It was not easy to find a similar list of games like Wingspan. The unique bird sanctuary engine-builder board game is relatively new but already being projected to be a classic. You as a player are trying to grow the most impressive collection of birds, feeding them and helping them grow over time. For 1 – 5 players, Wingspan has elements of drafting, dice rolling, hand management and set collection. If you like that but are looking for something slightly different or just something new that is similar, you have come to the right place. This is the list of 5 games like Wingspan.
FOR MORE: Wingspan Page | How To Play Wingspan | Wingspan Review | Buy Wingspan on Amazon
#05 | Great Western Trail
Great Western Trail’s gameplay similarities are bit more off than the other games on this list of games like Wingspan, but it makes up for it by having animals. No others on this list have that, so if it is the birds you like, you can get cattle here. This one has a density level similar to Wingspan, the setup alone will make your head hurt but it is worth it. Once it starts to flow, the games are really fun. You are basically cowboys in the Old West who need to move cattle and find ranchers to join your team and whatnot. Bonus, some really fun deck-building components in this gem.
FOR MORE: Great Western Trail Page | Games Like Great Western Trail | Buy Great Western Trail on Amazon
#04 | Splendor
Splendor is a much (much) more simplified engine builder but still a modern strategy classic in the making like Wingspan. It is a deep focus on resource management and strategically buying from a community pool of upgrades (cards) that are available. When thinking of games like Wingspan, this aspect is a very key thing, it is just that the bird sanctuary game has more progression and many other mechanics though. In Splendor, you are a gem merchant in a renaissance trying to buy the best goods with your collection of five different gems on a mission to be the first to get the right number of victory points.
FOR MORE: Splendor Page | How to Play Splendor | Splendor Review | Games Like Splendor | Buy Splendor on Amazon
#03 | Gizmos
Gizmos is an engine-building board game where you build, well, engines. This was an easy choice for the list of games like Wingspan. Even though you are doing completely different things, the similarities to Wingspan are big. A great science fair is going down and players are the scientists who will make these amazing machines. A dispenser spits out a random line of marbles that represent energies. You use those energies to do all sorts of things. It is a simple one action per turn game where you are buying cards, but you are also dealing with a complex level of resources to grow and deal with. There are deep strategies and a number of combos that can get going, very much like Wingspan.
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#02 | Rococo
While Rococo probably belongs in the deck-building category than the broader engine-building category like Wingspan, you are managing an operation in a very similar way. Each turn you play one of your employee cards and let that employee perform a task: hire a new employee, buy resources, manufacture a coat or dress, or invest in the ball’s decorations. But not every employee is up to every task, so you must choose and lead your employees wisely — especially since each employee grants a unique bonus and some of these bonuses generate prestige points.
FOR MORE: Buy Rococo on Amazon
#01 | Grand Austria Hotel
What you do with Birds in Wingspan is what you do with hotel guests in Grand Austria Hotel. The game that tops the list of games like Wingspan is there in all the right places, but it is also somehow a brilliant unique experience on its own. In the thick of the Viennese modern age, exquisite cafés are competing for customers. Inspiring artists, important politicians, and tourists from all over the world are populating Vienna and in need of a hotel room. This is your opportunity to turn your little café into a world-famous hotel. Action drafting, contracts, dice rolling, hand management, set collection and more, Grand Austria Hotel has it all.
