Sunday Evening board games with Zeke

We eventually ended up with 10 players for Sunday night board games

We had a pleasant surprise and our old friend Zeke was able to make it again for Sunday Night gaming. He had a board game, Wingspan, that he wanted to introduce to use. I brought along some extra games, knowing we'd likely have more than its five-player maximum. With eight of us in attendance, we split into two groups of four. Zeke, Keith, Joel, and Mike W played Wingspan, while I trotted out Pandemic for Allen, Brian, and Mike S.

Looking at the thinking going on, it is tempting to make a "bird brains" comment, as Zeke teaches the Sunday evening crew how to play Wingspan...

Everyone seemed to be having a good time learning Wingspan, so much so that Keith planned to pick up the game soon. I told Zeke that made him 2-for-2 on introducing new games on our Sunday nights, as the last time he brought Imperial, two of the players ended up going out and buying it!
In our Pandemic game, we b-a-r-e-l-y squeaked out a win. Mike S found the fourth cure and we did not have enough cards to complete his two-card draw. So, we won by one card! I think having the Dispatcher, Researcher, and Scientist is a great combination. The Dispatcher regularly moved the Researcher to the Scientist so that he could give him cards, enabling us to find the cures with four cards rather than five. My role was the Medic, so I could bounce around the board tamping down the worst disease outbreaks. It was a tense ending to the game, because we did not have enough cards to win the original way we planned it, so we had to come up with an alternate idea.

The other group ended up playing three different games - Pandemic, Splendor, and finally Tsuro

As the birders were still birding with Wingspan, we broke out Splendor - an awesome four-player game. I am used to playing it on my ipad, though I hadn't in quite some time. As such, played my worst game of it in awhile, ending up vying for last place with Allen. Mike S stomped us on points, though it really looked like Brian was going to win the game for most of the later part of it. I feel Splendor is a completely different game head-to-head, as live players are so much better at spotting what cards you're gathering chips for than the A.I. can be.

My diabolical plan in the second game of Tsuro works out as four of my opponents crowd together, facing elimination!

Since the Wingspan game wasn't quite finished, we broke out Mike W's copy of Tsuro -- my all-time favorite "Introductory" game. Jenny and Mike's wife Tammy had been going for a walk while we were gaming earlier, so joined us on two quick games of Tsuro. Jenny and I ended up tying the first game, and I won the second outright.

All in all, a fun Sunday evening of board games. It was good to connect with Zeke, again. I hope to see him again, soon!