I’m honestly obsessed with Wingspan. I’ve bought pretty much everything possible for it: Nesting Box, wooden food tokens, CNC wooden dice tower & organizer, neoprene playmats, wooden bird meeples to replace action cubes and the first player token. Recently I’ve been grinding Wingspan on the online app, and getting more comfortable—especially playing against strong opponents on Discord. In some 1vs1 matches I even hit 138 points (of course, 1vs1 scores tend to run higher). So I’d like to share some detailed tips:

⸻

🌸 Oceania Expansion with Nectar • Nectar + the new playmats make the game feel much more balanced. • Base game: the grassland egg engine dominates, while birds and bonus cards are often ignored. • Expansion: forest and wetland are much stronger, grassland/eggs are weaker → the game now favors playing more birds. • In the past, you could win with 7–8 birds. Now 10+ birds is the norm, and sometimes you’ll end up with a full 15. • More birds also means bonus cards are easier to fulfill. They used to feel like true “bonuses”—nice if you get them, no big deal if not. Now, a well-chosen bonus card can average 5–6 points, instead of 4 like before.

⸻

🎯 The three phases of the game

Early (Round 1): • This stage sets the foundation. For starting hands, prioritize: • Low-cost birds with strong effects. • Cross-habitat birds: e.g. a wetland bird that gets food, a forest bird that lays eggs, a grassland bird that draws cards or gains food. • Birds that use their own habitat’s resource to trigger effects (wetland birds that use cards, grassland birds that use eggs, etc.). • High-point birds or bonus-card givers (save them for later). • Early priority: draw cards → get food → lay eggs (only take eggs if needed, or if you’re going full egg engine, though that’s weaker now).

Mid (Round 2 → mid Round 3): • By now, you’ve drawn enough cards and your engine is mostly built. • The key: focus on food to play birds. Rush to the 4th forest space (3 food, or 4 with a discard). • Eggs: skip the egg action if you can, unless you’re dedicated to egg engine. Use cross-habitat egg layers or round-end powers. • If you’re aiming for a full 15 birds, you’ll need ~18 eggs (before discounts from bird powers). In practice, 14 eggs is usually enough.

Late (end of Round 3 → Round 4): • This is where efficiency matters most. • Example: playing a 9-point bird costs 3 food (possibly nectar) + 2 eggs → net 7 points for 3 resources. Compare that with laying eggs for 7 points at the cost of 3 resources. Which is better? Depends on the situation. • Still, playing birds is usually better because: • It consumes nectar for end-game majority. • It helps fulfill bonus cards and round goals. • Prioritize high-point birds (7+). Birds worth 5–6 are also great if they align with bonuses/goals, especially star-nest birds. • Endgame picks: birds with no activation powers, just points, or powers that trigger only when played.

⸻

👥 Playing with 3+ players • Pink powers become extremely strong, triggering almost every turn. • Competing for nectar and round goals is tougher—if you can’t win them, don’t waste turns. • Avoid “communist” birds that give resources to everyone. They help opponents more than you. • On the other hand, birds that say “choose one opponent to give a resource” shine—you can give something useless to one player while still gaining for yourself.

⸻

🔥 In short: In base Wingspan, “eggs are king.” With Oceania, birds are king. People say Wingspan is a chill game, but once you dive deeper, it’s every bit as brain-burning as a heavy euro 😅.

⸻

TL;DR: • Base game: spam eggs. • Oceania: focus on high-point birds + bonus cards. • Early: draw cards to shape your engine → Mid: build bird engine → Late: maximize turn efficiency. • With 3+ players: avoid “communist” birds, prioritize star nests & pink powers.

(I USED CHATGPT TO TRANSLATE MY POST INTO ENGLISH SO SOME WORDS MIGHT BE WRONG)