The Belated Review

Since I had 3 responses to my question last week, and totally dropped the ball on posting (Mystic Realms Fantasy Faire...sorry guys!) I will review Pandemic.

The Board Game: Pandemic

 

# of players: 2-4 (way better with 4)
price: $24.95
Rating (muggle to 1337)
Gamer: It's a strategic challenge for everyone.

This is a game that is alot of fun for those of us who are into strategy and chaos. It's very unique in that it's a co-op boardgame, and it can be quite a difficult challenge the more people you have playing.

Pandemic is the story about a disease-response team that has it's hands full, trying to rid the world of four lethal diseases that start in different parts of the globe.  There are five different specialist roles one can play as. (Dispatcher, Medic, Scientist, Researcher or Operations Expert) Dispatcher is my favorite, because I fold under boardgame-pressure...and even though everyone is equally important, dispatcher is the ultimate support in this game.

How to Play:

setup consists of a game board representing a network between cities on the map of the Earth, two decks of cards (Player cards and Infection cards), four colors of cubes (each representing a different disease), six Research Stations, and a pawn for each player. The Player cards include cards with each city name (same as on the board), Special Event cards that can be played at specific times to take beneficial actions, and Epidemic cards. Infection cards consist of one card for each city on the board and a color of the disease that will start there. At the start of the game, Infection cards are randomly drawn to populate the board with infections, from 1 to 3 cubes for a number of cities.

On each turn, a player can take 4 actions which consists of any combination of the following:

• Movement, either between interconnected cities (car and ferry travel), to a city that the player holds that Player card of (direct flight), or to any city if the player is currently in one of the cities they hold the card of (charter flight). The latter two options require the player to discard the city card. A player at a research lab can also travel to any other research lab on the board.
• Sharing information with another player by being at the same city as that player and either giving or receiving the Player card representing that city.
• Treating one unit of infection from a city the player is presently in, removing a cube from that city.
• Constructing a research lab in a city that the player holds the city card for (discarding that card afterwards)
• Finding the cure by being in a city with a research lab and holding 5 Player cards of the same color. Finding a cure does not stop further infection of that disease until all cubes of that color are removed from the board; from then on, drawing an Infection card of a color that is eradicated will result in no change to the board's state.

When their turn is over, the player draws two Player cards, discarding their hand down to seven cards. If either draw is an Epidemic card, the player places three cubes on the city from the bottom of Infection deck, puts that card into the Infection discard pile, reshuffles the discard pile, and places it back on top of the Infection deck.

The game is over if any of the following occur:

• More than 7 Outbreaks occur - a loss for the players.
• There are no more cubes of the specific disease color when they are needed during Infection or Epidemic - a loss for the players.
• There are no more Player cards to be drawn - a loss for the players.
• The players discover the cure for all four diseases - a victory for the players.

All in all, it's a great game to play with those friends of yours (ahem, fiance!) who are a little more competitive and you're tired of their crap :p.  It's easy enough to play with family member or friends who like to play boardgames, or routinely have a game night of some sort, however...there is only one challenging win condition for the players, and three ways to lose. You can't play this without working with the other players, and even then...you may not win the game. But that's ok in Pandemic...just start it again!

Don't forget to name your diseases!