Stonemaier has dropped the launch schedule for Finspan: Sharks and Reefs, the first expansion to its 2025 deep-sea spin-off of Wingspan. Pre-order notifications open today, 27 April, and the webstore goes live on 13 May with launch discounts running through to 17 May. UK players will see boxes hit FLGS shelves on the same window, with a wider retail rollout following in mid-June.
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Set up your group for freeThe expansion takes the game in a different direction to the original. Instead of stocking your aquarium with weirder fish, you nurture coral reefs across your three dive sites to unlock end-game bonuses and reef-fish abilities, while sharks scatter young schools around the table and leave food scraps for everyone else's fish to nibble on. Designer Michael O'Connell, working with Wingspan creator Elizabeth Hargrave on development, says he aimed to add depth "without the burden of exponential complexity," which is the right answer for a base game that scored most of its goodwill on being friendly to non-Wingspan-heads.
Practical bits worth flagging: there is a chunky new card tray sized to swallow components from the base game, this expansion and any future expansions Stonemaier puts out, which will be welcome news to anyone whose Finspan box has been quietly busting at the seams. The Automa solo mode comes back, courtesy of David Studley.
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Find events near youFinspan currently sits at a 7.8 BGG geek rating, a fair bit behind Wingspan's 8.0, but its strength has always been welcoming new players to a Stonemaier-style engine builder without a lecture. Sharks and Reefs is the obvious moment to dive back in if you bounced off the lighter base game. Time to invite the group over and pull the box off the shelf. Find a game night near you and bring a copy along.
Sources: Stonemaier Games | Stonemaier Sharks and Reefs | BGG | ICv2
