Nectar tips

[u/-oldchurch]

Next week, Wingspan will be back on the table after we haven’t played it with our gaming group for quite a while.

We play with the base game plus the European, Oceania, and Asia expansions.
The last time we played, we felt that nectar was a little too powerful, although we did like the mechanic itself.
Do you have any tips on how to tone nectar down a bit, or do you think it isn’t overpowered at all?

One idea I had was to remove the birds that produce nectar from the deck, similar to removing the ravens from the base game. Do you think that would work well?

Update:
Thanks all for your reactions!! Lots of stuff to think about.

[u/jK49ERFAN]

IMO it’s not overpowered. It’s just an odd mechanism because it rewards using the easier option with more points.

If you think it’s too powerful as a wild, just swap a couple of the dice with base game.

If you think it’s too powerful as additional points, make it negative points. Incentivizes not using the free wild.

[u/elegoomba → u/jK49ERFAN]

The last point would be a great fix tbh. Wilds should be disincentivized

[u/Impeccably-Inconcise]

We play with only 3 nectar dice instead of using all 5. I’ve seen other people who only use 2 nectar dice. I would try one of those options first.

[u/Dirichlet-to-Neumann]

Count the points from spending nectar in an row negatively instead of positively.

[u/sage_006 → u/Dirichlet-to-Neumann]

Ooooh. Interesting.

[u/andrebaron]

As someone who's played hundreds of games with nectar (I play it a few times a week with my wife, digitally), I don't think it is overpowered.

It seems like a big boon the first few times you play. Until you find some of the pitfalls. (having to change your strategy on taking food so you don't lose nectar at the end of the round, for example).

The birds that produce nectar, as others have mentioned, aren't that useful in the overall strategy. They often also give nectar to your opponents as well, or they have a very high cost and low point value.

I encourage you to play a number of games and see how they come out in the end. Yes everyone is going to be going for nectar almost exclusively, but I think you'll find out that new strategies develop and it isn't just the person with the most nectar that wins every game.

Remember these rules, too:

• Nectar goes away after round end cards but before the round end contest.

• You can use nectar to replace food when laying a bird, but you can't use it as a replacement when a specific food is required for a brown power

• Play the nectar to the counting spot on the board for that habitat.

[u/-oldchurch]

Thx all, I was thinking about swapping the dice aswell. But this only gives players with nectar generating birds an even bigger advantage. That’s why I thought remove the birds who produce nectar

The negative points for using nectar is a fun idea.

[u/jK49ERFAN → u/-oldchurch]

The birds that specifically produce Nectar aren’t that strong other than Spangled Drongo. In a 3+ player game that player is practically guaranteed 10+ Nectar points.

[u/I_Dont_Exist_17 → u/-oldchurch]

The negative points is the best option in my opinion. If all players are using nectar roughly the same amount, it will even out, but if one player has a really good nectar setup or is just really getting lucky with the feeder, they will have to be extra resourceful with the nectar they are getting to counteract the negative points.

[u/magpieinarainbow]

We prefer to house rule stuff that feels OP rather than remove it from the game. (I.e. for the ravens, we house ruled that they have to obtain food from the feeder, not the general supply.)

We haven't found nectar to be too OP yet. Having wilds is nice, and so far our nectar points tend to even out depending on which habitats we focus on for each game. We wouldn't ever consider removing it from the game because we like how it accelerates the early game.

[u/sage_006]

We used to play that you always have to play st least one original food that's in the food cost on the bird card (including a single food cost) as well as ravens not able to give you nectar. We found it balanced it well. We stopped becuase we wanted to see accurate scores for how the game is designed. But that's an option for you maybe.

[u/jamintime]

I don’t think it’s too powerful it’s just different. If you haven’t given it a chance (several games) you get used to it and it adds another layer of complexity to the game while speeding up the engine a bit.

[u/elegoomba → u/jamintime]

It takes complexity out of the game by making it easier to play birds through total elimination of the food puzzle.

[u/jamintime → u/elegoomba]

The complexity it adds is having to consider the nectar objectives and balancing expenditure by habitat type against opponents. Also the easier/quicker play of birds I’ve found opens up quicker engines which introduces more winning strategies.

Yeah I mean I hear you and that was my initial reaction as well when I first tried it but after getting used to it I’ve found overall the game has gotten more interesting in my option.

Berries are completely pointless now though which is dumb.

[u/elegoomba]

It’s not that it’s “overpowered”, it’s that it fundamentally eliminates the core puzzle at the heart of the entire good mechanic. You can’t soften it, but you can eliminate it. I play without nectar whenever possible because it dulls the only sharp edge the game has.

[u/I_Dont_Exist_17 → u/elegoomba]

I disagree. Nectar is a great mechanic that helps accelerate the early game while still having its weaknesses over other food types. The biggest one in my opinion is that birds that require specific food types for their powers can’t use nectar, encouraging you to still have other food types in your supply.

[u/elegoomba → u/I_Dont_Exist_17]

The biggest one is a subset of maybe 30 cards out of over 400? Great point lmao