 player games via the Flock mode, you could buy 2 more playmats. Because they’re functionally identical, we do not plan to make rubber playmats with the Wingspan Asia art.

I’m curious to see if anyone will spot the cats while playing Wingspan Asia—it’s very difficult to see them with the graphic design interface overlay on top!

October 7: Flock Mode

Yesterday discussed the Duet mode, a special 2-player mode that enabled Wingspan Asia to become a standalone 2-player game. With the addition of 2 players’ worth of components in the expansion, we figured it might be worth exploring the possibility of expanding the game up to 7 players, something players have asked for.

The challenge with higher player counts for most games (including Wingspan) is that the extra players increase downtime between turns and the overall playing time of the game. The solution Elizabeth implemented in the Flock mode (specifically for 6-7 players) is to always have 2 active players instead of 1, using a double-sided dial to track the current players.

To avoid overlap in card and dice selection for the Flock mode, players are divided into two groups, each with their own birdfeeder and bird tray. There’s always 1 active player per group. The groups don’t have any other meaning beyond that.

It isn’t always easy to get a total of 6 or 7 people together to playtest a game, so I really appreciate Elizabeth and our worldwide playtest team for making that happen. We made sure to include some lead playtesters in Asia, given the region the expansion covers.

The scorepad now accommodates up to 7 players. We didn’t include nectar scoring on it because it would be confusing to those playing Wingspan Asia with no other context, but you still score nectar when playing with the Oceania mats. However, we offer a downloadable version of the updated scoresheet with nectar on our website, and nectar will be an option to add on the free Stonemaier Scores calculator app.

I post design diaries every day, and weekends are no exception! I’ll see you tomorrow for more details about Wingspan Asia.

October 6: Why Asia and Duet Mode

With the core game of Wingspan covering the birds of North America, our hope has been to cover each other continent in an expansion. First was Europe, then Oceania; we selected Asia next at least partially because we have a large player base, multiple distributors, and a number of localization partners in Asia. The remaining continents (in no particular order) are Antarctica, Africa, and Latin America.

When Elizabeth and I discussed some ideas for the expansion (beyond just more birds), I proposed the possibility of making it playable without the core game for 1-2 players. Thus it could invite more people into the world of Wingspan and hopefully do something unique at those player counts, especially during the pandemic.

I really had no idea what Elizabeth would do with that idea, and the result—the Duet map—delighted me beyond my highest expectations. The Duet mode is competitive (we used the term “duet” because birds like to sing), and you can use any bird cards and any bonus cards for it. Whenever you play a 2-player game of Wingspan, you can play with or without the Duet mode—it’s your choice.

When using the Duet mode, each time you play a bird, you’ll also place a token (which you can set up on each space on your player mat to help you remember to place them) on the Duet map based on the habitat where you played the bird and some other element of the bird card.

The position of these tokens matter for the special set of Duet goal tiles (the goals are not compatible with standard goal tiles), and your largest contiguous group of Duet tokens give you 1 point per token at the end of the game. So the entire Duet map provides a new form of player interaction to Wingspan while keeping with the kind-hearted spirit of the game. Of course, you can still play Wingspan using the standard rules for 2 players, but it’s really easy to add the Duet mode at that player count, and it makes playing bird cards feel even more fun than before.

If you’re excited about Wingspan Asia and haven’t already signed up for a launch notification, feel free to do so here. For each person who signs up for the notification, we’ll donate $1 to charitable organizations that benefit birds in Asia (among them are BirdLife International, Animals Asia, Flight, and the International Crane Foundation).

Also, we currently have a charity auction featuring 10 bundles featuring the Wingspan Nesting Box, Wingspan Asia, “golden” eggs, and other premium Stonemaier Games products: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/303950/stonemaier-games-2022-charity-auction Even if the bids are too high, this auction is a great place to discover some amazing lesser-known content creators in the gaming community.

I look forward to sharing more aspects of Wingspan Asia in the days that follow, and I want to thank the amazing photographer Tim Chuon for the majority of the photos you’ll see across these posts.

October 5: Rulebook, Facebook Live, and Infographic

This first design diary post is more video than article, as I (Jamey) answer a number of questions about the expansion in today’s Facebook Live video (designer Elizabeth Hargrave was also very active in the comments). I’ve added some questions/answers to the FAQ, and everything else is in the following video, and I’ll be back every day for the next 10 days for a detailed look at Wingspan Asia.

You can also see each image below on Instagram as individual slides.

Copyright 2019 Stonemaier LLC. Wingspan is a trademark of Stonemaier LLC. All Rights Reserved. This content is not authorized for posting on Steam.

For questions about the Nesting Box, please seek answers on the Nesting Box page.

461 Comments on “Wingspan Asia

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  1. Two-fold question…

    #1: The BASE game rulebook says when referring to “managing the bird feeder”, “If the dice in the tray all show the same face…and you are about to gain food for any reason, you may first throw all five dice back into the bird feeder.” The ASIA game rulebook says, “if the dice in the bird feeder all show the same face…and you are about to gain food FROM THE BIRDFEEDER for any reason, you may first roll all five dice again.” (Emphasis mine.) My question is, which rulebook is technically correct?

    #2: Here is an example related to my first question. For the two different birds, the White-Browed Tit-Warbler and the Olive-Backed Sunbird, both birds say, “roll any one die and gain that food from the supply”. When I’m using these birds and there is one die in the bird feeder, can I reset the birdfeeder before I choose the die I want to roll? My purpose of re-rolling is to potentially take nectar out of the bird feeder so other players cannot take it (and roll the nectar die I took out of the bird feeder to use the power of the birds above).

    1. Thanks for your questions. “From the birdfeeder” is a clarifying addition to the original phrasing. So no, you can’t reset the bird feeder via the specific power you mentioned.

  2. Hey, it’s me again :D

    I have the following question, regarding birds that can live in more than one habitat:

    Is there a difference between “a bird in your [wetland]” and “your [wetland] bird”?

    Examples:
    Common Sandpiper – “Draw 1 [card] for each bird in your [wetland] with an [egg] on it. Keep 1 and discard the rest.”

    Stork-Billed Kingfisher – “Choose any 1 [die]. Roll it once for each of your [wetland] birds. If you roll at least 1 [fish], gain 1 from the supply. You may cache it on this bird.”

    Lesser Frigatebird – “All players may discard 1 [egg] from a [wetland] bird. Each player that discards an [egg] gains 1 [wild] from the supply.”(Oceania)

  3. Not sure where to ask this – are there any plans or (hopefully) progress on a Wingspan Africa expansion?
    We have a proliferation of amazing birds such as hoopoes, hornbill, crested cranes, fish eagles, penguins, ostriches and of course that most noble and dignified of birds, the hadeda.
    It would be amazing to play with our local, more recognizable notes especially when playing with children.
    Would be very happy to simply have an alternate card deck which can be used instead of the standard one if this is more commercially viable.
    Fantastic game, quickly became and remains one of our favourites!

  4. Hi, Jamey!

    I have a question about two seemingly conficting clarifications in the appendix regarding these two birds:

    Verditer Flycatcher:
    Power: WHEN ACTIVATED: If you have gained a [invertebrate] from the birdfeeder on this turn, gain 1 [fruit] from the supply.
    Clarification: You may apply this power to [invertibrate] gained before or after activating the Verditer flycatcher.

    Grandala:
    Power: WHEN ACTIVATED: If you laid an on this bird this turn, tuck 1 from the deck behind this bird.
    Clarification: The egg must have been laid before activating this card.

    IMO the flycatcher’s clarification seems wrong as the rulebook states that you active brown bird powers right to left. Also, the flycatcher’s card text is in past tense.

    1. You are correct that in Wingspan, you first gain the core benefit of the row (gain food, eggs, or cards), then you activate brown powers from right to left.

  5. We just purchased Wingspan Asia for Christmas and it was missing 1 white duet token. Do we need to send the whole game back or is there a way to get the piece we are missing.

    1. Thanks for asking! You definitely don’t need to send the whole game back just to get one missing piece (in fact, it’s incredibly rare that you would even play all 15 birds anyway, so you can easily play the game with only 14 white duet tokens). Just fill out our replacement parts form so we know where to send the missing token (this is also noted on the last page of the rulebook): https://stonemaiergames.com/about/replacement-parts/

  6. Sorry if this has already been answered.

    For the Duet mode, when spending any two resources to serve as any one resource, for the purpose of the duet map, can you place your token on the two resources you spend to substitute as the one? Or do those two resources represent the required food and you place it on the appropriate food icon?

  7. Hello,

    Some of the birds, such as Red Junglefowl, have red corners on the top right corner and bottom right corner.
    What is the purpose of the red tips?

    1. Those are the swift-start cards. You can use them with the swift-start guides while learning or teaching new players (it’s also fine to shuffle them into the general deck). There’s a big note about these cards and guides on page 5 of the Wingspan Asia rulebook. Thanks for playing!

  8. I have a question:

    The reset box on the goal mat states:
    “If you place your token here instead, you may remove it on your turn to reset the birdfeeder or the bird tray.”

    Can you place a duet token in the reset box, then use it to reset the birdfeeder on the same turn?

    Example:

    I don’t have any duet tokens in the reset box.
    On my turn I decide to play “Small Minivet” which has a “When Played” power that says: “Play 1 additional bird in your [forest]. You may ignore 1 [invertebrate] or 1 [egg] in its cost.” I decide to place the duet token in the reset box.

    Then, I play the additional bird and I want to place the second duet token on a bonus space with a die. Can I use the duet token in the reset box in order to reset the birdfeeder?

    Also, what is the timing of placing the duet token? I guess it should be on step 6 after using the “When Played” power if the bird has any, just want to make.

    1. Here’s what the rules say on page 10: “On a later turn, at any time on your turn, you may remove that Duet token to reset the bird tray or the birdfeeder.”

      So, not on the same turn when you place the token. You place the token between steps 5 and 6.

  9. Hello! I just love Wingspan and was wondering if it gonna release in swedish just like the other expansions. I really hope so! You guys are amazing ❤️

  10. Are you still considering selling just the bird cards from Wingspan Asia without the duet boards and other accessories?

  11. My mom suffers from fibromyalgia and is in constant pain. Wingspan has been a blessing since the start of the pandemic to help her get through. I received the Asia Expansion this week and thought I didn’t want to have to teach her the Duet version (thinking she might not enjoy it). Boy was I wrong! We both enjoyed it more than the original set and the new bird abilities are amazing (not to mention the incredible artwork)!

    Thank you so much for the wonderful game and all the expansions! I can’t wait for the future sets and see what marvelous new birds and ways of play you all come up with next.

    1. Thank you, Micah! I’m so glad that you two are enjoying it and that Wingspan Asia provides a distraction from your mother’s pain.

  12. Will the other expansions to this game, especially Wingspan Asia, make it to the consoles? We have the original game and European exp. on the Switch and are eager to play the new ones. The digital format is really convenient for us adhd players.

  13. In the Asia edition, I have a question regarding the Duet Mode and food. Some of the birds have a “wild” food icon (i.e. Greater Adjutant, House Crow, Golden Pheasant, etc.) as a food choice to play a bird, so can we place the token on any food on the Duet map, as long as the food icon is in the correct habitat we played the bird in? Or do we use only the food type that we spent to play the bird? Or do we not place a token on a food icon on the Duet map since the food is not specified on the bird? I see that you addressed a star nest on page 10, but I don’t see anything about “wild” food.

    In addition, once you place a Duet token in the reset space on the Duet map, what do you do with the token once you pick it up and use it? Can you use it again, or is it set aside to not be used again in the game you are playing?

    Thank you for your assistance.

    Karol

    1. Thanks for your questions! Here’s the note about food on page 10: “Note that it is not enough for a bird to have the correct habitat or food on the card; you must have played the bird in that habitat and used that food when playing the bird.” So if a bird has a wild food icon or a choice of different foods, it’s the actual food you pay that matters.

      If you use a token to reset, the token goes back to the box.

  14. Absolutely love the game. We play Wingspan Asia Duet (with Euro Expansion) all the time. .
    Friends have base game and Oceana Ecpansion – play a lot too. .
    When we brought in a third couple to play, and combined the sets for 6 players, we realized Asia is incomplete as a 6-7 player expansion for the Oceana boards – need second set of dice with nectar. Could only play original boards and had to remove all Oceana birds with nectar.
    How do we get a second set of nectar dice to make the second bird feeder complete?
    Should this second set of dice been in our Asia game?
    Thanks!
    (Apologies if already answered, did not see in comments)

    1. Thanks for your question! You actually already have everything you need for a 6-7 player game with Oceania. See page 3 in the Wingspan Asia rulebook for details (“If playing with the Oceania Expansion, each group uses 2 nectar dice and 3 regular food dice.”) You’ll use the regular dice from Wingspan Asia and the base game (6 total) and nectar dice from Oceania (4 total). Have fun!

  15. I’m a little confused on the brown power for the Great Cormorant. “You may move 1 fish from this bird to your supply. Then, roll any 2 dice. If any are fish, cache 1 fish on this bird from the supply.” Where does the first fish on the card come from?

    1. Thanks for your question! Here’s how we answer it in the FAQ on the above page:

      How do you get the first fish on the Great Cormorant?

      The Great Cormorant’s ability reads, “You may move 1 fish from this bird to your supply. Then, roll any 2 dice. If any are fish, cache 1 fish on this bird from the supply.” So how do you get the first fish on this bird? The first time you use the Cormorant, you ignore the first clause and skip right to rolling 2 dice (that clause doesn’t apply to you until you have a fish on the bird). After that, hopefully you’ll have a fish on the bird to consider moving to your supply; if not, continue to skip to rolling 2 dice when activated.

  16. I really like the penguin that was introduced in the Oceania expansion. I would like to see more of those! How about a very small Antarctica expansion consisting just of new bird cards and maybe some goals? More penguins would also increase the number of flightless birds.

  17. My wife and I have been playing Wingspan and really enjoying it. We especially like the Duet mode. I have not checked the comments above but I am hoping the future expansions will include more goal tiles for the for the Duet mode and the regular game. I also thought maybe some of the new bird powers might include using nectar that is on the board in the “spent” space to get an egg or maybe some food.

    1. Thanks John! I’m glad you’re enjoying Wingspan Asia. If we can think of some new duet goal tiles, we’ll include them in expansions!

    2. I have a few ideas for Duet goal tiles. Most of them are spin offs of the ones already available. All of these relate to spaces on the Duet map.

      Set(s) of tokens on different foods, on different nests or different habitats.
      An even number of token spaces used
      An odd number of token spaces used
      The most bonus tokens spaces used
      Maybe you could split up the “on pairs of matching symbols” to be:
      matching food or matching nests and include matching wingspan sizes.

      Another one that is a bit of a stretch placing tokens on all six spaces surrounding one space

      I hope these make sense. If not I’ll try to clarify them. If nothing else maybe these will give you some ideas. We’re looking forward to the expansions. Did I see there would be three more, Africa, Australia and Antarctica?

      Take care,
      John

      1. Thanks for sharing these duet tile ideas, John! You are correct that there are three remaining expansions, but Australia isn’t among them (Australia is already covered in the Oceania expansion). The other continent we haven’t covered yet is Central & South America.

        1. Thanks for the correction. We play way too much!! So we are looking forward to the new cards. I remember you wanted the packaging to be more eco friendly, using bags instead of boxes? I think that is great. If that is the case will there be another bird tray?

          1. We still include trays in Wingspan, but now they’re made out of sugarcane pulp instead of plastic. It’s likely that we will include them in at least 1 future expansion.

  18. Hello Jamey,

    As someone who is considering picking up all things Wingspan including the nesting box, I am also considering what sort of upgrades are available. Upgrades like the rubber playmats to replace the player boards. I am even looking at third parties like Meeplesource and can see some nice upgrades to the goal board.

    That said I noticed that this (Asia) expansion, mentions, under the components section above, an end-round goal board for the flock mode. What wasn’t strictly obvious is if this board is different from those included with the base game. I looked at the images provided on this page and that didn’t answer the question, so I turned to the rulebook and I eventually found my answer on page 14. Yes, the included goal board is different from the ones found in the base game.

    I suppose the question I was seeking an answer for was a rather niche one and the only reason I even questioned it was because I know that the Asia expansion is designed to be standalone. With that in mind I thought one side of the board was the duet stuff (aka a variant) and the other side was normal goal board for those that want a taste of what larger player count games would look like.

    In short, I don’t have an actual question, just merely sharing an experience I had. Not saying that experience warrants any change, but since there is no harm in sharing, I figured what’s the worst that could happen.

    Thanks for providing this space to share and thanks for making such wonderful games.

    1. Cole: You’re correct that the Flock mode goal board is a little different to accommodate 6-7 players (extra spaces for more players).

  19. Hi, I’m not sure if you already answer this question, but my English is not perfect so I’m not sure of it: if I buy Wingspan Asia to play the Duet mode, can I buy the other games (standard, Europa and Oceania) to mix the content and play the Duet mode with all the birds?
    Where I can find the rules to use all the content? Thank you!

      1. Awesome, thanks!

        One more question: is the Asia expansion coming to iOS too? I saw in the Apple Store the only Oceania and Europe are listed as in-app purchase: is there any plan to port Asia too?

  20. Very specific question about Oceania/Nectar and Duet interactions:

    Playing Duet Mode with Oceania included. There are a few rules from each expansion that seem to almost contradict each other.

    From Oceania: “nectar costs paid with [2-for-1 food rule] are not placed on the “spent nectar” space. The nectar never enters your supply.”

    From Asia: “If you use the 2-for-1 food rule to play a bird, treat it
    as if you converted those two foods into the food you
    needed for the bird. Thus, you can use a space for the
    required food, not the 2 foods you spent to get that
    required food.”

    Also From Asia: “If you spend nectar as a wild, you may treat it as the food you spent it as. If you spent it as nectar (for a bird that requires a
    nectar), you may treat it as any food on the Duet map.”

    So, my interpretation of all of this, is that if I play a bird with Nectar in it’s cost, using the 2 for 1 exchange to pay for the Nectar, the following happens:

    1. I DON’T get to count the 2:1 trade as “spent nectar”, since it never “entered my supply”.
    2. I DO get to count the 2:1 trade as nectar for duet map placement, meaning I can take any food space on the duet map.

    Is that correct? It’s essentially counted as nectar for one part of the game, but not counted as nectar for another?

    1. Thanks Matt! This is a great analysis of those rules, and I appreciate you quoting everything here to help with the answer. I agree with (1), and I agree with (2) since you’re talking about converting 2 food into 1 nectar for the purpose of playing a bird with a nectar cost.

  21. Hi! Question about Asia and Oceania nectar interaction. Say I am playing with a group of 3-5 people. If we have combined all of the expansions and base, what set or combination of dice should we be using and boards? Should it be 2 nectar and 3 normal? What is recommended for this scenario?

    1. We hope so! Please let Asmodee Nordics know that you want it–we’ve asked them several times to make it, and it’s powerful for them to hear from customers.

  22. Hi Jamey, do you think it is possible that we could do a 8-player game with all wingspan expansions?

    1. The flock mode only goes up to 7, but you’re welcome to experiment with higher player counts if you’d like!

  23. I bought Wingspan and its Oceania and Europe expansions in Finnish language on my birthday a week ago. (Loving the game a lot.) At the time I didn’t see the Asia expansion available and after scouring online stores, I can’t seem to find a Finnish version available anywhere. Is there a time I can expect a Finnish version to show up or is it not translated yet?

    1. Jesse: We hope that Lautapelit will make a Finnish version of Wingspan Asia in the future. Feel free to let them know of your interest!

  24. Hi Jamey just a quick question.

    The 81 food tokens included in this expansion are they needed if you play standard wingspan with all expansions and not flock mode ?

    1. Christian: The 81 food tokens are for 2-player play (Wingspan Asia as a standalone 2-player game, or a solo game). They are also needed if you’re playing in flock mode, combining Wingspan with Wingspan Asia for 6/7-player games.

  25. Do the Duet spaces that are farthest right (invertebrate and rodent) or farthest left (grain and berries) yet not technically on “edge of map” count as being on the edge of the map for the end of round goal?

  26. Hi,
    My wife and I love to plat Wingspan Asia nearly every day. Could you please clarify what occurs after activating either the “Blue Rock-thrush” or “Spotted Dove”, which have these words:
    If this bird has no birds to the right of it, you may move it (only the card) to the player mat of the player on your left (you choose its habitat). If you do, draw 3

    In duet mode, does the receiving player then place a duet token on the map? Also when the sending player refills the space, do they place a duet token in the normal way?
    Regards
    Trevor

    1. Thanks for your question. You only place the duet token when you play a bird, so no one places a token when this bird moves. But yes, in the future if you play another bird (even on that same space), you place a duet token. The duet tokens are only placed on your player mat during setup as a reminder–they aren’t inherently associated with any particular slot on the player mat.

  27. We have renamed the Great Indian Bustard the “I win” bird. It is very powerful, and can be insanely so – last night it scored my partner 42 points (2 x 18 bonus cards + 6 points for the bird). Not bad for 3 food and an egg! I am not sure of any bird in any of the other expansions with such potential. We also think the bonus card that gives you points for birds that invoke bonus cards is also over powerful. Aside from that, a wonderful addition to the stable.

    1. This bird is powerful, but not as much as you think… You score a single bonus card you already own (you do not draw a new one) at the time you play the bird and you will score this card again at the end as usual. So, for this bird, you score 6 points for the bird + points from one bonus card when you play it… no more.

  28. I know it’s super unlikely, but worth an ask!! Would you ever consider just selling the cards from Asia expansion on their own? I don’t mind the cost, I just have no need for the rest of the stuff so it’s preventing me from wanting to purchase it.

    1. Indeed, we’ve announced that we are planning to sell vision-friendly versions of the core game and each expansion separately. The cost will be around $20 per pack.

  29. I’m disappointed that this expansion doesn’t come with the same plastic trays and plastic bags like the original and other expansions. The white plastic bags are flimsy and easy to break and they’re basically trash. The paper tray is useless to store the eggs. Now we have really full 6 trays from the original and the other 2 expansions, which could’ve been solved if Stonemeyer didn’t cheap out on this expansion.

    I get you want to sell the nesting box so bad, but hardcore players would get it no matter what.

    The game is good, but my dissatisfaction of the nonexistent plastic trays and clear bags from this expansion is so high that it makes me feel I have to tell you about it.

    1. The motivation was not at all to sell the Nesting Box, and I’m sorry for that implication. It was to create a more environmentally sustainable, eco-friendly product. These components actually cost more to make, not less–this was in no way Stonemaier “cheaping out”, and I’m disappointed that you would jump to either of those conclusions.

      In the future, we’re always happy to answer questions so these types of false assumptions aren’t perpetuated–feel free to ask at any time! :)

      In fact, it is no longer even accurate to say that Wingspan and its other expansions include those plastic components, as we’ve fully converted to biodegradable bags and pulp sugarcane trays. These components were tested and designed to still provide the intended experience, and I hear that wasn’t the case for you. I haven’t had the issues you described with my plastic bags or the new trays–in fact, I’m using them for a playtest right now. https://stonemaiergames.com/are-our-games-eco-friendly-part-3/

      1. I bought Wingpan base game last Christmas and was pleased to see it included eco-friendlier versions of the classic board game baggie. It didn’t go unnoticed over here. I bought Wingspan Asia this Christmas and was in no way disappointed with the components. Great game, great presentation.

  30. Will the double-sided player foldable player mats be available for individual purchase?

    I know the rubber playmats exist but I prefer the foldable ones and this would be great for storage.

    1. Thanks for asking! It’s very rare that we sell ala carte components from our games, so I don’t think these will be available for purchase (outside of Wingspan Asia, which includes 2 player mats).

      1. Would selling them as a set with higher shipping costs make it worth it?
        I would be willing to pay a good amount for having these two sided boards. :-)

        1. It’s logistically complicated to sell ala carte components. They don’t have a SKU or a barcode (which fulfillment centers need), and we have to ship them from the US to each of our other fulfillment centers. Because we already offer double-sided boards on our webstores (I understand they aren’t your preferred boards, but they serve the same purpose), we will not be offering the double-sided cardboard mats from Wingspan Asia as a standalone product.

    2. You could buy a copy of Asia for the boards and sell the other components individually to offset the game price. I would be interested in just the deck of bird cards. I bought the game, but want to keep it separate from my main copy of the game while still having the Asia birds in my main game.

      1. Thanks Laura! We’re working on sets of vision-friendly bird cards (same card size and format, just some visual changes) that will allow people to buy just the birds if they want.

  31. Love the new bird cards and bonus cards in the Asia expansion!
    Question: For the replacement Anatomist bonus card, for 4+ birds, the point value on the Asia replacement card is worth 6 points. It is replacing the bonus card from the base game where 4+ birds is worth 7 points. What was the rationale for reducing this point value? Was it to balance the game in some way? (or was this unintentional?) Thanks!

    1. It was unintentional, so you could play with either, but we’re officially saying the most recent card is the real card. :)

      1. Okay, great. Thanks! Since it was unintentional, perhaps this is something to keep in mind to update for the next expansion? Even if new body parts are not introduced, it would be great to get a new Anatomist card with the original 7 point total for 4+ birds.

  32. Because I play wingspan often just with my wife, I’m thinking to buy the Asia expansion for duet modus.
    Can you play this expansion without having the Oceania expansion? Or do you need the nectar tokens?

    1. Definitely! None of our expansions depend on other expansions. Wingspan Asia is compatible with Oceania, but you don’t need to play with nectar at all.

  33. Because there is only one set of nectar dice, how would you play the flocking version with the nectar boards?

    1. Here’s how we explain it on page 3 of the Wingspan Asia rules (step 4a):

      “If playing with the Oceania Expansion, each group uses 2 nectar dice and 3 regular food dice.”

  34. When combining expansions, could the violet cuckoo (whose power is: when another player takes the “lay eggs” action, lay one egg on another with a wingspan of less than 30 centimeters. You may go 2 over its egg limit while using this power.) lay eggs on a bird with no egg occupancy (such as the Horsefield’s bronze cuckoo)?

  35. Curious about the packaging inside the Asia box? The little containers are no longer used and the bags now seem to be made of a different material. Storing this version isn’t as nice as the previous ones.

    1. Here’s the related paragraph from the October 11 design diary:

      “Also, as detailed in an article in August (https://stonemaiergames.com/are-our-games-eco-friendly-part-3/), eco-friendliness was a major focus in the product design for Wingspan Asia. It includes sugarcane pulp trays and wood eggs instead of plastic, a concise box size (same as Oceania) that required a more streamlined bird tray and birdfeeder board, and mostly biodegradable corn-based bags. We did discover something interesting along the way: Red paint specifically doesn’t interact well with biodegradable bags. So for the red eggs, we had to package them in normal plastic bags.”

      This was a very late discovery, so Panda used the bags they had, which weren’t great quality.

  36. I was a little confused on the Small Minivet and Trumpeter Finch. The appendix says that you may ignore 1 food requirement (of any food type) in the additional bird that you are allowed to play. But the instructions on the card specify that you should ignore an invertebrate or seed in the cost of the bird. Could you please clarify which is correct?

  37. Hey- Great game! One comment/gripe I have, is small, but still I’d love to see considered in the future: Is that if you leave Asia as a stand-alone game, the storage of the bird cards in the box is… not exactly convenient. I wish there was a little cardboard box or something they could be stored in. Having to break it up into three little piles, all with rubber bands around them (or in the plastic bags), isn’t a great experience. Reminds me of the storage problems with Terraforming Mars. Same thing, just cards sitting loose in the box. Otherwise, thanks for the game – we love it!

    1. I hear you, Christian! We were trying to make this expansion as concise as possible for eco-friendly reasons, figuring that 90% of people would use it as an expansion and not need the box (but we still wanted to take into consideration those who do use it as a stand-alone game). I store my Wingspan Asia cards in the bags.

      1. We’ve opted for the bags too! If you ever sell a little card box separate, we’ll for sure be on the list of buyers ;) Even though we have the other wingspan sets, a huge selling point for us on Asia was the option to have just a little portable box for a quicker set-up, shorter, two-player game. We love it, thanks!

  38. Hello. We need rule clarification for the rose-ringed parakeet:

    The bird copies a ‘when played’ bird. If I choose to copy a bird that gives bonus cards, ie. a Bell’s Vireo (draw 2 bonus cards and keep 1), will the parakeet count for the bonus card that gives 3 points for each bird that allows you to score or draw bonus cards?

    1. JJ: Great question! I would say it doesn’t count for that purpose, as its ability isn’t specific to drawing bonus cards.

  39. If Asia is a standalone game, then how would I play solo without having the base game, if all the bonus tiles are for duet mode?

      1. Well yes, I have Asia. But it says on the very front page of the Automa rulebook that if playing in solo mode I would use the bonus tiles from the base game, and the Asia bonus tiles for Duet. So if I don’t have the base game, then I don’t have the original bonus tiles, so then I guess I don’t score any end-of-round goals for myself in solo mode? Sounds like I would never beat the Automa this way.

        1. Right, what the Automa rulebook is saying that you can play solo in one of two ways: One, with the original end-of-round goals (that’s the original Automa). Two, with the duet end-of-round goals (that’s the new version of Automa found in Wingspan Asia; for it, you don’t need any components other than Wingspan Asia).

          1. Oh, so Duet mode in Automa isn’t two people versus the Automa? Okay then, that’s what I thought it was.

          2. Whenever you play an Automa solo mode, you’re essentially playing a 2-player game (just not against a human opponent, hence the special Automa duet rules and components).

  40. Please provide a verification of our rule interpretation for the Hunting and Fishing Powers birds in the Asian Expansion of Wingspan. For example, the Forest Owlet (WHEN ACTIVATED: Choose any 2 DICE. Roll them up to 3 times. Each time, if you roll at least 1 Invertebrate or Rodent, cache 1 here. If not, stop and return all food cached here this turn.). Please verify that if there are only 2 DICE in the birdfeeder, and the owner of the Forest Owlet chooses those two dice to roll, after completing their “push your luck” rolls (outside the birdfeeder), they would roll all 5 DICE (thus “resetting” the birdfeeder) and continue to the next action (theirs or the next player, as applicable). Thank you.

  41. Is there a resource for finding what local stores are carrying this expansion? I want to support local game stores, if possible, but going store by store until I find it is not an ideal option for me.

  42. Why are there duplicate bonus cards in the Asia expansion for Cartographer, Photographer, and Anatomist as they were included in the original game? Why is the 4+ bird points 6 instead of 7 for the Anatomist in the Asia expansion version?

    1. There aren’t duplicate cards; as noted in the components list, these are replacement cards, as they have more comprehensive lists of words on the cards. 7 points is how the card was printed, so that is the value now.

  43. Thanks for the answer. The spotted dove’s power is: if this bird has no birds to the right of it, you may move it (only the card) to the player mat of the player on your right (you choose its habitat). If you do, draw three cards.

  44. I have just played my first game of duet mode and i have a question. When i moved my spotted dove to my opponent’s board, what do they do with their duet token on the spot where i placed it and what do i do with the duet token i placed on the map for it? Also, if i put the spotted dove on an egg spot, do they have to pay an egg for it?

    1. I’m happy to help, but can you share the exact text on the Spotted Dove card to facilitate the answer? Duet tokens are only placed by you when you play a card, so based on what you described, only you pay the costs and only you gain the benefits. Thanks!

      1. Happy New Year! We have North American (original) European, Oceania, and Asia games/expansions in our new Nesting Box and we are wondering about combinations during play. Although European and Oceania expansions technically need the components of the base game to play, is there any reason why we couldn’t combine different expansions together during play and exclude others? For example, Asia + European + Oceania or European + Oceania, or Asia + European, etc. There’s so many possibilities and are wondering if there is any gameplay mechanism that wouldn’t work if we did this without the base game cards? Thanks.

  45. In the Indian Peafowl’s power, when you get to draw one additional card, can it be from anywhere or does it have to come from the deck?

    1. Unless a power specifies that you must draw from the deck or the bird tray, you can always choose where you draw from.

  46. Just got my Nesting Box and its amazing! I have a few questions:

    -There was another set of dices in the box, which I assume is for playing flock mode. Is it a mistake that the “old” version of the dices was included? Would’nt I want a second set of the newer (with nectar) dices if I wanted to play flock? assuming I prefer the updated dices vs the old ones. I thought most people played only with Nectar now.

    -I might find this somewhere else before you respond but I heard on one video that some cards have been updated but I cant for the life of me find the list of these cards right now. Do you have the list? I am aware of the Historian issue and have removed it but the rest I could not find.

    -Is the new Asia rulebook and the new appendix meant to include all previous rules and appendixes from base + previous expansions? Trying to figure if I need to keep old rulebooks and appendixes.

    Light criticism:
    -I wish the box included a large cardboard version of the goal board. I was excited when I saw what I thought was a new better goal board but realized its for Flock and Duet only.
    -Maybe I am just blind but yah, I thought that in the past, when cards were updated, it was listed somewhere in the manual or something. Maybe I just missed it so if so, please disregard.

    1. Hi Rod!
      1. You can only play with nectar (and the dice with nectar) if you own the Oceania expansion. Wingspan Asia is a standalone game and also an expansion, so it does not include the dice from Oceania.
      2. Unless you’re talking about the word-based bonus cards which are included in Wingspan Asia (Anatomist, etc), every other card in Wingspan Asia is completely new (not updated).
      3. The Wingspan Asia rulebook is designed to stand alone. It’s designed to completely explain how to play the game without any other rulebook. Though it’s worth noting that it does not explain nectar because nectar is not included in Wingspan Asia. The appendix only covers the contents of Wingspan Asia.

      I hope you enjoy playing with the Asia bird cards!

    2. I think I remember Jamie mentioning that when playing Oceania they use 2 Oceania dice and 3 regular dice. I think this is how it would be done in flock mode with Oceania.

  47. Hi Jamey!
    I just received my copy of Wingspan Asia. I’ve read the rules several times before playing but I have two questions about the rules.
    1. During my turn, if i have two or more duet tokens on the reset space on the map, can I use several of the duet tokens to reset the birdfeeder and/or bird tray or only one per turn?
    2. Some birds have the ability to roll any one die or any two dice. Does this mean i could choose dice that are in the birdfeeder and /or dice that are outside of the birdfeeder? After the bird’s abilty, do i put them back in the birdfeeder or not? My guess is not to put them back since this give players more ways to controll how much food are available in the birdfeeder.:)

    Super excited abobut my first game tomorrow!

    1. Hi Marcus!
      1. Yes, on a single turn you may spend as many duet tokens as you have in the reset box, one at a time.
      2. Check out page 4 of the appendix: “Note the new construction “Roll any die.” In general, this means you can take a die from inside or outside the birdfeeder. Roll it outside the birdfeeder, and leave it outside. (Unless the bird’s power says to do something else.)”

  48. Hi, just played 1st duet game of wingspan Asia. It went great…one question if a bird costs one wild food, can you play your duet token on any food spot on the duet map? Or does it link to which food you actually used to buy the bird?. example I bought ruby breasted hummingbird that costs one wild with a fish. Can I use only fish spot or any food spot?

    1. “if a bird costs one wild food, can you play your duet token on any food spot on the duet map?”

      The place where you put the token is entirely specific to the food you used to play the bird. IN the example you provided, you would need to place the duet token on a fish-food space.

  49. I placed an order for Wingspan Asia on Nov 2 and picked FedEx as the delivery option. I’m located in CA.

    I leave on Nov 21st for an international trip and was planning on taking it with me to gift someone.

    Is there anyway I can check if it will arrive on or before the 20th? I ordered as a Champion, have received order confirmation but no shipping notification yet.

    Just need to plan alternate gift if I know it’s not going to make it by the 20th.

    Thank you!

    1. If you send me an email, I may be able to get you more specific info. But generally, I can’t guarantee delivery times for any orders other than saying Champion orders will ship before-non Champion orders. And you’ll definitely get a tracking email with more info as soon as your order ships. Since I’m not sure if you’re having the package shipped to California or Canada (“CA”), I’d recommend sending an email so I can look up your specific order details: joe@stonemaier.com.

  50. I have friends leaving Canada by the 2nd of December. If I order tomorrow / day after, would it be able to reach them by then?

    1. Kyra: I can’t completely guarantee it, as the fulfillment center we work with in Calgary is swamped with preorders right now, but I think it’s highly likely that an order placed now would arrive by December 2 (but it wouldn’t ship for a few weeks).

  51. In the Sri Lanka Frogmouth’s power, when it says all players may discard one card to gain one invertebrate, does the predator part need to have succeeded for that part to work or can you do it regardless of what happened with the predator power?

    1. Usually I would have ended it after the first 4 days, but I’m extending it until we get past at least the second printing preorders for the Nesting Box (that printing does not include Wingspan Asia). So probably the end of this week?

  52. Hi Jamey!
    Under components it says: more to be revealed. Is this true or something you just forgot to remove? :)

  53. Hi, are there supposed to be 2 Indian Peafowl cards in the new Asia expansion (from within the Nesting Box)? I just got my copy yesterday and while going through the cards noticed the extra Indian Peafowl.

      1. Awesome, thanks for quick response Jamey! I did count the cards and I do have 91 bird cards, so it must have just slipped in an extra. Love the nesting box and looking forward to playing 2-player Asia this week at BGG.CON!

  54. For the Forest, Grassland, and Wetland Ranger cards in Wingspan Asia, do tied scores count as ascending or not? Would a series of birds worth 5 5 3 3 3 points, for example, be worth 0 or 8 points?

    The card itself says that each card in the sequence must be greater than the last, but the appendix says they “must be in ascending or descending order by point value” and the other similar goals in Oceania counting wingspans allow ties to count as a sequence.

  55. If you place a duet token on a food die bonus, do you get any food from the supply, or do you gain from the bird feeder?

    1. The food die always means, “Remove a die from the birdfeeder and gain the food noted on it from the supply.”

  56. Although I am one of the lucky ones, who got one of the 10000 boxes, I have a peculiar problem now: after reading through the available information before hand I decided to order the Nesting Box with an English Wingspan Asia, although I am from Germany since I got the impression there won’t be a German bundle with the box and the box won’t be sold alone.

    Now, it seems, there is a waiting list for a solo Box order, that will be arriving around the beginning of next year, which would be totally fine by me. That way i could get a regular German version of Asia without the need to flip the English version that comes with the Nesting Box.

    Is there a way I can give up my Preorder, hand it over to someone who wanted a UK version from the EU shop and get put on the waiting list for the solo box delivery?

    1. Christian: I appreciate you asking about that, but all Nesting Boxes preorders are already being processed by our fulfillment centers, so we can’t change or cancel them.

    1. We only publish English-language products, but you’re welcome to contact Delta Vision Publishing to see if they’re publishing a Hungarian version.

      1. Can you please explain the power of Great Cormorant in Wingspan Asia version , especially how does it get the brown power activated the very first time when we draw Bird cards after playing the bird? After the bird is played and then in the next turn when we draw the bird card , we would never have a fish cached on the bird to be able to move it to our personal supply. There is nothing mentioned in the appendix.

        1. Absolutely! Here’s what we say in the FAQ on this page:

          “The Great Cormorant’s ability reads, “You may move 1 fish from this bird to your supply. Then, roll any 2 dice. If any are fish, cache 1 fish on this bird from the supply.” So how do you get the first fish on this bird? The first time you use the Cormorant, you ignore the first clause and skip right to rolling 2 dice (that clause doesn’t apply to you until you have a fish on the bird). After that, hopefully you’ll have a fish on the bird to consider moving to your supply; if not, continue to skip to rolling 2 dice when activated.”

  57. Apologies if this has been asked and answered previously (I didn’t see it):

    Does the Asia expansion require you to have the Oceania expansion? TIA!

    1. Lori: It does not! :) None of our expansions are dependent on other expansions. Also, Wingspan Asia is a standalone game for 1-2 players (at those player counts, you don’t even need the core Wingspan game).

  58. Hello Jamey, Is it possible to buy Asia expansion in Italian language? i was tring to buy it from Stonemaier Europe, but i can’t choose the language of the game. Are the boxes you have in stock just in english version? Thanks

      1. Thank you, sorry i sent the message twice cause i couldn t see it on the chat… please don t consider the second one :)

      2. me again…. it looks that Ghenos doesn t have that option right now… and W. Asia is not mentioned in the next release, do you have more less the idea when it will printed in other languages? thanks again

  59. Do I loose anything from not getting the nesting box with the Asia Expansion inside? I see that you are all sold out so I’ll have to buy them both separately.

  60. If I pay for the Champion discount and then immediately cancel so that I do not forget about the renewal in a year – I will still have the discount for the full 12 months that I paid for- correct?

    1. You will, but our system gets confused if you immediately cancel, so please set a reminder to yourself to cancel in a few days instead.

    1. It doesn’t close. These are simply products we now have in stock until they sell out (and then we’ll make more). The preorder discount applies through Saturday.

  61. Hey Jamey,
    Thank you for personally overseeing this endeavour.
    I am experiencing difficulties in the EU shop. I can select the Nesting Box and the champion discount is applied correctly. When I continue to shipping I see the rate and some more discounts which is nice, but when I want to continue from there I get an error message:
    “Your cart has been updated and the previous shipping rate isn’t valid. Select a new rate.”
    But I can only select one rate which is Super Heavy and it is already preselected. There is no other option listed.
    Any pointers are welcome. Thanks!

  62. Hey Jamey, I just wanted to say thank you and the whole Stonemaier games team for pricing this Expansion/Game at such an affordable price. I honestly thought, with the whole mess we’ve been in for the past 2 plus years that it would be reflected in Wingspan Asia’s price but im so glad its so reasonable. Thank you for having such a great company and for being always so open, honest and responsive to your customers. Continued success for you, keep it up!

      1. I’m wondering, how and when can we preorder/buy Wingspan in French ? Just that I’m affraid to buy it in english…

    1. Hello, “ Jamey”: I ordered WINGSPAN ASIA,@ “ store.stonemaiergames.com , * gitmThank You, & ORDER #179811 over 24 Hours ago: “ no confirmation email”. Thanks . Dennis M.

      1. Thanks Dennis! I see two emails for you in our system, and it appears that the notification email for order 179811 went to the email address of yours that has “69” in it.

  63. I would like to pre order the nesting box but I live in Israel- will you ship here? should I order form the US or Europe shop? how much will it cost to ship?

    1. I think we ship to Israel from our US store–feel free to put the Nesting Box in your cart to see (international shipping is $60). You can also ship to a forwarding address.

  64. I followed the nesting box purchase link shared in this thread and I’m logged in as a Champion, but the discount isn’t being applied.

  65. Isn’t this being released today?? I’m waiting on pins and needles to order mine but I don’t see any ordering capability on this page yet (?)

      1. We’re experiencing some unexpected issues and thus haven’t fully announced the preorder until we fix them.

  66. I will say, I kind of wish that the Nesting Box had been included with a different expansion. On the one hand, I want the box in order to have a single storage solution. On the other hand, the fact that Asia is a standalone expansion means that there might be times when I would want to take just Asia with me somewhere so I don’t have to bring the larger base box, but it is the ONLY expansion I wouldn’t be able to do that with if I get everything inside the nesting box. So I’m kind of torn on which option I want for that reason.

  67. Will your double-sided neoprene mats work with this as well? Or will there be new ones specific to flock or duet mode? I’d love to have a neoprene mat for every player (if I understand correctly they’d all fit in the nesting box, which is great), but with the new modes I’m not sure whether I should buy 5 or 7.

    1. Giulia: Yes, they work for this (the double-sided rubber playmats are mechanically identical to the two cardboard mats in Wingspan Asia), and yes, 7 will fit in the Nesting Box.

  68. I was lucky enough to grab a copy at SPIEL in Essen and I love Wingspan Asia. The new cards are a great addition to the game. In a round we played last weekend there was a rule question my group discussed heavily:
    The blue power of the Sri Lanka Blue-Magpie says: “You may cache 1 food from your supply on each of your other birds.” Is it possible to cache a nectar in this case? Since you discard your nectar after the blue powers you still have it in the supply. But we were not quite sure if nectar is a food you can cache in such situation since you spend it normaly on this nectar place on the board.
    Hope this is the right place for this kind of question. Sorry if not.

    1. This is the right place for this question! As the Oceania rulebook says, the “any food” icon always includes nectar. So yes, you may cache nectar if you have nectar left in your supply during this bird’s round-end power activation.

  69. I have the core and wingspan european expansion and typically its my wife and i play and we get about four games out of a set of cards. As we plan to get other expansion packs my questions are:
    How do people shuffle the cards? Currently i spread them out over the living room carpet and give them a good mix but im not sure how practical that is with four sets
    How often do you shuffle them? We tend to work through them until we have less than a game full left but do people shuffle them after each game as you get more sets to keep the mix fresh?
    Thanks.

    1. I typically just break the cards up into stacks I can shuffle, then I cut those stacks and shuffle them with other decks. If I know I’m going to play a few times in a short timeframe, I may set aside the cards used in the previous game. Also, often when I’m playing with a new set, I’ll make sure that a significant portion of the deck are the new cards.

  70. I’m curious about combining the Asia expansion with the other expansions, particularly the Oceania expansion: When choosing food die, will we use the die with nectar, or a combination of die with or without nectar? Also, will each player still gain one nectar at the start of the game? Thanks!

    1. If you’re playing with Oceania, you’ll almost always use all 5 nectar food dice as normal. The only exception is Flock mode (a reminder of this is in the Flock mode rules), in which each group playing in a 6-7 player game will have 2 nectar dice and 3 food dice. Beyond that, you can see the setup steps on the second page of the Wingspan rulebook for any setup.

  71. Hi! I just became a Champion and am excited about placing my first order! Since I’m planning to order the Oceania expansion as well as the new Asia expansion (but not the Nesting Box), would it make more sense to wait and order the two expansions together? Thanks!

    1. Thank you for becoming a Champion! It’s up to you. You’ll save on shipping costs if you order Oceania and Asia together in the same package. If you’re really eager to get Oceania, though, you could order it now and it should arrive next week. Once we get into the preorders, they’re going to take a few weeks to ship.

  72. Will there be an order limit for Wingspan Asia alone when pre-order opens? I know there is one for the Nesting box. Can’t wait :)

    1. There will be, but not as stark as the Nesting Box: You could put up to 4 copies of Wingspan Asia per preorder.

    1. Here’s what we say on the above page: “The price will be revealed on the preorder date (early November 2022).”

  73. During design or playtesting of Duet Mode – was there any thought to add the Duet board goal tiles IN ADDITION TO the usual end of round goal tiles to add further tension/complexity of choice when playing birds?

    1. There’s quite a few interesting decisions on the Duet map and the corresponding tokens, but if you try that a few times and want more complexity, you’re welcome to try adding other goals too!

  74. Hello Jamey! How is going?

    I have a question for u my friend, if i don ’t apply to be Stonmaier Champion, and i will buy asia expansion, my money will not be sent to asian charity bird fundation??

    For me is important to be part of the contribution for those fundations….
    Another thing, how much asia expansion will cost? Is it the same price for.all the world right? How much i save if i pay 14€ to be S. Champion ? I think i ll buy only this expansion for this year i mean….

    Thank You so much!

    Nicolò

    1. Thanks for posting your question here. Your purchase actually has no connection to the donation. The donation is entirely calculated on the number of people who sign up for a launch notification (it doesn’t matter if they actually buy Wingspan Asia or not). Your money is only going to the game, not the charity.

      We will release the cost of Wingspan Asia on the preorder day, and yes, it is the same cost equivalent worldwide (though taxes are different in different countries). Champions will save 20% on every order for the next 12 months.

  75. Forgive me if i’ve missed the answer to this question. Can Asia be played with 2-5 players on it’s own without doing Duet or 6-7 players? I have base plus the other expansions so i have plenty of mats, food, etc…Just curious to play it by itself for a few games to get familiar with the new cards and bonuses. Will probably play it mixed in with other expansions and base most of the time although will definitely give 6-7 players a try too. Wife and i may play Duet some but probably not very often. Thanks in advance.

    1. Asia is a standalone game only for 1-2 players. For your first play at higher player counts (given that you have the core game and other expansions) if you want to have mostly Asia stuff, you could stack the deck so all the Asia cards show up first.

  76. So this is an update *takes breath*. I’ve purchased Scythe, which in turn led me to reading SM games’ blog, followed Jamey, started to read about WingSpan, found out about wingspan Asia expansion + stand alone and oh my G-d! I am astonished at the quantity of detail, love, dedication SG team brings into everything they do. I have seen all Wingspan Asia reviews and in all of them I notice a new detail here and there. I am pretty sure Xmas is comming down to Argentina early, let’s hope I can also get my hands (budget and shipping costs permit) on the amazing HUGE Nesting Box (Kovray extended Wingspan dive sold me on the idea of collecting it too) . Is there another SG level other than champion? maybe groupie?

    1. Thanks for sharing your Stonemaier story, Mario! Champion is the highest level, and we’re happy to have you there. :) Please make sure you have a forwarding address set up in the US (or Canada), as we can’t ship directly to Argentina.

  77. I may be being a bit vain here but I’m assuming play-testing credits will appear somewhere. In previous expansions they appeared on the box, will it be the same with Asia? This may affect my decision on whether to buy just Nesting Box or Nesting Box plus the expansion box.

    1. The playtesters for Wingspan Asia appear on the inner sides of the Wingspan Asia box. There are no playtesters for the Nesting Box, so we’ve also noted the Wingspan Asia playtesters in the FAQ on the same page where you asked this question (this page).

  78. I really enjoyed the anticipated reveal of the continent and some cards. There was still a lot of things to be revealed on day-1 but seeing some of the birds made the wait felt shorter! I also like that you are considering to have another birds-only expansion, I would like that!

  79. Hi! I’m just reading the rulebook and appendix of Wingspan Asia. Really looking forward to this one! I have a minor comment about the appendix: on top of page 6 it states that no power allows one to lay more eggs on a bird than the limit allows, but on the same page a few birds are listed, like the Violet Coocoo, that do allow to exceed the egg limit… Seems to be a small inconsistency, maybe something to fix in a next print run?

    1. Jan: You’re right that we could say that more clearly. What we’re saying is that no power overrides the egg limit rule *unless stated explicitly*.

  80. I’m thinking next expansion should have a storage tray like wingspan and the Europa expansion right? Seems right to store the 90 cards from asia + the cards from the next continent. Right now I can store all cards from base game, Europa and Oceania on the 2 trays we got but there’s not really space left (with sleeves).

      1. Thanks! Yeah I’m from Brazil, saw that Grok might bring the nesting box to here but don’t know if I would purchase it anyway. What I like the most is to keep the cards well store and together. Hope you guys consider it!

      2. I agree! The nesting box is awesome, but would be nice to have a larger tray with a lid with the slots for the displayed bird cards. I saw an unboxing for the nesting box that came with Asia expansion and it had a large yellow bird card tray/holder. I don’t see it in any of these pictures, so assume Asia expansion does not come with it. Is there another way to get the large yellow bird card box with top? I like to use the tray while playing.

        1. I’m not exactly sure about this, Kim, as a large yellow bird tray is already included in the Nesting Box.

    1. I was thinking the same thing too. For those who don’t purchase the nesting box it’d be good to have another card tray in the next expansion. Especially as there have been some expressions of interest here on bird cards, and having an expansion focused on them rather than other components.

      1. We’ll see, though I’d recommend speaking up in the various forums when people ask for cards-only expansions, as a bird tray isn’t a card (and takes up significantly more space than a deck of cards).

  81. That late 2023 vision friendly bird card release – is the $25 estimate just for the 90 Asia bird cards, or all cards from the base games and expansions? I see in the comments you will be releasing all cards in vision friendly formats, but wasn’t sure if we should expect about $25/expansion, or if that’s an everything price. I’m lucky enough that my vision is holding out enough at this point, but can see a time not too far in the future that those vision friendly cards may become our default go-to, and really like that you are planning to release them.

    1. As noted in the October 12 design diary, “ONLY the 90 bird cards, you will have that option in late 2023 for around $25 plus shipping directly from Stonemaier Games.”

      We’ll also offer vision-friendly packs of cards for each other expansion and the core game, each right around that price range.

        1. Here’s how we answer that on the above page:

          “Localization: The following partners will offer Wingspan Asia in their language; the exact release times for these partners is up to them (feel free to ask them directly). Grok (BR Portuguese), Surfin Meeple (Chinese), Mindok (Czech), Regatul Jocurilor (Romanian), Rebel (Polish), Igromag/Tower Rex (Ukrainian), Matagot (French), Arclight (Japanese), Maldito (Spanish), Kaissa (Greek), Ghenos (Italian), Feuerland (German), Korea Board Games (Korean), 999 Games (Dutch).”

          1. I was wondering about the vision friendly bird cards. First time I read about that was in the comment above

          2. We’re working on them, and we’re hoping to release them in late 2023. I mentioned them in the October 12 Design Diary for Wingspan Asia.

  82. Wow, genuinely blown away! Your attention to detail is exceptional – Genuinely thought the sugar cane trays were an oversight in the photos as they weren’t listed on components list or the rulebook – but you are all over it! I think they are fantastic addition to Asia and a very in keeping with the stripped down more portable, more compact standalone that has been crafted.
    Those asking for just birds are completely missing this stripped down, yet simultaneously deeper experience that Asia & Duet could well offer. The fact you’ve listened to feedback and acted so quickly to offer these folks another option next year though is to your enormous credit to Stonemaier.
    I personally can’t wait to have Asia.
    ‘Smew’ & ‘Philippine Eagle’ sound amazing fun to play with! Love the sound of managing to get 3 rats on the latter, only to then happen to draw 2 hideous bonus cards you’ve have no chance of getting anything for! The tension, satisfaction, excitement, disappointment & laughter around the table that little passage of 30 seconds is going to create is going to be so much fun! :-D.

    It is super sad but I’m really excited to see how much space is left in the Asia box to see how many some cards from base game, European & Oceania I can add to Asia, rather than the other way round!

    Keep up the fine work!

    1. I appreciate the enthusiasm, Curtis, and I too hope for those moments when the push-your-luck birds are in play (especially in multiplayer games). The Asia box pretty much only fits the components of Wingspan Asia, but all cards mix and match with each other in any mode. :)

  83. Hey Jamey. Quick question re: Duet mode (and apologies if this is answered elsewhere and I missed it). If you incorporate the Asia expansion with Oceania (and others) — and are therefore using nectar — it seems like nectar would NOT count as a slug or other food on the Duet map? Or can it be applied as any food? Very excited for the Asia expansion! Thanks for being so engaged with the community and available to answer questions.

    1. [updated] Thanks for your question, Mike. If you play with nectar in Duet mode and want to place a Duet token on a food token on the map, you spend nectar as a wild resource and still have it represent a specific resource for the Duet map. This is noted at the bottom left of page 14.

      1. I think the rulebook contradicts this ruling. In page 14 its explicitly written (Interaction with other expansions, Oceania), that if you spend nectar as a wild, you may treat it as a food you spent it as.

        1. Thank you, Andras! I was looking for it on page 10 and didn’t see it there, but you are correct. I’ll update my answer.

  84. Love the combined rulebook. That,
    alongside duel sided boards. Anything that cuts down the total # of ‘items’ that need to be stored together is a huge plus.

  85. Will you release the appendix showing all of the birds powers and explanations before launch? Would love to be able to check out all the new birds and powers

  86. I have been feverishly checking this page for new updates and spoilers, can’t wait for the new expansion.

    1. Is Duet mode optional for two players? Or is it kind of the recommended way to play with two players from now on? Just wondering what should be treated as the most standard version of the game with all the expansions going forward.

    2. I looked in the rulebook and couldn’t really understand from it how nectar will function if I’m playing with all the Oceania and Asia together. Does it still work the same way, just using the opposite side of the mats in the new expansion that account for nectar points?

    Thank you.

    1. If you pair it with the infamous 4 (ravens, killder or the gull), it certainly will be at the end of the game.

  87. I went through the comments in order to find out if the questions were already asked but could not find any in this regard so here comes my questions:

    Will the preorder with the Nesting Box in November be English only or feature all languages? If not will the Nesting Box + Asia combo be available with the local distributors then? Is the Nesting Box already present at Essen or only the Asia expansion itself?

    Thanks for any info you can provide!

    1. Thanks for your questions! We discuss the Nesting Box on the Nesting Box page: https://stonemaiergames.com/games/wingspan/wingspan-nesting-box/

      Here’s what it says in regards to your question: “The Nesting Box is language independent, though all first-printing copies made and sold by Stonemaier Games include an English copy of Wingspan Asia inside the box. The following localization partners also acquired copies of the Nesting Box without the expansion inside (to sell as they wish, with or without their version of Wingspan Asia–please ask them how and when they will sell the Nesting Box): Surfin Meeple, Wanted Games, Korea Board Games, Matagot, Grok, Ghenos, Maldito, Deltavision, and Mindok.”

      The Nesting Box is not present at Essen. There’s only 1 English copy of Wingspan Asia there, and a very limited number of German copies.

      1. Hey Jamey,

        Thank you for your fast and extensive answer.

        Piecing together from your answer and from additional info from the Nesting Box site, it seems there will be no Nesting Box and Asia expansion combo in my language available and a stand alone sale of the Box will be uncertain due to shipping costs.

        So I guess I will have a month now to ponder whether or not to get an English Asia expansion as collateral in order to get the Nesting Box or not.

        Thank you for enabling me to do so. 😀

  88. Will there perhaps be a “Wingspan: Asia bird pack” that includes all of the bird cards (and maybe the eggs and bonus cards), but without the other elements of this full Asia expansion pack? I’m not opposed to getting the full expansion for access to those things, but I’m much more excited about the birds themselves than any other addition to the game. Thank you!

    1. I appreciate your excitement! We’re happy to serve people through Wingspan Asia as is; it is what it is, and we won’t be selling the components within ala carte. :)

  89. Hi Jamey,

    I’m a Champion and will be preordering the Nesting box. A friend of mine wants the Nesting box as well. Is it possible for me to preorder 2 copies of the Nesting box?

    Thanks!

    Luke

  90. Did you consider making flock mode work with 5 players? BGG implies that some people prefer to play at a lower player count

    1. That preference is one of the reasons we created the Duet mode (for 2 players). As for 5-player games, you’re welcome to try it with a homemade dial for Flock mode and let us know how it goes!

    2. Jon – already thinking about this, even for 4 player games. Think it will be easy enough to work around. If I’m looking at the pictures correctly, looks like each group also has their own ‘bird tray’ of 3 cards. I’m picturing my group doing a 2 v 2 team game in flock mode, with the teams split up between the two groups. At the end of the game add up each teams scores to determine a winning team. I get that this would really just be like 2 simultaneous 1v1 games, but the joint scoring on the goal board, and dial to keep everyone at the same pace will be nice. Plus plenty of ‘in between turn’ cards that could still be activated by the players in the other group. Excited to get my hands on the expansion to try and sort it out.

  91. Curious if you have considered including basically a laminated scoresheet with a dry erase marker instead of having notepad like scoresheets that need to be replaced. Or creating a phone app to replace the score sheets for all your games combined. I haven’t seen any game manufacturer do it and wondered if you guys have considered it. BTW, could you hurry and release Wingspan Asia and the nesting box. :)

    1. We actually announced the free Stonemaier Scores calculator app just a few weeks ago–you can find a link for it here: https://stonemaiergames.com/digital-games/

      We generally prefer the artifacts created by scoresheets; we’ve polled people to see if they want what you requested here, but the polls always come up well short of an MOQ, as it seems that most people either like the scoresheets or they find it easy to laminate a page of the scorepad.

  92. Hello. Will the content be the same in the nesting box with the Asia extension? Because it seems to me that many things are quite unnecessary there. Like the dice – I already have them from the Wingspan! Same as the starting player token, the almat for throwing the dice, food tokens, bird tray and thise who bought the neoprene mats already would also have the boards for other players.

    1. The content will be the same, minus the Wingspan Asia box. If you read the rules, the extra content is required to play the 6-7 player expansion (2 sets of dice, 2 dice trays… etc).

  93. I tried to find this in the rule book, and I might be missing it, but is there an option to put a duet token in the box next to the duet goals and then take it off on your turn to reset the bird feeder or card tray? If so, when can you do this? Is there a limit to how many times you can do this per turn or a limit to how many duet tokens can be in the box? Thank you!

    1. Silas: I’m happy to help! This is noted at the bottom right corner of page 10 in the rulebook: “If you cannot place a Duet token in a matching space or do not wish to, you may place your Duet token in the reset space on the lower left of the board instead. On a later turn, at any time on your turn, you may remove that Duet token to reset the bird tray or the birdfeeder.”

      There’s no limit.

  94. This page refers to Wingspan Asia as an expansion. It’s in the title and in the description.

    But this isn’t an expansion. It’s a standalone game. The picture of the box doesn’t say “expansion”.

    It’s listed correctly on BGG, where it has its own entry that doesn’t appear under Wingspan’s expansions tab.

    For the sake of consistency and making it clear that this is a stand-alone game, the use of “expansion” should be re-worded.

    1. Wingspan Asia is both a standalone game for 1-2 players AND an expansion (it expands the number of cards for Wingspan and the player count for Wingspan up to 6-7 players). “Expansion” is noted twice on front of the box.

      1. The title on the box does not contain the word expansion, and thus the title of this page shouldn’t either for the sake of consistency. I see this has been changed now. :)

    2. It’s blurry here because it is ALSO an expansion. Jamey and Elizabeth have been very clear that the new cards and bonuses and automa cards CAN be integrated with the base games and other expansions as an expansion.

  95. A few questions about Flock mode:

    1. The rulebook says to shuffle the bonus cards and place one pile between the two groups, but the picture shows two separate stacks of bonus cards. Which is correct?

    2. Should there be one bonus card discard pile for everyone or one for each group?

    3. Should there be one bird card discard pile for everyone or one for each group?

    4. When a bird power allows you to look through the discarded bonus cards and choose one (like the Wrybill’s), can you look through all the discarded bonus cards or only the ones from your group?

    5. When a bird power allows you to draw random bird cards from the discard pile (like the Australian Ibis aka Bin Chicken’s), do you shuffle all the discarded bonus cards and draw from those or do you only shuffle and draw from your group’s?

    1. 1. The rulebook says to shuffle the bonus cards and place one pile between the two groups, but the picture shows two separate stacks of bonus cards. Which is correct?

      –It doesn’t matter–it’s all effectively one deck of cards, but it’s easier to have them separate (in reach of each group).

      2. Should there be one bonus card discard pile for everyone or one for each group?

      –In the rare case there’s a card that looks at discarded bonus cards, it’s easier to have them separate (in reach of each group).

      3. Should there be one bird card discard pile for everyone or one for each group?

      –It rarely matters, but it’s easier to have them separate (in reach of each group).

      4. When a bird power allows you to look through the discarded bonus cards and choose one (like the Wrybill’s), can you look through all the discarded bonus cards or only the ones from your group?

      –Same answer as #2 (it’s easier to have them separate (in reach of each group).).

      5. When a bird power allows you to draw random bird cards from the discard pile (like the Australian Ibis aka Bin Chicken’s), do you shuffle all the discarded bonus cards and draw from those or do you only shuffle and draw from your group’s?

      –Same answer as #2 (it’s easier to have them separate (in reach of each group).).

      Keep in mind that aside from the special Flock rules, all other rules remain the same–you’re all playing the same game of Wingspan.

  96. In the rules for the Duet mode, it talks about playing more than 15 cards in one game. How is that possible? Or is it possible in the future there will be an expanded play mat?

    1. It’s very rare. I think there are some examples of powers that let you play birds on top of other birds. Plus, we wanted the flexibility for other such powers. But it’s exceptionally rare that you’ll ever play more than 15 birds (if even that many).

  97. Hi Jamey and SG team! The upcomming Asia expansion totally sold me the Wingspan game. will the Wingspan Bundle include the Asia expansion once it is launched? I might be wanting to purchase everything at once :)

    1. Mario: That’s a good question. At the very least, you could add the bundle and then Wingspan Asia to your cart, which is effectively the same. Typically we try to avoid complications during busy preorders, and changing a bundle can add complications and lead to errors at fulfillment centers. But I’ll talk to our web dev about it to see what he thinks.

      1. Thanks Jamey! don’t worry about it, if needed I’ll proceed with your suggestion of adding bundle + WA or any other combination I find fitting to my budget at the time of launch.
        Ps. Let me know if you ever come down to Buenos Aires :)
        Ps2. As always I am marveled at your amazing costumer support. Managed and attended by its owner and team even during night time :)

        1. Thanks Mario! Due credit to Joe, our Director of Communications–he does a wonderful job serving our customers, though I’m here for you too. :)

  98. Am I right that the duet mode is competitive? The description above says ‘compete against another player’ but it’s odd to use the term duet for this, in most board games duet is used to signal two player co-op and duel is competitive two player. Looking forward to it either way, just curious about the naming convention (or description) 😊

      1. I thought exactly the same, James.
        Birds are also very territorial. My wife and I will definitely be duelling 😊
        Looking forward to all of this very much.

  99. It’s difficult to balance pink powers across all player counts and typically those in the NA, EE & OE decks are under-powered at 2P so as not to make them over-powered at 4P/5P. Since Wingspan Asia is a standalone 2P (&solo) game are the pink power birds balanced specifically for a 2P game?

    1. All cards are designed to be used at all player counts, though you’re right that different cards may be circumstantially more or less powerful (based on many factors, not just player count).

  100. Has using Flock mode for 8 players (two groups of 4) been considered? It seems like it would work great if you had an extra set of meeples and an extra board. But I guess a new eight-space spinner or something like it would be needed.

    1. Elizabeth designed the flock mode to go up to 6 or 7 players, but we’re not exploring higher player counts. At that point you’ll probably just want to play two separate games. :)

  101. Can’t wait to learn more and play! Any sense of when Oceania and Asia will be available digitally (Steam specifically)?

  102. Is there a place to see the full list of Asia birds right now? Or will we have to wait until the full game is released

  103. Will the Nest Box be released at the same time as the Asia Expansion so both can be ordered at the same time? Will you use other retailers like Amazon, Gamenerdz, Mianiature Market, etc.?

    1. Early access isn’t a Champion benefit. Products go live on our webstore at the same time for everyone. Champions get a 20% discount and their orders are shipped first within each region.

  104. Man guys, you didn’t have to go this hard. I was just hoping for another European expansion with some extra powers and end round goals. This is so much more!

    1. That was my thought, too, and I love the extra effort they’ve given to really over-deliver on expectations!

  105. It looks like there are no new end of round goals added with this expansion. Is this correct? Also, on the rose-ringed parakeet, does “neighbor” include everyone at the table or only the players directly to your right and left? I can foresee this causing an argument at our table!

    1. It’s partially correct. There are end-of-round goals included for the Duet mode, but not new goals to mix with the core game.

      A “neighbor” in Wingspan is defined as the players to your immediate left and right.

  106. Oooooh, major information incoming! Thanks for the major & super exciting update! On first glance I love the additional focus on 2-Player. It seems all the great games are getting a Duel version at the minute & it is a very welcome & exciting trend. Making both and a standalone 2p and an expansion at the same time is genius and a move that literally noone saw coming – I salute you & Elizabeth!

    Flock mode seems interesting – not least because I have no idea how a double pointed dial can give everyone equal turns on a 7 player game?? The geometry of that just shouldn’t work :-D. I don’t think there was technically anything stopping a 10 player game just now with base & Oceania boards though (if you have invested in additional bird meeples). Love how it’s trying to move the hobby on though in terms of pacing & bigger groups.

    It is a bit disappointing that there’s no new end of round goals as these are definitely the area that had a a big fun injection 2 years ago with Oceania and was hoping for a few more to keep things fresh. 11 brand new Bonus cards are very welcome though, as long as they aren’t super contrived (the columns and ascending/descending ones in Oceania were a tad, and aren’t enough reward when opponents are getting 2 points for each rat!). It’s also a bit sad that ‘Historian’ is being advised to come out if shuffling into base game – it is easily one of the most fun to do. Is there any scope to keep it in and have a house rule to give an additional point for completing either criteria on it to reflect reduced overall percentage of the cards? Would this be horrifically imbalanced? I suppose we could add humerous first names to 10% of the new birds….. ‘Jeff’s Asian Koel’, ‘Brian’s Red Junglefowl’, but that doesn’t seem quite right given how much research and accuracy has lovingly gone into making the base game & expansions.

    90 new beautiful bird cards is all the reason anyone needs to get this bad boy & will be a day one Pre-Order for myself. The extra birds shown in the rulebook all sound just as cool as the others you have already shown. Love the focus on ‘push your luck’.

    Overall a fantastic effort & very worthy of the biggest continent!

      1. You might want to consider including quick reference charts in the future for all of the ‘if using this bird/expansion do this’ rules. Are the new dice the same as the original game or do they have a new ‘lineup?’

        1. Check out the Asia rulebook–I think you’ll see here how we’ve accomplished that goal. :) And yes, the dice are the same as the core game.

  107. My housemates are definitely going to enjoy trying out the two-player game.

    Was there any testing or consideration towards using the Flock mode with 4/5 players? Wingspan can run a bit long for some at the higher end of its player count, so I’m wondering if having two active players would work even if it splits the group into 2+2 or 2+3.

    1. Flock mode’s dial doesn’t work with fewer than 6 players, but something like that could potentially be implemented for 5-player games.

      1. Woud live to hear more if there’s any balance concerns of this mode at 4/5 players. Definitely have a huge interest in trying it there, and seems like even without a dial that two big “active player” markers you pass around would be a decent substitute.

        1. There’s a little less interaction and less cycling of birds and food, but feel free to try it at 5 to let us know what you think!

          1. Thanks! That makes sense and seems like a fair tradeoff to me. Excited to try it and the rest of the expansion!

  108. Not sure if this has been asked yet, but is this playable with 3-5 players as an expansion to the original game? I can only see rules for 1,2, and 6-7.
    Thanks!

    1. Yes, that’s noted on the box and the first and second pages of the rules and on this webpage (“these new bird and bonus cards can be combined with the base game and/or previous expansions.”)

    1. There are 2 players mats included in Wingspan Asia; they are double sided (one side with the standard format and one side with Oceania). If you would like rubber playmats for 6-7 players, they’re available on our webstore and are completely compatible.

  109. SO excited for the new details! Cannot wait; it seems you have crafted another great expansion and we are very excited.

    My question: if I wanted to mix in the new Asia expansion birds into the larger deck (NA+EE+OE), but also retain the ability to play a standard 2-player with just AE cards, is there a way to purchase a second pack of AE cards without buying the whole game twice? Or would I need to manually pull the AE cards out from the larger deck each time?

    1. Jack: We don’t sell cards on their own, so if you want to play AE with just AE cards, you’ll need to separate those cards. There isn’t necessarily a need to do that, though–you can play Wingspan with any combination of cards.

    1. Feuerland will have a few German copies at Spiel 22, but we won’t be there, and that’s a few weeks before our preorder begins anyway (early November).

  110. If we wanted the Asia Expansion box for display/collecting purposes could it still be shipped inside the nesting box to save on shipping?

    1. No, as that would require fulfillment center employees to open the shrinkwrap of a complete copy of Wingspan Asia, dump out the components (which would then be unsellable), open the outer packaging and shrinkwrap of the Nesting Box, put the Wingspan Asia box inside, and package it back up. Not only would it be an environmental waste, but it would take 10x longer to ship that one copy than any other copy of the Nesting Box.

      If you really want the Wingspan Asia box, you’ll need to buy Wingspan Asia by itself. The entire point of the Nesting Box is to negate the need for other boxes. Instead, I would recommend supporting the Wingspan artists, Natalia and Ana, by buying a print of the Wingspan Asia box art from their webstore (see info on the Nesting Box page).

      1. Hi Jamey,
        Wth the Nesting box saving on packaging for Asia, could you could produce versions of subsequent expansions that come in cheaper/more sustainable packaging for Nesting Box owners, or would splitting the packaging run make that a financial non-starter? I am personally open to receiving Wingspan Africa in a brown paper bag like it was some sort of contraband :D

        1. ffishey: This is indeed something we’re exploring with expansions for various brands, though it depends heavily on what components are in the expansion.

  111. I am fairly certain that this is part of the surprise that you will be revealing later, but I’ll ask anyways. What are those red corners on the Red Junglefowl card? New game mechanic?

    1. It’s just the indicator of the expansion cards so they can be removed easily if you don’t want to play them. There are similar marks on the European and Oceania cards, just in a different color.

      1. That’s what the circle at the bottom right is for. It indicates the expansion (EE, OE, etc.).
        This question was about the colored triangles at the top right and bottom left corners. Currently, those colored triangles are only.present elsewhere in the Swift Start pack. Plus, Jamey has already revealed other cards from this expansion that don’t have the triangles, so that’s not it.

        1. Oh, the triangles! Yeah, I would guess that they’re part of something like the swift pack. It seems like they’re typically very consistent with their card designs.

          1. This will all make sense soon, and while there is an element of consistency to it, there’s also another factor in play that I’ll explain when I reveal the full product.

  112. Hi There! I am a Wingspan fan from Hungary. Do you have any information whether the expansion will be available in Hungarian as well in the near future?

    1. That’s a great question for Delta Vision, our publishing partner in Hungary. :) Feel free to ask them to see if that’s information they’re ready to reveal.

    2. Hi Ágnes! I did contact them via Facebook and got the answer that they will publish the Hungarian version, as they did all previous expansions, but no further info to reveal yet.

  113. If we order through the webstore, will some of those orders have the gold stamp of first print run? Asking because I’d actually prefer one without it!

    1. I’m not sure what the gold stamp is that you’re referring to–there’s nothing on the above page about a gold stamp–but if you’re looking to not get a first printing copy of Wingspan Asia, you can wait until 2023.

      1. Hi Jamey, I was referring to the numbers of the first print run (e.g. 2309 of 5000) that were printed on Libertalia. Thanks for your response. Looking forward to the expansion.

    1. Diana: Please fill out our replacement parts form. If the card has a number on it, please enter that number on the form. Also, you’re commenting on the Wingspan Asia page, but no one has Wingspan Asia yet; on the form, please note exactly where the card came from (i.e., Wingspan, Wingspan European, or Wingspan Oceania). https://stonemaiergames.com/about/replacement-parts/

  114. I just became a Stonemaier Champion. Will the 20% discount be valid if I order the Wingspan Asia expansion through your webstore?

  115. Ooooh pretty bird, & an earlier update then expected which is cool andis this a sign intervals are reducing or design diary may be only 5 or 6 weeks away? Love the dynamic this will lead to where people have the option of tucking birds they know someone else is just about to draw, only to risk revealing an even better bird for them!

  116. Hello, got a few questions please. The cards and abilities represent the birds attributes or behaviour in some way. Birds that cache food do in real life, birds that have tucked cards go in flocks or are birds of prey etc.

    I presume the same is true for the Asia expansion, but in the example cards shown how is this the case in their powers?

    My other questions are about the nesting box, does it save space over the expansion and original box and do you recommend any third party food tokens etc or deluxification addons or will you be releasing your own in the future? Thank you.

    Love the game a group favourite and have a keen ornithologist in the group who would play it everytime we meet usually weekly, the production and art work is beautiful.

    1. Yes, all bird powers are designed specifically for the corresponding birds, though abilities are certainly abstracted. Sometimes the connection is easily seen by reading the flavor text; sometimes it’s in Elizabeth’s mind, which I don’t have access to. We’ll share more about this when we’ve shown more than just 2 cards.

      The Nesting Box is quite big–you can see the dimensions on its page: https://stonemaiergames.com/games/wingspan/wingspan-nesting-box/ I’d say it’s about the same size as the core game and all expansion boxes combined.

      There are many, many third-party accessory creators for Wingspan (from bigger companies like Meeplesource and Top Shelf Gamer to individual Etsy creators making tokens by hand). We support these creators by (a) letting any accessory creator make non-gameplay tokens within our guidelines without charging a royalty and without supporting any one creator over the others and (b) by not making deluxe tokens ourselves (so as to not undercut these passionate creators).

      1. Thanks will be getting the expansion, have to see with my wife about the large box. She is into minimalism so maybe I can sell it by saying it minimises the amount of boxes.

        As for access to Elizabeth’s mind, I thought telepathy was a thing nowadays, or maybe I’m watching too many super hero films 😉

  117. Super excited for this, also love how you take the time to respond in the comments section in here. Love the awesome community. Thanks Jamey!

  118. Could you consider adding updated bonus cards instead of references in the manual. I really missed that in previous expansions. It’s a small thing but makes a difference!

    1. Wingspan Asia is already printed, but I haven’t revealed what is or isn’t in it, so let’s wait until I reveal this type of thing before assuming we have or haven’t already done something. :)

      1. Sure no problem 😊. Just some feedback based on the previous expansions. We really love the game and play very often! Looking forward to this expansion 👍.

    1. Make sure to let Siam Board Games know that you want it–the decision is always in our localization partners’ hands, not ours. :)

  119. Cannot edit original comment so I am writing this to apologize for misspelling Jamey’s name and also that I saw your comments about this crane on a BGG thread. Thank you for your continued engagement with the community!

  120. Hello Jamie and team, very excited about the upcoming expansion and nest box. Wondering if the reveal of this Red-Crowned Crane confirms we will never get the promo Red-Crowned Crane in English/other languages? Thank you

    1. This is the promo, but included in Wingspan Asia. Yes, the original (only in Chinese) had a different design, but it was a copy of another card. So this is the real deal. The other one shouldn’t have existed in the first place.

  121. That is a great new!!!! Is it possible topreorder it in italian? i like so much the idea to donate to several bird association!
    Than i have an extra question , DO you think it will be possible to Stonemaier to consider the idea to make a special collector card envelop with some birds of the previous expansions with the majestic birds we are missing from America Europa, Oceania… Personally i am a huge fan of QUetzal, and 3 Wattled Bellbird it’s incredible that we doesn t have it in cards , they just live in center America ( North America so )
    also Wood Grouse or the Black Grouse for Europe, and more…. It will be a big dream to play with these ivery inspiring Birds. It could be easy to make a special small collection for the lovers… It s long time i wanna share this idea , i am pretty proud i did it, i have all your expansions, and i can t wait for Asia one. thanks to listen. Hugs

    1. Yes, Ghenos will offer an Italian version of Wingspan Asia.

      If you have some birds you’d like us to consider in the future, check out the form on the main Wingspan page of our website–that’s where we collect bird suggestions. :)

      1. Thank you so much Jamey, that sounds greate!!!! and thanks to tell me about the bird suggestion form, i didn t read that part!!!! so i just suggested a coupple of birds!! i really hope you guys will thake them in consideration . thank u again sooo much!!!

  122. I allready do have a question about this bird. You discard a bonuscard to gain points (tokens on the bird), but can you take back the same bonuscard from the discardpile if you play the bird (don’t know the name right now) who say’s search the discarded bonuscards and take one of them. If so, it makes it possible to score 2 times the same bonuscard.

      1. Thanks for the answer. Yes, that was my question. I thought perhaps the discarded bonuscard must go out permanently out of play for the rest of the game, because you have scored it. Great bird and action!

  123. Hello !

    I would like to order the Nesting box by preorder fulfillment from fulfillment centers in Europe for a shipping to France or even Réunion if it is possible when it will be available of course. How will I have to proceed to do so ? Will it be an order to do on Stonemaeir Games’s website too ?

    Thank you very much for your answer !

    1. Just so this comment doesn’t confuse anyone, this is not something that exists. We’ve said it is *possible* that we will someday make promo packs, but none are currently in the works.

  124. What does “Wingspan Asia Expansion within the Nesting Box” actually entail?

    Does it mean I won’t get the box for Wingspan Asia Expansion? I don’t want to miss out on it.

    Or does it mean the Wingspan Asia Expansion box is included, only that it lies within the Nesting Box?

  125. Hello :)

    Under the localization section, I didn’t see anything about the Hungarian version. The core game and the previous 2 expansions were made by Deltavision, is the Asia expansion also going to be made by them?

    Thanks :)

  126. Dear Jamey,
    me and a few friends are Wingspan-Fans, based in Germany. We enjoy playing very, very much and do look forward to the Asia Expansion. Will the game also be available in German language already in Q4?
    btw: it’s a wonderful game, so well thought through and beautifully designed. We are addicts!
    Barbara

    1. Thanks Barbara! That’s a great question for you to ask Feuerland, our German partner for Wingspan–it’s their information to share when they’re ready.

  127. In the FAQ it says:
    Can I play this expansion without the Wingspan core game? Is it balanced if I mix and match various components?

    You can mix and match as you wish. The various mixes are balanced (including bonus card percentages, within a percentage point or so).

    I feel like this didn’t really answer the question: “Can I play this expansion without the Wingspan core game?” I’m assuming you can’t, but I feel like you could make it more clear, because I feel like it just kind of ignores that.

    Thanks for everything; I’m super pumped for the expansion!

  128. Are there any additional mechanics or powers etc with this expansion, or is it just a combination of what is in the other 2?
    Thanks.

    1. We welcome speculation and discussion about Wingspan Asia on our website, in the Wingspan Facebook group, and on BoardGameGeek, but for now the only information and details we will officially reveal are images of individual bird cards. We’ll answer questions about Wingspan Asia during the full reveal in early Q4 2022.

  129. Hi, I’m a Stonemaier Champion and have a couple questions: do you foresee restocking some of your sold out games in time for the holidays? I’m wanting to reduce the number of orders I place to save on shipping costs when the wingspan expansion/nesting box are released. The game I’m hoping will be in stock would be Between Two Castles of Mad king Ludwig. Second question, if I’m in St Louis, would I be able to arrange for local pickup? I feel like I remember you being in St Louis, but I may be confusing you with another company.

    Thanks!

    1. Thanks for being a Champion, Lauren! The warehouse we outsource to in St. Louis does not allow pickups, unfortunately (I’m based in St. Louis too, but I work from home).

      We do have a number of reprints in the works to restock our webstore, including Between Two Castles, which should arrive a little earlier than Wingspan Asia and the Nesting Box. If you sign up for a back-in-stock notification on our webstore, we’ll let you know as soon as it arrives.

      1. Great! In that scenario, would I be able to order Castles when it’s ready and pre-order the nesting box at the same time, assuming both would ship together when the nesting box is in stock?

        1. Lauren: Yes, you can do that if you’d like. The Nesting Box is so big that it’ll necessitate a box on its own (I don’t think you’ll save much on shipping by combining other items with it), but if that’s your preferred approach, you’re welcome to do that. :)

  130. I’m so glad there will be an another expansion to my favorite game. We have many new board games, Wingspan is still my favorite.

  131. I’d love to see Wingspan’s gameplay adapted to marine mammals…
    will there be entirely new mechanics in this expansion like nectar in Oceania? Or just more content like Europe’s expansion?

    1. We welcome speculation and discussion about Wingspan Asia on our website, in the Wingspan Facebook group, and on BoardGameGeek, but for now the only information and details we will officially reveal are images of individual bird cards. We’ll answer questions about Wingspan Asia during the full reveal in early Q4 2022.

      1. A couple of thoughts:
        1) Looking at the “Setup tray” on the Nesting Box” images – where it shows space for 2 sets of dices – one for default/Europe game and one for the Oceania exp. with nectar – and quoting from there “The top layer is designed to hold (…) two sets of 5 player mats, as well as the rulebooks and the goal mat. (…) future expansion rulebooks can fit” I assume that there won’t be new player mats (like the Oceania exp.) or they would make space for at least 3 sets of 5 player mats nor new rss type / dices set. Moreover i guess that there won’t be any of both in future expansions since the Nesting Box has been designed to presumably hold all future expansions as well.
        2) FAQ states “We don’t make any expansions that depend on other expansions”. That confirms my guess that not only the Oceania Exp. is and will be the only one introducing new mats and rss type, but also that future expansions (like this one: Asia) won’t use nectar nor the Oceania mats but the original ones (food types and mats).
        That would leave the Oceania exp. as a sort of standalone – one of a kind expansion – not really mixable with the others unless played only with its own mat and one whose cards – or at least some of them which refer to nectar – shall have to be removed while playing with the original game and other expansions. I have no problem with that if I play with the already released expansions but .. what when new expansions (like this one Asia) are relased? The overall percentage of “Oceania exp. cards” within the total of the cards available will progressively become thinner to the point that it will represent a little portion of the game, while affecting the other expansions as well.
        How have you solved the problem? Have you put a set of rules that allow Oceania cards (nectar related) to be played without nectar and with the original mat? Or have you put a set of rules that allow any other exp (like Asia, but not only Asia at this point) to be played with the Oceania mat and nectar?
        Ty for your answer (if you can give one :-)).

  132. This is so exciting! My only concern is that I thought there were 2 more expansions, and I thought they would be South America and Africa. Does this mean you’re going to have to pick one out of those two magnificent continents and leave the other?

    In any case, thank you for making the new expansion!

    1. We’ve always said the plan is to make one expansion per continent, so after Wingspan Asia, we still have Africa, Latin/South America, and Antarctica.

      1. This is terrific news. We have been enjoying each new expansion, and I wanna see ostriches!!

  133. Hoping much for 6th player with this expansion so awaiting for more details. I think it was mentioned mentioned earlier you were considering this for one of future expansions.

  134. I’m curious, AFTER the Nesting Box, will future expansions have an “eco” box option, for those who will immediately throw out the packaging of Africa/South America/new continent to put the components into the box box? Because I’d definitely pick that option if it were available.

    1. That’s a great question, Mary, and I appreciate the eco-awareness. It depends on the components in the expansion, but it’s certainly something we’ll try to do.

  135. Please include the Eurasian coot! They look like “emo ducks” and should be in wingspan!

    1. We’re already in production for Wingspan Asia, and you’ll be able to find out in a few months if we’ve included this bird. :)

    1. If they made a 52 card deck of paying cards featuring the artwork from the game I would definitely buy it! I’ll bet others would be similarly excited for a Scythe or Viticulture deck of playing cards too.

  136. Hello Jamey,
    will the big box with asia expension for the first printing be available in french or they will be sold seperatly?

    Thanks!

  137. I don’t know if this counts as a spoiler question or not (since it is visible on the site) but I’m going to ask anyway. Does the change in naming convention on your site for “Wingspan Asia” imply that this will be a 2nd core set?

  138. Hi Jamey, our group loves Wingspan. Will there be a PVP expansion at some point? Could be a really interesting dynamic if you could steal an egg, food (without them drawing from the feeder)… or even steal a card from another players tableau!

    1. It sounds like you’re looking for a different game, John! :) That’s not in the spirit of Wingspan.

      1. We completely agree with you, Jamey! Thanks for not going this route. Although we enjoy those types of games and play them often as well, Wingspan is our fav! Thanks for all you & your creative team do!

  139. Best news of the summer! Certainly made the day of everyone in my household. My fiance is Nepalese and we are desperately hoping to manifest the inclusion of Nepal’s national bird, the Himalayan monal (aka danphe/danfe). No matter what, we couldn’t be more excited for more Wingspan!

  140. SUPER excited for this expansion! Admittedly (and proudly), we are Wingspan addicts and have enjoyed both the online and board game versions. We use a 6-deck card shuffler to enjoy all of the birds in one sitting.

    The artwork on the Indian Peafowl is beautiful, of course, and it’s fun to get a preview! The language is a bit confusing as to who would draw the cards first / in what order. Sounds like you wouldn’t be restricted to drawing from the deck, since that is usually specified. Would the person playing the card draw two, then go clockwise to the other players, then the person playing draws one final card (similar to American Oystercatcher)? Maybe the supporting manual will clarify but it’s always helpful to remove any ambiguity on the card itself if possible.

    Thanks again and look forward to getting this expansion (as well as seeing each of these eventually added online)!

    1. I think it’s a global rule in Wingspan that unless a card states otherwise, the current player chooses first, then the choice continues around the table.

      1. Wow, thanks for responding and so quickly! I do see this new card does say to draw from the deck, so my prior comment on that doesn’t apply. Even with the assumption re the current player drawing from the deck first, this Indian Peafowl card isn’t clear as to each player drawing 2 cards, “Starting with you…” (as with American Oystercatcher) and then the person who played the card draws a 3rd card or if it’s two times of drawing 1 card each with the original player drawing a 3rd card. This affects which cards might end up in the players hands. Completely understand not wanting to get too wordy but maybe changing the language a little could ensure it’s played as intended and players aren’t left to wonder.

        Either way, it’s about having fun, learning about these incredible beings and supporting entrepreneurs and this great company! Thank you for the many hours of joy you have provided and for taking environmental factors into consideration as well!

        1. I think this is great feedback to consider for the future–thank you! As noted on the above page, Wingspan Asia is already well into production, so we cannot make changes to the text. Fortunately, we’re talking about a random card draw, so it doesn’t really matter who draws first. :)

  141. I can’t wait to see what mechanics, card colors, and/or round goals will be introduced! We literally just got Viticulture World with the wine crate and we are loving that, but knowing that another expansion for this is right around the corner? Oh heck yea!!!! We are definitely enjoying your games, keep the hits coming!!

  142. This is so exciting to hear! I’d love to hear birds that people hope to see in the expansion. I am hoping for the Golden Pheasant, Red Chicken fowl (which is pretty much a chicken), the Hoopoe, the Pheasant-tailed Jacana, the Sri Lanka Blue Magpie, and many parrots and birds of paradise.

    1. I’m excited to look into the birds you mentioned some more! The Sri Lanka blue magpie is a beautiful corvid! My fiance is Nepalese and they are really hoping to see Nepal’s national bird, the Himalayan monal (aka danphe/danfe). It’s a beautiful rainbow pheasant and was actually the inspiration for the Pixar character, Kevin!

      1. The Himalayan Monal is definitely a gorgeous bird! I’m hoping it will be in the expansion too. Maybe the Pixar character will be the fact on the bottom of the bird card.

  143. Will the Nesting Box also be available stand alone without Wingspan Asia? For people that so far have everything in another language…

    1. From us, the first printing of the Nesting Box will only include Wingspan Asia. But some of our localization partners are also making the Nesting Box, and we’ll make more units in the future without the expansion inside.

  144. I love that the cards have color coded the expansion symbol. telling europe and Oceania apart is difficult.

  145. Awesome! Can’t wait to play the Asia expansion. Wingspan is a great and relaxing game. One of my all time favorites.

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