Dragons and Caverns: This week We Played Wyrmspan

This week my group played Wyrmspan for the first time. Wyrmspan is a strategy game for 1-5 players, and is recommended for ages 14 and up. This game was designed by Connie Vogelmann and published by Stonemaier Games. The stunning dragon art was created by Clementine Campardou. Each game takes roughly 90 minutes. This is a spin-off of Wingspan, using the same core game engine. There are some new mechanics that are listed in the instructions, but as I have not played Wingspan, I cannot speak to the differences between the two.

Gameplay Mechanics

Wyrmspan may not have much player interaction, but still has some great mechanics to make the game come alive and keep players engaged in the game even when it’s not their turn.

The game is played over four rounds, with each round continuing for as many turns as players can manage to perform an action. Players start each round with six coins. Most actions cost at least one coin, with the cost for these actions getting more expensive as the round continues. 

Players will take turns, performing one action at a time, until each player passes. This means that if you can manage to gain extra coins by playing cards or activating abilities, you’ll have the chance to get some extra turns. 

However, at the end of each round, each player must discard down to 9 cards, 9 coins, and 9 resource tokens. This way, it’s challenging to save up and have a ton of extra coins (turns) at the end of the game. 

The goal in Wyrmspan is to earn the most Victory Points. There are a few different ways to earn Victory Points, with each being equally available to all players. There are no hidden objectives, which prevents players from having a secret cache of Victory Points that they can pull out at the end of the game. Everything is on the table, as long as you pay attention to what your opponents are doing.

 Each turn, players get to choose one of three actions to perform: Excavate, Entice, or Explore. Excavating allows you to clear out a section of a cavern by playing a cave card into a cavern on your player mat. This makes room for you to entice dragons there in the future. In addition, the cave cards typically have effects that activate when you play them, which can allow you to gain resources or other cards.

Enticing allows you to lure a dragon into one of your caves, using resources like milk or meat. Some dragons have abilities that happen when  they are played, often granting you resources. Other dragons, such as Hatchlings, will grant you recurring abilities. These will activate whenever specific requirements have been met.

Exploring allows you to walk through one of your caverns, activating any recurring dragon abilities you pass. The Player Board also has some activation abilities printed on it, which ensures that each cavern will give you something, even if your dragons don’t have activated abilities. You can only go as deep into your cavern as your dragons are protecting, so Excavating and Enticing are worthwhile to be able to get all of the benefits of Exploring. 

Each round, all players will be competing to finish a shared objective. These objectives can be things like having the most of a certain type of dragon in your caverns, or having the most resources at the end of the round. The player who comes in first gets the most victory points, with the amount decreasing for each subsequent player. 

Finally, there is the Guild Board. You get to move your token on the Guild Board whenever you play a card that activates it, or you Explore and walk past an activation. The Guild Board gives you resources, cards, and sometimes Victory Points.

Game End

The game ends when all players pass on the fourth round. Then, everyone adds up their Victory Points from their dragons, resources, and objectives. Whoever has the most Victory Points at the end, wins! And, in the case of ties, the player with the most dragons wins

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Components

The art on Wyrmspan is gorgeous, with many unique and imaginative dragons featured on the cards. The landscapes on the Player Boards and the Cave cards are also gorgeous and add to the overall theme remarkably well.

Wyrmspan also includes a book that features all of the different dragons in the game. The book gives information about each dragon, such as their size, nature, and diet. It also has a small paragraph about each one. 

The cards themselves are high quality and feel nice in your hand. The tokens are very thick and durable, and the Eggs are fun and unique. The game also includes several plastic containers to store the pieces in. When playing the game, the boxes for components can be used to separate all of the different resources so you don’t risk losing any. In my opinion, this adds a lot of value, especially when playing in large groups. 

My Thoughts

We had a lot of fun playing Wyrmspan, and it is incredibly easy to get the hang of. The turns are fast-paced and simple, and the rulebook is laid out very well. Unfortunately, you might not have a great opening hand, and it can be difficult to draw dragon cards in the beginning of the game. This can lead to a player feeling stuck. However, in later rounds, we found that your options do open up.

There are enough dragon and cave cards to make each game feel different, as you won’t get through all of the types of cards in one playthrough.  There are also several different possible objectives for each round, which makes each game feel fresh.

In Conclusion

Wyrmspan is very good at what it does. It is a strategy game that feels very attainable for new players, in part due to the limited number of actions you can take. More experienced players can still get a lot out of this game, due to the variety in dragon and cave abilities. 

This is definitely a game that we will pull out often. It’s great for introducing new players to strategy games, and also on the lower end of play-time for the genre, so we won’t have to dedicate an entire night to it. 

While the early game can cause some frustration if you have a poor starting hand, it picks up very quickly and the rounds fly by.

I would recommend Wyrmspan to any group who loves dragons or strategy games, especially if you don’t have the time to dedicate an entire night to a game.