Pandemic

Sometimes you need to change up board game night. A fantastic way to do that is to play a co-operative board game, a game where you compete against the game itself instead of each other. One of my favourite co-operative board games is Pandemic.

In Pandemic you are members of the World Health Organization working to cure four pandemics. These diseases aren’t named but every game I play people name them anyway. It’s part of the fun.

Of course curing all of the pandemics is the only way to win. Now losing can be done in so many ways. The game is “timed” after a sense where once you run out of cards in the player deck the game is over and you lose. If you run out of disease cubes (used to show how much of the disease is present) you lose. And you lose if you reach 8 outbreaks.

Outbreaks occur when there are three cubes on a tile and another cube is to be added. Instead of adding a fourth cube a chain reaction occurs. All cities connected to the outbreak city receive a cube of that disease’s colour. So outbreaks = very bad.

I have encountered a few people who refer to the game as easy and that they win every time. I’m fairly certain that they ignore certain rules because I’ve had games spiral out of control and end quickly.

One thing to keep in mind is that this is a time and resource management game. It isn’t about the technical aspects of dealing with a pandemic. Logistics and timing are your concerns. Spend your 4 moves per turn wisely.

Speaking of 4 moves, I like that there are no dice involved in the game. You have 4 moves per turn and that’s it. No chance for more no chance for less. In a sense nobody can be the lucky roller to become the superstar and nobody gets shafted with bad rolls. It’s an entirely thinking game. Plan and execute.

What really mixes this game up is the Epidemic cards. These are spaced out in the player deck. Whenever one is drawn take the next city from the infection deck and add three disease cubes. Then shuffle the infection discard pile and add it to the top of the infection deck. What this does is open previously infected cities to being infected again. This is where outbreaks become a concern. But this isn't all, the infection rate increases. At the start of the game only 2 cities are infected per player turn, however as epidemics start to occur the number increases. You can suddenly find an infection rate of 4 cities per turn which can be extremely difficult to manage.

Some of the rookie mistakes I have made in the game include not keeping track of cards spent. Getting to the end of the game waiting for one more card of a specific colour to cure that disease only to discover you spent all of those cards on travel is a real let down. Another mistake is sticking to my role. Each player gets a role card. Focusing on your speciality, say the scientist who needs 1 less card to cure a disease, if all of that focus is only on curing diseases it can end with diseased cities not being treated in a timely fashion leading to outbreaks. The next mistake involves eradicating the disease, which can be beneficial, but only if it isn’t at the expense of curing other diseases or treating other diseases prior to outbreaks. Also you don’t need to eradicate a disease, merely cure them to win. Finally it doesn’t matter who contributes what to the game, who cured more, who eradicated what. You all win or you all lose. Don’t seek personal glory in a co-operative game. You are a team.

Ironically the game is easier to win with fewer people yet more fun with more people. With fewer people you get more turns per player and cooperation is easier. With more people you get more roles, long term planning and interaction become more important.

The expansion On the Brink is a good one to pick up. It features more roles, an option for a fifth player, variations on the Epidemic cards, extra Epidemic cards for an even harder game, an option for a competitive player the Bio-terrorist, an optional fifth disease that mutates, an option for one strain to be virulent with new rules, new special event cards, and even petri dishes to store your disease cubes in.

A new edition of the game has come out and I am really thinking of picking it up. For those with the older edition there is a compatibility pack to work with new edition expansions. This includes the upcoming "In the Lab" expansion.

I can tell you right now, you will not get sick of Pandemic.