When Wingpsan debuted back in 2019, it was hit at a level that I don’t think anyone truly expected. A medium weight, watercolor, bird game from the company that makes that big mech game Scythe? Not exactly something we thought would explode like it did. But multiple print runs, expansions, and fan creations later it remains one of the most popular board games to come out in the last ten years (one of the few that I can play with my mom, in fact.) That’s meant new versions from Stonemaier Games to try to play with that winning formula. The first was Wyrmspan, which focused on dragons, and the second was today’s game, Finspan, which returned to the mundane with a focus on the diversity of the oceans rather than the skies. Designed by David Gordon and Michael O’Connell based on Elizabeth Hargrave’s original work, it’s a radical step forward for the “-span” line of games and one that, as far as I can tell, has continued to pay off. So let’s strap on some diving gear and prepare the chum buckets as we, well, dive straight into Finspan.
What’s In The Box?
- 5 Ocean Mats
- 1 Achievement Board
- 9 Achievement Tiles
- 125 fish cards
- 10 Starter Fish Cards
- 30 Divers
- 90 egg/young tokens
- 40 School Tokens
- 1 First Player token
- 5 Player Aids
- 1 Scorepad
- 1 Week Tracker
“Nautoma” Components
- 7 Nautoma decision cards
- 6 Ravel mode scoring cards
- 3 Nautoma achievement cards
- 1 Player Aid
They’ve done a lot of work with the Wingspan spinoffs to make the game smaller and more compact, with Finspan being only slightly larger than one of the individual Wingspan expansions. They’ve done a good job keeping the sprawl down to save on storage space. That doesn’t mean that they’ve sacrificed any of the great production value or art you’d expect from Stonemaier. Anna Marie Martinez Jaramillo and Mesa Schumacher worked to create what I think is the best looking game in the series. Thanks to the darker palettes of the deep backing up the art the colors really pop with a new level of vibrancy.
What’s New? .
As with most Wingspan spinoffs, the core gameplay “loop” is the same (you can find a detailed breakdown here courtesy of our friends Ilya and Tylor): discover a critter in their habitat, add them to your deck, play that critter to use its unique ability and optimally chaining together your critter’s abilities into an engine. But fish, as you may or not be aware, are very different from birds. That means a few tweaks to the formula to fit the new theme.
For one, you’re not so much going through a broad set of habitats in Finspan but instead different levels of the ocean: Sunlight, Twilight, or Midnight. Where you dive dictates certain benefits as well as access to fish unique to that ecosystem e.g. you won’t find a bioluminescent fish in the Sunlight zone. Obviously the traits have changed too, with traits like the aforementioned bioluminescence, electrical discharge, or Uber Predator giving you a lot of fun ways to interact with your habitat.
As you play your fish into the correct zones, you’ll also get opportunities to breed them with eggs, similar to Wingspan, but also some fish get the new ability to “school.” Young fish, like in real life, are able to join up and move together for protection. These are a great way to get young, normally worth one point, to count for six points. Each player gets six divers to use each “week”, and after four weeks (so 24 turns total) the game is ended. The values of your fish, schools, eggs, and consumed fish (if you’re going for predators) are tallied alongside the achievement points from previous weeks to figure out the winner after four weeks of gameplay.
The Verdict?
I love Wingspan and I love fishing, so this is a game I had anticipated from the jump. Luckily it didn’t disappoint. The more streamlined design helped quicken the gameplay and I never got quite as bogged down by the enormity of options as I do in Wingspan. Some of the issues with interactivity remain, as does the need to play through the game a few times to REALLY know how to play strategically, but nothing that is unique to the Wingspan family. Like with another favorite, Oceans, the game is buoyed (heh) by a strong dedication to its theme. Every choice, every mechanic, every piece of art makes sense. It’s a joy to simply play through and discover each fish as you go, seeing how their powers work and even learning about some of the weird and wonderful fish that sometimes get overlooked. Finspan may also be the best entry point to the Wingspan family thanks to how intuitive it is. And hey, it’s about the end of summer here in North America which means this is an ideal game to try out as we enter the cold months but need some sunny, oceanside vibes to keep us going.
You can grab Finspan from the Stonemaier Games shop, Amazon, or your FLGS at an MSRP of $50.00, with plenty of premium add ons should you want to go for that deluxe aquatic experience.
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Images and review copy via Stonemaier Games
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