Publisher: Stonemeier Games
Age: 10+
Players: 1 – 5 players
MSRP: $50.00
Release: Stonemeier Games
After tackling birds and dragons, Stonemeier Games’ next entry into the “span-o-verse” is all about fish. Finspan is a lighter and even more kid-friendly game than its older brother, Wingspan, while maintaining the series’ beloved engine building tableau and attractive card art.
Read on for our review of Finspan!
Under the Sea
In Finspan, players take turns either playing fish cards into their personal ocean board, or diving down one of three columns on the board to activate various bonuses (as well as any previously played fish powers).
Food requirements (and dice) have been completely eliminated in favor of using the cards themselves as a common resource, as well as eggs and young.
Without food costs, playing fish cards is far easier, and cards are cycled much faster. In fact, Finspan features a personalized discard pile, and an easy method of retrieving discarded cards. Eggs become more of a carefully managed resource rather than a ballooning victory point mechanic.
Instead of three rows of card slots, the colorful Finspan boards are big and vertical, with three columns representing the different layers of the ocean: Daylight, Twilight, and Midnight. Many fish can only be played in certain zones, or certain columns. Placing fish to maximize dive turns is a key strategy, with many fish generating resources and other benefits.
Of the three diving columns, one provides more cards, one lays eggs on our fish, and the other hatches eggs into young, and moves them around.
Moving young is how we form schools. Any time three young are in a single space, they form a school, which are worth double the victory points compared to three individual young.
Players can focus on forming schools, playing high-value fish cards, or flooding their board with eggs and young — or a combination of all three.
Weekly victory goals guide players to different strategies, with an A side for new players and a B side that randomizes more advanced goals.
I also love that the boards already start with three starter-fish. These fish don’t provide any active effects or end-game points, but having at least one fish in each layer of a column grants players at least some of their diving bonuses right at the start.
Plus, in my favorite fishy mechanic, bigger fish can always eat (be played on) smaller fish, and many predators feature that as a requirement. There’s always a bigger fish!
The Rating
Finspan features the same age rating as Wingspan (compared to Wrymspan’s 14+) and a slightly shorter run time.
As veterans of Wingspan and Wyrmspan, we played Finspan much faster, and my 13 year old liked it the best. The rules are easy to teach, and the open hands make it a breeze for new players and kids. The fun real-world facts also return to the card art, layering an educational aspect onto the game.
The Takeaway
Finspan doesn’t try to change the winning formula of playing cards, and building up your board to take bigger future actions. For tabletop players who bemoan “multiplayer solitaire,” Finspan features even less interaction than other “span” games. But for spanfans, Finspan succeeds as a streamlined version that plays a bit quicker and easier.
Finspan is available directly from Stonemeier Games.
