Finspan Board Game Review

There is a trio of board games now in Stonemaier Games’ “Span” franchise and overall I would say they are all really good games. As more come out, you begin to rank them based on how they play and what they do. Preference why, I prefer Wrymspan for a more involved game, and because of that, will probably never play Wingspan again. Finspan, on the other hand, stands alone in my opinion when compared to the other three. Let’s explore why!

My argument for why Wrymspan is fundamentally a better game than Wingspan comes down to resource generation. As it was the only option at the time, I accepted the randomized dice in the bird feeder from Wingspan. Once Wyrmspan came around and changed our resources were dolled out, however, I wasn’t planning on playing Wingspan ever again. In my opinion, Wrymspan fixed the biggest problem I had with Wingspan.

When Finspan was announced, I was curious to see what was going to come from this. Wrymspan is not that old, and honestly had really compelling gameplay. Was Finspan going to be another slight change for the better? Frankly, no. It’s not a slight change at all, but rather an almost entirely new experience.

Before you jump down my throat for that observation, let’s tackle what is the same. You are playing animal cards down into a tableau with some restrictions; in Finspan, it’s sometimes which dive column you can place a fish in, but more often than not it’s a restriction on what depth the fish has to be at. And like with Wrymspan and Wingspan, you will at some point move through columns (rows in the other games) collecting various things that you’ll need to build your engine further.

After that, though, I think things begin to change. Finspan is all about card management, and with resources no longer being a thing – cards are resources, I suppose – you are left with a game that feels pretty different than its predecessors. I love the cardplay in Finspan, and how it works. Remember in Wingspan or Wyrmspan when you got those great cards at the beginning of the game, only to realize it’s better for the late game? That isn’t an issue in Finspan because of how cards are used as resources.

Every card you get in Finspan is yours for the entirety of the game, even if you discard it to pay the cost of another fish. See, the unique mechanic here is that everyone’s discard pile is their own; there is no central discard pile for fish. And there are ways throughout the game to reach into your discard pile and regain fish you previously threw away. That means those great fish you get early in the game – potentially in your opening hand – that you want at the end of the game will be accessible for you later. So go ahead and get your engine going by spending that fish and putting it in your discard pile; you can get it back later!

That mechanic alone makes Finspan so compelling, and why it’s a game I recommend for both new and experienced board game players. Because of the lack of resources, I feel that Finspan is definitely an easier game to teach and play. And since players never have to deal with that threat of a card being completely gone when discarded, there is more freedom, and frankly a lot more strategy, in how you use your cards throughout the game. Further, it takes away that terrible feeling of a poor card draw to start the game. Since you’ll have some starter fish to get you going, even if the additional fish you draw into your hand aren’t great, they can be used to get your slice of the ocean moving in a good direction.

The dive mechanic functions similarly to the other games, where you will dive down and obtain various bonuses. Here, those bonuses sometimes only trigger if you have a fish in specific areas of the ocean. These might give you fish eggs which might need to be spent, or hatch eggs, at fish to your ocean, and more.

There are other things that give this game some depth – creating schools of fish is a neat little puzzle that can be really satisfying when done properly. Moving fish around the ocean to create the schools – which are worth decent points at the end – is an important way to earn some points, so worth doing throughout the game.

This is still a lighter experience, though, when compared to Wingspan and Wrymspan. While I will continue to argue that no one needs to own both Wingspan and Wrymspan, I think Finspan is in its own space and would be a great edition to any board game collection, even if one of the other “span” games is present!