How to Teach Wingspan

Wingspan has a lot of small rules, and almost all of them are printed on the player mat. That is good news for a host. Hosts who read the rulebook front to back lose the table somewhere around the birdfeeder. Hosts who point at the mat and say “this row gets bigger” have the table playing in ten minutes.

Here is a script in the order you would say it, with the moments to stop talking. Print the Wingspan teach sheet and set it in the middle of the table.

Before anyone sits down

Set up the shared area first, so the teach starts with the game ready: bird deck and tray, birdfeeder, goal board, goal tiles, bonus deck, and the supply.

Make three choices ahead of time:

• Goal board side. The rulebook calls the blue side good for new players. Use it for a first game. Nobody is ranked, so nobody feels behind.
• Swift-Start or not. Current printings include a Swift-Start pack: 10 birds with grey corners and 4 player guides that help walk new players through their first turns. If everyone is new and your box has it, use it. It does part of your teaching for you.
• Deal now, choose later. Hand each player a mat, 8 cubes, 5 birds, 5 food, and 2 bonus cards, but ask them to wait before choosing what to keep. Real cards make the teach concrete.

One more shortcut: Rulepop, Stonemaier’s official rules reference, has a quick reference you can keep open on a phone during the teach.

Minute 1: the goal

Say: “We each run a wildlife preserve with three habitats. We attract birds to it. Birds are worth points, and many of them have powers that help us later. Most points after four rounds wins.”

Minutes 2 and 3: the mat

Point at the rows, top to bottom.

• “The top row plays a bird.”
• “The forest gains food. The grassland lays eggs. The wetland draws birds.”
• “To use a row, put a cube on its leftmost open spot. See how the numbers grow to the right? Every bird you add covers a spot, so that action gets bigger.”

That last sentence is the heart of the game. Say it slowly.

Minutes 4 and 5: playing a bird

Hold up a bird card.

• “Its food cost is up here in the corner.”
• “It can live in the habitats shown here.”
• “The column also costs eggs. First column is free, the next two cost 1 egg, the last two cost 2.”
• “Short on one food? Any 2 food can pay for 1, but only when you play a bird.”

Minutes 6 and 7: one turn of each row

Do a real example of each action, narrating as you go.

1. Gain food. “Take dice from the birdfeeder one at a time. Each die is one food. If all the dice left show the same face, you can reroll them all first.”
2. Lay eggs. “Put eggs on any of your birds, up to each bird’s limit.”
3. Draw cards. “Take from the three face-up birds or the deck. The tray refills after your turn.”

Then the move that makes it an engine: “After the action, slide your cube right to left. Each brown power it passes can fire. All optional.”

Stop. Ask: “Questions on the four actions?”

Minute 8: rounds and goals

“Four rounds. At the end of each one, one of your cubes goes on the goal board to mark this round’s goal. So you get 8 turns, then 7, then 6, then 5.” Point at the round 1 tile and read it out.

Minute 9: scoring

“Birds score their printed points. Your bonus card scores as written. Goals score on the board. And every egg, cached food, and tucked card is 1 point.” Pause on eggs. New players forget them more than anything else.

Minute 10: choose and start

“Now keep up to 5 birds, and pay 1 food for each one you keep. Keep 1 bonus card.” A gentle tip helps here: “Keep birds you can afford soon, and the food they eat.”

Then the first player goes.

Teach the rest when it happens

• Pink powers. The first time someone plays one, read it to the table and ask everyone to help watch for it.
• Card, food, and egg trades on the mat. Explain them the first time a player reaches one of those slots.
• Cache, tuck, and predator. Explain each when the first bird uses it.
• The empty birdfeeder. Roll all 5 dice back in. Say it once.

What to leave out

• The green goal side. Save ranked goals for game two.
• Expansions and the Automa. One game at a time.
• Bonus card details. Players read their own card. The appendix explains each one.
• Strategy. Let people find their first engine themselves.

Coaching during the first game

Help with the arithmetic, not the decisions. “You can afford that bird in column 2 if you lay an egg first” is helpful. “You should play that bird” is playing for them.

Two reminders do most of the work: watch for pink powers on other players’ turns, and in round 4, ask “Any room left for eggs?”

For the general craft behind a good teach, see our guide on how to teach a board game.