Standalone engine-building game in the “World of Wingspan” series focused on aquatic life, diving actions, and collecting eggs/young/schools for points.
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Fast final-score entry with optional Finspan scoring breakdown.
The standard way to play Finspan — build an underwater tableau of fish cards across three ocean depth zones over 4 weeks (rounds), using your divers to activate columns of abilities. Highest total score from fish, eggs, young, schools, and achievements wins.
Finspan is a card-driven engine-building game set beneath the ocean surface. You play a marine researcher exploring the Sunlight, Twilight, and Midnight zones of the sea, collecting fish and building an aquatic ecosystem on your personal ocean mat.
Over 4 weeks (rounds) of 6 turns each, you either play fish cards to your mat or send divers down columns to trigger chains of abilities. Points come from fish card values, consumed fish (tucked cards), eggs, young fish, school tokens, and end-of-game achievements. Games play in 45–75 minutes with 1–5 players.
Each player receives:
1 ocean mat — a personal 3-column, 3-row grid representing Sunlight (top), Twilight (middle), and Midnight (bottom) zones
1 starting hand of fish cards drawn from the shared deck
3 diver tokens (one per column/dive site)
Egg and young tokens placed in a shared supply
Shuffle the fish card deck and prepare the card display (a market row of available fish). Place school tokens and achievement tiles within reach.
Each turn you take one of two actions:
Choose a fish card from your hand and place it onto your ocean mat:
Each fish card shows a depth requirement — it can only be placed in its allowed zone(s) (Sunlight, Twilight, or Midnight)
Each fish card has a cost you must pay (typically tucking/consuming other cards or spending resources)
When placed, the fish's "When Played" ability triggers immediately
Some fish have ongoing abilities or end-of-game scoring bonuses
Tip: Consuming a fish (tucking a card under another) costs you that card's printed score, but each consumed fish is worth 1 point at game end. Build chains where the abilities gained outweigh the score sacrificed.
Send one of your diver tokens down a column on your ocean mat:
The diver moves from top to bottom, activating the ability of each fish card in that column as it passes
Abilities trigger in order from Sunlight to Midnight (top to bottom)
After diving, the diver resets and can be used again on a future turn
Diving is how you generate resources, draw cards, gain eggs, hatch young, and trigger combos
The game is played over 4 weeks (rounds). Each week, every player takes 6 turns.
At the end of weeks 1, 2, and 3, score the current weekly bonus (shown on a shared objective tile)
After all 6 turns in week 4, the game ends
Eggs — Placed on fish cards; each egg is worth 1 point at game end
Young — Hatched from eggs; each young fish is worth 1 point at game end
Schools — When you collect enough young of a type, you form a school token worth 6 points
Consumed fish — Cards tucked under other cards; each is worth 1 point regardless of face value
Achievements — Bonus tiles earned by meeting specific conditions during the game
After week 4, trigger all "Game End" abilities on fish cards in your tableau, then tally final scores.
The player with the highest total score wins. If tied, the player with the most fish cards in their tableau wins. If still tied, players share the victory.
Finspan is a highest-score-wins game. Your final score is the sum of:
Fish card values — the printed score on every fish card in your tableau
Consumed fish — 1 point per card tucked under other cards
Eggs — 1 point each
Young — 1 point each
School tokens — 6 points each
Achievements — points shown on earned achievement tiles
Weekly bonuses — points from end-of-week scoring in weeks 1–3
Game End abilities — bonus points from fish card abilities that trigger at game end
Tiebreaker: Most fish cards in tableau. If still tied, shared victory.
When recording matches, enter each player's final total score.
Select Finspan and the Standard variant
Add all players
Enter each player's final total score (sum of all scoring categories)
Submit — rankings are calculated automatically