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Wyrmspan is a dragon-themed, standalone engine-building board game with a clear connection to Wingspan. Both games build a personal tableau of cards and pursue scoring opportunities, but Wyrmspan adds an excavation step: players open cave spaces before enticing dragons to live in them. It is a related game, not an official Wingspan sequel.
What is Wyrmspan?
Published by Stonemaier Games and designed by Connie Vogelmann, Wyrmspan replaces Wingspan’s birds with dragons while keeping a recognizable card-driven engine-building foundation. Players develop a personal board of caves and dragons, then work toward points through their growing tableau and other scoring opportunities.
The published listing describes a one-to-five-player game with an approximate play time of 90 minutes. That is a listed estimate, not a guarantee of how long a particular session will take.
How does Wyrmspan play?
Excavate before you invite a dragon
The defining difference is the order of development. In Wyrmspan, players first excavate a cave space and then entice a dragon to occupy it. That extra step gives players another decision to plan around; a review identifies excavation as an added source of planning compared with Wingspan.
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- Dragon Collecting: You are an amateur dracologist in the world of Wyrmspan, a place where dragons of all shapes, sizes, and colors roam the skies. Excavate a hidden labyrinth you recently unearthed on your land and entice these beautiful creatures to roost in the sanctuary of your caves. High quality components include shiny cardboard coins, wooden tokens, high quality printed cards, and beautiful wooden speckled eggs.
- Inspired by Wingspan: While some of the gameplay may feel familiar from Wingspan, there are many new elements that make Wyrmspan a fun, new experience! Designed by Connie Vogelmann (Apiary) and developed by Elizabeth Hargrave (Wingspan). Like Wingspan, Wyrmspan also has gorgeous art and design with unique caves, dragons, and hatchlings. Illustrated in a soothing watercolor by Clémentine Campardou (Floriferous and Delicious).
- Entice and Hatch Dragons: Wyrmspan includes 183 dragon cards (148 full-grown dragons and 35 hatchlings) inspired by animals and fantastical creatures from cultures around the world. Build the most prolific dragon sanctuary in this competitive, engine-building strategy board game.
- Excavate and Explore Caves: Create new space in your sanctuary by excavating caves which gain you helpful bonuses and entice dragons to live there, chaining together powerful abilities and earning the favor of the Dragon Guild.
- Endless Replayability: With so many dragon and cave card combos, this game will return to the table over and over again. Wyrmspan has wonderfully smooth and fast gameplay that will keep it exciting for many game nights to come.
Build an engine and pursue points
Dragons and caves form the core of a player’s developing board. Scoring opportunities also include guild progress, public objectives, eggs, cached resources, tucked cards, and certain items remaining at the end of play. The appeal is in developing a board that can support several ways to score, rather than simply collecting dragons.
How is Wyrmspan different from Wingspan?
| Game | Central theme | Board development | Practical distinction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wingspan | Birds | Build an engine around birds and habitats. | Its engine-building structure is the point of comparison. |
| Wyrmspan | Dragons | Excavate cave spaces, then entice dragons to occupy them. | The excavation prerequisite adds a planning step before placing dragons. |
Both games share an engine-building connection, but the theme and development sequence differ. Whether Wyrmspan feels more enjoyable or more demanding is a matter of player preference; the excavation step is a concrete mechanical difference, not proof that one game is universally better.
Rank #2
- Expansion: Wyrmspan (Base Game) required to play with this beautiful expansion from the same designer, Connie Vogelmann (Apiary), and illustrator - Clémentine Campardou (Floriferous). This expansion box is in eco-friendly packaging designed to be recycled after adding the components to the Wyrmspan base game.
- High Replayability: This expansion adds a wide variety of new dragons, caves, objective tiles, dragon guilds, and a new round tracker that presents you with an income choice when you pass for the round.
- Fledgling Dragons: This is a new dragon type, which can be trained when your explorer passes them in the caves. Once trained, they provide powerful ongoing abilities and exciting end game scoring bonuses.
- New Round Tracker: This will replace the base game tracker board, and it adds a new way to receive income. Instead of the standard 6-coin income, you can choose when you pass to place your adventurer on a different combination of coins, eggs, cards, and resources to best maximize your next round's turns.
- New Condition to Play: There are several dragons with a blue star icon associated with a condition. If you meet that condition when you play the dragon, ignore the dragon's normal play cost!
Is Wyrmspan a Wingspan sequel?
No. It is best described as a related standalone game, not an official numbered sequel. Secondary coverage has used the phrase “spiritual successor” to express its relationship to Wingspan; that label is a framing, not evidence of a direct sequel or a verified quotation from the publisher.
Who might enjoy Wyrmspan?
- Players who like Wingspan’s engine-building: Wyrmspan offers a related card-and-tableau approach with a different theme and an additional cave-development step.
- Dragon fans: Dragons are the focus of the game’s cards and personal board.
- Players who prefer direct comparisons before buying: The key question is whether the excavation-before-placement sequence sounds appealing; preferences about added planning vary.
What about Dragon Academy?
Wyrmspan: Dragon Academy is a possible follow-on for people who already own the base game. It is an expansion, not the starting product for someone looking to try Wyrmspan. Check the current product listing for its contents and compatibility before purchasing; those details are not established here.
Quick Recap
Best Value
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- STRATEGY AND COMPETITION: Compete with 2-3 opponents to expand your settlements and cities while managing resources and avoiding the robber.
- TRADE, BUILD, AND SETTLE: Use brick, wood, wheat, ore, and sheep to construct roads, settlements, and cities in your race to 10 victory points.
- REPLAYABLE AND ENGAGING: With a modular hexagonal board, no two games are the same, offering endless strategic opportunities and replayability.
- FOR FAMILIES AND STRATEGY ENTHUSIASTS: Designed for 3-4 players, ages 10 and up, CATAN 6th Edition is perfect for family game nights and friendly competition. Add the CATAN 5-6 Player Extension (sold separately) to expand your game to 5-6 players.
Rank #4
- Fish Collecting: You are a marine researcher seeking to find and observe an array of aquatic life in the colorful Sunlight Zone, ghostly Twilight Zone, and pitch-black Midnight Zone of the world's seas and oceans.
- Plays in 4 Rounds: Dive into the watery depths to find and observe a vast array of aquatic life over a 4 week (round) period. Each round plays quickly, and the whole game takes around an hour, depending on familiarity with the game and number of players.
- Build Your Engine: Grow your collection of fish, discover freshly laid eggs, hatch eggs into young, and consolidate young to form schools. Earn points, play new fish, help others, and many other abilities! The winner is the player with the most points gained from fish, eggs, young, schools, and achievements.
- Inspired by Wingspan: While some of the gameplay may feel familiar from Wingspan, there are many new elements that make Finspan a fun, new experience! Finspan is a part of the World of Wingspan, along with Wyrmspan, and explores aquatic life with lighter, more entry-level gameplay mechanisms.
- High Replayability: Finspan includes 135 unique fish cards and 9 different achievement tiles, which means that this game provides endless opportunities for fish combinations and discovery.
Rank #3
- Bird Collecting: You are bird enthusiasts - researchers, bird watchers, ornithologists, and collectors - seeking to discover and attract a beautiful and diverse network of birds to your wildlife preserve.
- Build Your Engine: Gain food tokens via custom dice in a birdfeeder dice tower, lay eggs using egg miniatures in a variety of colors, draw from over 170 unique bird cards and play them. Each bird extends a chain of powerful combinations in one of your habitats. Earn points, play new birds, help others, and many other abilities!
- Award Winning: WIngspan is the 2019 winner of the prestigious Kennerspiel des Jahres award, along with many others!
- High Replayability: WIth 170 unique bird cards, 26 bonus goal cards, and 8 goal tiles, Wingspan provides endless opportunities for bird combinations and goal achievements, making this a great gift for families, teenagers, students, couples, and anyone who loves birds and nature.
- For families, solo gamers, and game groups alike: This medium weight, set collection and hand management strategy game for 1-5 players has a 60-90 minute playing time with only a 6 minute setup time. Great game for couples, solo gamers, 2 players, family, and friends. Includes swift-start pack for first time player guidance.
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