Review: Finspan

Introduction & Overview

You are a marine researcher whose purpose is to find and observe the variety of aquatic life across the colorful photic zone, the ghostly twilight zone, and the dark midnight zone of the world’s seas and oceans.

This is how Finspan is presented to us, designed by David Gordon (Monkey Palace, Create the Cosmos) and Michael O’Connell (his debut design). It was first published in 2025 by Stonemaier Games in an English edition. The artwork is illustrated by Ana María Martínez Jaramillo (Wingspan) and Mesa Schumacher (Ecosystem).

It is published in Spanish by Maldito Games (the game has language dependence on cards and goal tiles). It supports 1 to 5 players, with a recommended minimum age of 10 years and an approximate duration of 45 to 60 minutes. The MSRP is €50. For this review, a copy of the Spanish edition was kindly provided by Maldito Games as a review copy.

Important: if you already know the game and/or are only interested in my opinion about it, you can go directly to the Opinion section. The Content and Mechanics sections are especially intended for those who do not know the game and prefer to get a general idea of how it works.

Go to Personal Opinion

Components

• Inside a two-piece cardboard box (lid and bottom), measuring 29.7 × 29.7 × 7.2 cm (standard square box like Ticket to Ride), we find the following components:
• 5 Ocean Boards (cardboard)
• Goal Board (cardboard)
• 9 Goal Tiles (cardboard)
• 152 Cards (57 × 87 mm):
  • 125 Fish Cards
  • 10 Starting Fish Cards
  • 7 Nautoma Decision Cards
  • 6 (Un)chained Scoring Cards
  • 3 Nautoma Goal Cards (double-sided)
  • Nautoma Helper Card (double-sided)
• 30 Diver Pawns (6 in each color) (wooden)
• 90 Egg / Fry Tokens (double-sided) (cardboard)
• 40 School Tokens (cardboard)
• First Player Tile (cardboard)
• 5 Player Aid Cards
• Scorepad (paper)
• Week Marker (wooden)
• Rulebook
• Nautoma Rulebook

How to Play

Finspan is a new spin-off of Wingspan in which we will develop a marine habitat by playing various types of fish. The game takes place over four weeks of six turns each. On each turn, the active player can either play a card or activate one of their three columns. When playing a card, they must pay its cost, which may consist of cards, eggs, fry, or placing it into occupied spaces (provided the new fish is larger than the one underneath). When activating a column, the player can gain cards, lay eggs (each fish may hold only one), or hatch them, in addition to triggering benefits from cards with activation effects. Fry can move in straight lines across the board, so that gathering three in the same space forms a school. At the end of each week, a scoring criterion is evaluated, awarding points based on the established relative rankings. Once the game concludes, players score points for their visible fish, as well as for eggs, devoured fish, fry, and schools.

Key Concepts

Let’s start with the Ocean Boards. Each player receives one of these boards depicting three diving columns (each associated with a specific element: cards, eggs, and hatching/moving fry or schools). In turn, each column is divided into three zones: sunlight (with three spaces), twilight (with one space), and midnight (with two spaces). Printed fish appear on some of these spaces and count toward zone activations. Furthermore, at the top of each zone there is a column effect that triggers if at least one fish is present in that zone when the column is activated. The upper left area features spaces to place diver pawns when playing cards. Lastly, the top row (surface) and the bottom row (depth) display an identifying symbol used by certain effects.

The core component of the game is the Fish Cards. These depict a specimen in the center, displaying its name (both in the game’s language and in Latin) alongside specific symbols referenced by certain effects. In the upper left corner is the cost to play the card, which may consist of one or more of the following: discarding cards from the display (the player’s hand), discarding eggs and/or fry, or devouring a fish (placing the card on top of a smaller fish). Directly below, along the left strip, are the zones where the fish can be played. Next is the victory point value the fish awards if it remains visible on the player’s board at the end of the game. In the bottom left corner, the fish’s length is displayed in centimeters alongside a tail icon that can be empty, half-filled, or filled to indicate whether the fish is small, medium, or large. Meanwhile, the right strip shows the card’s effect, which can be immediate, an activation trigger, or an end-game bonus. Importantly, players place their hand of cards face up on the table for everyone to see in an area called the display. Whenever cards are spent to pay costs, they go into a personal discard pile, from which players can retrieve cards through various effects.

The effects of two of the three columns revolve around Eggs and Fry. When laying eggs (typically by activating the second column), each fish may hold one, and only one, egg token. These hatch upon activating the third column, turning into fry (the tokens feature an egg on one side and a fry on the other). Fry are able to move in a straight line any number of spaces and no longer need to sit on a space occupied by a fish card. If three fry gather on the same space, they combine into a School, doubling their end-game value. Furthermore, if a space contains a school, no more than two fry may accumulate there, as a single space can never hold more than one school. At the end of the game, eggs and fry are worth one point each, whereas schools are worth six.

Each player receives a set of six Diver Pawns, which are used to track completed actions. On each turn, one of these pawns is placed in the card-playing action area (if the player chooses to play a card on that turn), or used to resolve the effects of one of the columns in top-to-bottom order, coming to rest on that column’s bottom strip (the first activation of each column grants a bonus effect that becomes unavailable for the rest of the round).

Finally, the Goal Board tracks the progress of the game. A game lasts four weeks; at the end of each of the first three weeks, a short scoring phase takes place according to the active week’s scoring criterion, while at the end of the fourth week, end-game effects on visible fish are resolved instead. The goal board comes with three preset goals, although its reverse side can be used to set up randomized objectives using the Goal Tiles, which feature small notches on one edge indicating the week for which they can be assigned.

That is enough to get started.

Preparación de la Partida

1. Shuffle the fish card deck and place it to one side.
2. Create a general supply with the egg/fry and school tokens.
3. Place the goal board to one side (either using the preset side or the reverse side, shuffling the goals for each week and placing one on each space).
4. Place the progress marker on the first week space of the goal board.
5. Each player chooses a color and receives:
   • 6 diver pawns (kept nearby).
   • An ocean board placed in front of them.
   • 2 eggs and 1 fry (placed on the marked spaces of their ocean board).
   • Shuffle the starting fish deck and deal two cards to each player, which they place in their personal display.
6. Additionally, each player draws three cards from the main deck to form a starting display of five cards.
7. Randomly choose a starting player and give them the first player tile.

We are ready to begin!

Game Flow

A game of Finspan unfolds over four weeks (rounds). Each week consists of two phases.

Phase I: Actions

This phase spans six action rounds, in which each player takes a turn, starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise.

On each turn, the active player must choose one of the following:

• Play a Fish Card. The player places one of their diver pawns on the play-card action space, chooses a fish card from their display, pays its costs in cards (which are placed into their personal discard pile), eggs/fry (which are returned to the supply), and/or devouring a fish (it must be placed on top of a smaller fish), and places it onto a compatible habitat space on their board. Even if a fish does not require devouring, it can still be placed over another fish as long as the new fish is larger. Finally, any immediate effects on the card are resolved at this point.
• Dive. The player chooses one of the three columns on their board and activates the effects of the zones and any fish with activation triggers in top-to-bottom order. Each zone’s effect may be activated if at least one fish is present in that zone. If a column is activated for the first time in the round, the player also gains the benefit on the bottom strip. The diver pawn is placed on this strip, covering the bonus if it is the first time the column is activated.

Afterward, the turn passes to the player on the left.

The phase ends once all players have completed their six action turns (all diver pawns are on their personal boards).

Phase II: End of Week

Players proceed as follows:

• During the first three weeks, each player scores points according to how many times they meet the active week’s goal tile criteria. When playing on Side B, the player or players with the highest score gain a 3-point bonus.
• In the fourth week, each player resolves the end-game effects of their fish in whatever order they prefer.
• Every player retrieves their six diver pawns.
• Finally, the first player tile passes to the player on the left.

Then, a new week begins (unless it was the fourth week).

Game End

The game ends after the fourth round, leading to final scoring, where each player tallies:

• Points from end-game scoring criteria on visible fish on their board.
• The victory point value of visible fish on their board.
• 1 victory point for each devoured fish (cards tucked under a visible fish), including fish printed on the board.
• 1 victory point for each egg and each fry.
• 6 victory points for each school of fish.

The player with the most victory points wins. In the event of a tie, the victory goes to the player with the most fish cards in hand. If the tie persists, victory is shared.

Variants

Solo Mode. The player faces an Automa bot that accumulates points through fish cards, schools, fry, and eggs. It uses a decision deck to determine whether to place or remove achievement pawns and which action to perform next. When playing cards, the top card of the deck is revealed and placed in the Automa’s area, resolving any ‘all players’ effects. At the end of the week, the bot scores points based on the number of pawns placed on the goal tile.

Personal Opinion

Jamey Stegmaier is, first and foremost, a businessman. He has capitalized like no one else on the various franchises developed under his label, with Wingspan (here is its tocho-review) achieving by far the greatest impact. Not only through expansions, but also via spin-off products brought to market.

In these spin-offs, good old Stegmaier seems to be testing the limits of his audience’s loyalty. Every new iteration in this series of alternative titles felt like a joke upon announcement. First with Wyrmspan (here is its tocho-review), treating mythical creatures as if they were an entire branch of the animal kingdom.

And now we get Finspan, focusing on one of the visually least attractive groups of animals that could have been chosen, namely fish (we will return to this later). Much like Wyrmspan, the announcement of this game sounded like an April Fools’ joke. Yet, within a few weeks, the product was already on store shelves.

What will be next? A game about building chordate habitats? Perhaps annelids? Or maybe coelenterates? It will be hard to double down on the bet made with today’s title. So let’s see how this design turned out, but not before thanking Maldito Games for the review copy that made this write-up possible.

In Finspan, much like in Wingspan and Wyrmspan, each player tries to develop a series of habitats on a personal board. Each habitat consists of a row of cards where players can place fish cards, bearing in mind that these require specific rows and/or, occasionally, particular columns.

Indeed, one of the first differences Finspan shows compared to the previous two entries is that habitats (which are tied to specific activation actions) now run vertically, with each column divided into multiple zones based on sunlight penetration.

However, this is not the most significant change (of course!). The fundamental difference lies in the core mechanism of the entire game family: hand management. It differs in two essential ways. First, whereas in Wingspan and Wyrmspan players manage a hidden hand of cards and draft specimens from a visible display, here hands are open and visible on the table at all times, with no central market to draft from—cards are always drawn directly from the deck.

The second, and perhaps most impactful shift, is that resources are entirely gone. Everything related to resource tokens—which slowed down play (and, in Wingspan, introduced additional luck)—has been cut clean away. Cards now cost other cards, alongside eggs and fry (which hatch from eggs).

It doesn’t stop there: cards spent as currency to play other cards do not go to a general discard pile as is customary, but rather into a personal discard pile from which players can retrieve them through various effects, both on the cards themselves and on one of their player board’s activation columns.

This enables a style of hand management where tempo is crucial. Often, you will hold cards you want to play, but whose effects are better delayed to maximize value; or cards that require specific conditions to be met first, making it disadvantageous to keep them taking up space in your display over other cards with immediate short-term benefits.

The final major departure recalling Wingspan involves the non-competitive end-of-week goals. Three criteria are set at the start of the game, one for each of the first three weeks, and at the end of each round, players score points based on how many times they meet that criterion.

In Wingspan, I appreciated the competitive approach with relative rankings. Ultimately, however, that gave luck an even larger role in a card game (which already has plenty), as the gap between players often came down to someone drawing the right card at the right time. Goals in Finspan are far less restrictive, functioning more like broad accumulation milestones and giving players ample room to plan out turns to maximize them. While there is a bonus for the player who scores the highest on each week’s criteria, the overall playstyle does not shift drastically, since these points cannot easily be replaced through alternative routes.

Finishing my first play of Finspan left me with an impression similar to my first game of Forest Shuffle (here is its tocho-review): a snappy tableau-building card game filled with combos and effects, yet not feeling like anything extraordinary. Nonetheless, its streamlined design compared to its predecessors allows it to hit the table with tremendous ease, moving at lightning speed with virtually no downtime and almost negligible round transitions (simply tally the weekly criteria, retrieve your pawns, and keep taking turns).

Play after play, Finspan has become my favorite in the series. It admittedly strays the furthest from the formula, offering looser restrictions on playing cards and slightly lower player interaction due to the absence of comparative goals (though many card effects benefit opponents, adding a neat dynamic around timing to limit their gains). The reality is that games wrap up much faster and feel much snappier, leaving you with the sense of having made plenty of meaningful decisions in far less time.

In fact, while clearly drawing inspiration from earlier titles, it provides a distinct enough experience to justify owning alongside either predecessor—which were far more similar to each other (with Wyrmspan being the superior game in my book). The Forest Shuffle comparison is also fitting: despite delivering similar vibes, Finspan is more combo-driven and focused on card effects, whereas Forest Shuffle leans heavier on set collection, giving both a comfortable spot in the same collection.

Regarding player count scaling, Finspan plays wonderfully at any table size. Given the modest level of interaction (aside from shared-benefit card triggers), extra players primarily add downtime. Even so, the pace is brisk enough that the experience does not suffer significantly, even at the full player count.

When it comes to replayability, this is the kind of game that builds momentum and hits the table repeatedly thanks to the stellar pacing mentioned earlier. You will only cycle through a fraction of the cards each game, and the deck is generous enough to support varied strategies every time: focusing on maximizing devoured fish, hoarding as many eggs as possible, pivoting toward schools, or pursuing a blend of all three.

Turning to production, Finspan does fall short compared to its predecessors due to the absence of a standout centerpiece component like the miniature eggs (especially those in Wyrmspan). What we get instead are thick, punchy cardboard tokens that punch out cleanly. Card quality, however, remains top-notch: great core weight, a lovely linen finish, and solid snap. Sleeving is not strictly necessary since cards are never held in hand and only shuffled during setup (though it never hurts). The custom-shaped diver pawns are a welcome upgrade over generic cubes, and the rulebook is cleanly structured, leaving no ambiguities.

As for the art, Ana María Martínez Jaramillo returns after her work as part of the original illustration team on Wingspan, showcasing her remarkable talent for depicting wildlife with breathtaking detail. That said, we are dealing with fish here—and unlike birds or dragons, finding visually appealing fish is quite a challenge. The gallery of deep-sea monstrosities is amusing, and it might even deter anyone hesitant about staring at nightmare-inducing anglerfish. Artistically, though, the execution is simply spectacular.

And let’s wrap this up. Finspan is the spin-off in the Wingspan lineage that departs most from the original formula, prioritizing a smoother, less luck-driven gameplay experience. Round maintenance is practically nonexistent and resource management has been eliminated entirely. Instead, cards serve a dual purpose (acting as currency to pay for other cards), while zero-sum competitive goals that amplified luck have been dropped (aside from a modest bonus for top performers). This allows players to focus on score maximization while enjoying outstanding game flow. It scales well across counts, though it truly shines at two players, where turns fire off so fast you barely have time to catch your breath. Its main drawback is the creature theme—pretty fish are hard to come by, even with gorgeous artwork. Still, that is a minor gripe. While not groundbreaking, it is easily a title that will hit the table on a regular basis. For all these reasons, I give it a…