🦠 Board Game - Pandemic

Pandemic (and its variations) is a game that is dear to my heart. I have played it, and many variations of it, hundreds of times over the past 10+ years. It started in Iceland, at Bíó Paradís, in early 2014. There, I was introduced to Pandemic for the first time. At this time, only the base game was available at the theater to play. But we always had a lot of fun playing it together. It was also one of the first games I realy got deep into, and it made the weekly board game nights at Bíó Paradís a regular fixture in my life for the next 5 years or so.

Summary

Pandemic is a cooperative board game designed by Matt Leacock and first released in 2008 by Z-Man Games. Players take on the roles of disease-fighting specialists working together to stop the spread of deadly diseases and save the world from disease outbreaks. Each player has a unique character with different abilities and skills.

Mechanics

I think the mechanics of Pandemic are one of the reasons why the game is so popular. It's easy to understand and teach, but there is a surprising amount of depth, and it encourages healthy cooperation. Cooperation is a requirement to win. Each role has unique abilities, and we've always played by dealing them out randomly. This makes the gameplay experience different every time. The game's basic mechanics involve spending actions to move around the board, treat diseases, and gathering resources to develop cures. You have to work together to prevent the spread of disease, manage your resources, and develop the cures to stop the pandemics.

In general:

• Each player has 4 actions per turn.
• Your hand consists of city cards and helpful event cards.
• Disease cubes are placed by drawing from an "infection deck."
• You must keep the spread of disease under control while collecting city cards to develop a cure.
• There are 4 (or 5, depending on variant) diseases to cure. Once all are cured, the players win the game.

Then, there are the epidemics. These cards are inserted in the main draw deck, roughly evenly spaced throughout it. Every time an epidemic is drawn, you draw a new city from the bottom of the infection deck and place 3 cubes there. Then all discarded infection cards are placed back on top of the infection deck, and normal infection proceeds. This has the potential to completely alter the course of the game, as it can go from under control to "world on fire" in one turn.

The number of epidemic cards in the draw deck is also how the game controls difficulty. Less epidemic cards usually means less disease outbreaks, and makes it easier to win.

Downsides

• Potential for analysis paralysis: it's easy to get overwhelmed by the actions you can take and the situation on the board, especially for new players.
• Easy for a veteran player to "take over." They might start to essentially plan everyone else's turns.
• Somewhat luck-based, depending on placement of the epidemic cards in the deck.

Why I Like It

The main reason I like Pandemic is because it's a game that can be played by people who are not experts at playing board games. The rules are simple enough to understand, but it's right on the edge of complexity. It's the perfect introduction to more complex games: a gateway drug. Its replayability and encouragement of socialization are also big pluses.

Overall

I would rate the game 8/10. It's a staple of board gaming for a reason.

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