PSA: I called Wingspan a fancy bird bingo and my game group made me eat my words
Last month I rolled my eyes hard when my buddy pulled out Wingspan at our Thursday night meetup in Portland, because a game about collecting little eggs sounded like a $50 snooze to me. Three rounds in I was the one hogging the bird feeder dice and blocking his wetland row, and by the end I had built a 22 point engine off two crows and a hummingbird. Anyone got a rec for a game that hooks you the same way but plays in under an hour, since I clearly can't be trusted to judge a box by its cover anymore?
My first engine game was Everdell about two years back at a friend's place in Austin, and I had the same flip happen where I thought the cute animal art meant it would be light and boring. Turns out chaining critters and buildings into a big combo turn is seriously addictive, and it plays in about an hour once everyone knows the rules. Race for the Galaxy hooked me the same way too, you build a little tableau that feeds itself and suddenly you are running away with the score. Both of those give you that same feeling of your cards working together like your crows and hummingbird did. Just watch a quick how to play video first because the rulebooks make them look harder than they are.