Winging Your Way Through Asian Skies – Wingspan – Asia Expansion App Review

Do you think Monster Couch is now satisfied?

They are the developer of the app version of the very well-regarded tableau-building card game, Wingspan.

They have now released the final available expansion for Wingspan, Wingspan Asia, so they are caught up with the board game!

Until the new expansion comes out in 2026, but still…

I’ve previously reviewed the base game as well as the other two expansions, so it was a pleasure to finally get my hands on this one.

Way back in 2022, Stonemaier Games and Elizabeth Hargrave released the Asia expansion with artwork by Ana Maria Martinez Jaramillo and Natalia Rojas.

The Oceania expansion added a bunch of new things that changed the game (namely Nectar and new player boards).

While Asia isn’t quite so radical, it adds a new play mode for two players, which isn’t quite as controversial as Oceania but has made some people question the need since Wingspan already plays well with two players.

But let’s get into all that was before I run out of breath.

Too late.

Let’s talk about the 2-player game first, because that’s the biggest modification to the game system.

Called “Duet” (though it is still competitive), this mode adds a little map where you place tokens down when you place a bird on your tableau.

When you play a bird, you can mark off any space in that habitat that the bird fits.

So if the bird is a Forest bird and eats grains, you can cover the grain space in the Forest (the green area up top, if it’s not obvious).

Or, say its wingspan is less than 50 cm. Then you could cover that space instead.

Or you could cover by nest type, or the way it faces.

Lots of possibilities!

Some spaces will give you a bonus, either food out of the birdfeeder or a card, or maybe laying an egg.

You’ll notice that the round goals are completely different in Duet, instead being focused on the map instead.

The app gives you a nice running tally of how you’re doing against your opponent in all of them, which is nice.

Since you’ll be going to this section every time you play a bird, it doesn’t even require an extra click/tap.

If you play a bird and can’t (or don’t want to) cover any space, then you can also bank it to either recycle the card market or reset the birdfeeder.

Finally, additional scoring is based on your biggest group of connected markers.

So playing birds becomes even more strategic.

The app has a nice touch that when you tap and hold on a goal, it will highlight which of your markers are satisfying that goal.

Well done, Monster Couch!

I didn’t think much of the concept of the Duet idea, because I found Wingspan to be fine as a 2-player game.

However, I do really like this addition.

It kind of satisfies my one dissatisfaction with the 2-player game, though you have to waste a bird placement to do it.

In a 2-player game, the food feeder can stagnate, which is especially frustrating when you need food that’s not in it.

In Duet, you can spend that bird placement token to reset the bird feeder instead of placing a marker, though you’re still out of luck if you don’t roll any rodents.

Full credit to Hargrave for coming up with a great 2-player implementation that felt unnecessary until I actually played it.

Now I will when I can!

How is the rest of the expansion?

It plays fine without any of the other expansions (though if you’re playing this on the table, you do need the base game for it if you’re playing with more than 2 players).

It incorporates things from the other two expansions, like end-of-round abilities from Europe.

And end-of-game abilities from Oceania.

From what I understand, the tabletop version of this expansion even comes with player boards both with and without nectar so as long as you are playing 2-player, you are good to go!

(And presumably you have the Oceania expansion if you truly want to use nectar?)

The birds that have been added with Asia have really interesting effects, including some “push your luck” elements which were actually very intriguing.

The Forest Owlet lets you try to cache food on the bird up to three times.

But if you don’t roll one of the two foods with those dice, then you lose everything you’ve cached so far.

Do you continue? Or just take what you have?

I’m not always sure how lucky I feel.

Others are unique twists on previous cards.

The Blue Rock-Thrush can move to a new habitat when activated if no other birds are to its right.

This is very common in the base game and other expansions.

The twist this time is that it doesn’t take its eggs or cached food with it, but lets you instead draw 3 cards to compensate (or give an extra bonus since you may not want to cache anything on it anyway).

Some birds are huge for you but will also help your opponents, at least a little bit.

Other than you drawing an extra card, the Ibisbill assists everybody equally (other than giving you 8 points, which is also pretty big).

The tabletop version of Wingspan Asia did also implement “Flock Mode” for 6-7 players (using the two Asia player mats and the five base game mats, I’m assuming). This mode had two players playing simultaneously I believe in order to mitigate the downtime from so many players.

Since the app doesn’t implement that (at least not that I’ve seen), I can’t comment on how well it works.

But if you’re interested in the game on the table, know that it’s an option!

I’m just so impressed with this expansion.

Even the new bonus cards are cool.

Really, playing Asia on the app version really makes me want to get the tabletop edition of it, if I had ever been able to get my copies of the base game and two other expansions played.

But if I manage it…watch out!

I’m getting this expansion at that point.

In the meantime, I will enjoy Monster Couch’s implementation of it, which other than perhaps some minor bugs (none I’ve seen but they’ve already released one patch to address some issues), is magnificent.

According to their web site, the Duet mode is actually available for online play, even if you don’t own the expansion (as long as one of you does, I assume).

The new tutorial for Duet mode works great.

And the four new backgrounds bring that uniquely Asian touch to it.

I also have to compliment the serene, peaceful music and the individual sounds of the birds.

This is one of the only apps where I always try to play with the sound on, just to immerse myself in the sounds of nature.

The expansion is fun and the implementation by Monster Couch is a joy to behold.

Wingspan Asia is now available on “your favourite platform” (according to Monster Couch), though I do know it’s definitely on Steam, iOS and Android.