Pandemic Board Game (Base Game) | Family Board Game | Board Game for Adults and Family | Cooperative Board Game | Ages 8…

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Pandemic Board Game

OverviewPandemic is a cooperative game where you’re working together to cure diseases and prevent a worldwide pandemic. If disease spreads too far, you lose. If you find cures for all of the diseases and eradicate them you win. There are multiple roles you and your team mates can play, each with unique powers that allow you to work around the rules in a specific way.Pros:There is a high sense of urgency and tension in the game. Working against the game to win in time really draws you into the theme.The cooperative aspect of this game is great if you’re not in the mood to play against your friends and family. Playing as a team can create a great bond with the other players, especially when you get down to that last nail-biting turn.High level of difficulty and replay-ability, with rules to make the game harder once you’ve mastered the basic game.This game really makes you work together to win. If everyone just does their own thing, you will lose for sure. The rules even encourage discussion before making any actions.It really does an excellent job of making the game a challenging opponent. The game’s “AI”, that is, the way you draw cards and spread the diseases through “outbreaks” means that the game is very difficult without requiring a player to make decisions.Cons:The game can be very hard, even on the easiest setting. I have yet to actually win the game, even with six plays under my belt.Be prepared to lose the first few plays.Mood: Thinky, Cooperative, Strategic

My wife and I have gradually gotten more into board games, because we’re old and lame and that’s ok. She’s a bit … competitive, however, so even playing a game like Settlers can put me on the edge of the seat a little bit if I’m winning. Some of you know what I’m talking about. Board games kept popping up in my Amazon recommendations, and I kept seeing this one (nice work, Amazon ad algorythms). Cooperative? Sounds good!There went that Sunday. I even stopped watching football, BECAUSE CHILDREN ARE DYING IN ISTANBUL OR CONSTANTINOPLE. We played several games. We lost our first few, then kept winning. Our kids were annoying us with petty stuff like, “Daddy, I’m hungry” and “Mommy, my toe fell off” but sometimes you just have to tell your kids that now isn’t a good time, because Daddy is building a research center and then has to fly to meet Mommy in Milan, and there is leftover ham in the refrigerator.I do question whether the game will keep its challenge. We’ve won our only two games on the hardest difficulty, but it felt suspenseful and like we could have lost, so I think it’ll still be fun to play. Regardless, we’ve already gotten our money’s worth out of this game. I think my daughter (six) will be able to learn it now or shortly as well, which will be cool and we can monitor her toe situation better.

It seemed like we’d just started the game and the yellow strain had not only been cured but eradicated! We were on the cusp of a cure for the second strain. This one was in the bag. We had weathered two epidemics so far without any egregious problems. Sure there was a pair of cities in Eastern Europe that was in danger, but what were the odds that was going to be a problem? One of us was already there. Then another epidemic hit, the infection rate increased, three cities were drawn and it seemed the cascading outbreaks knew no bounds. I think nearly everyone in Europe died that day, and we – a group of specialized scientists- were served a plate of bitter defeat. Again! Again and again, always defeat. Oh, the humanity!It’s true, I haven’t ever beat this rotten game and yet I keep coming back. Because one day I’ll win; in spite of all the wounds to my pride I’ve had to nurse, one day I’ll – I mean- we’ll win. I say we’ll because this is a co-operative game where you all work together against those nasty strains of no-doubt-human engineered beasties. Now, I know there are those of you who beat this every time you play, like I beat Shadows over Camelot every time I play, but I’ve invited those sorts to come play with me and they can barely stand the shame of losing with me.To make it even worse, we only play with 4 epidemics. I feel like I’m at an AA meeting: “Hi my name is Kyle.”“Hi Kyle” echoes the crowd.“I… I suck at Pandemic.”This is the part where you put your arm on my shoulder and tell me it’s going to be alright.Game PlayThis board is a handsome map of the world; only instead of country boards you see in Risk there is a red web of interconnected cities. Everyone starts in Atlanta were a research station is and you go from there. Each player plays a scientist that has a special ability: one can move others on their turn, one can give cards to another without the restrictions other players have and so on. The game also begins with 9 random cities around the world with varying degrees of infection (one to three stacked blocks). If a city would have a fourth block put on it (called an outbreak), it actually stays at three and the cities connected by the red web get a block. Isn’t that nice? It’s called a cascading outbreak. Such a pretty name. If you get 9 outbreaks in a game you lose. If you run out of blocks for a certain strain you lose, and if you haven’t cured all the strains before your white deck of cards runs out, you lose. I hate to be a negative Nancy, but there’s a lot of ways to lose this game. If, on the other hand, you are able to find cures for each strain, you win!How do you do that? Well you get someone who has got 5 cards of the same color in their hand to a research station, that’s how. One of the players only needs four.Every turn each player gets to do four actions. Picking up a cube off a city counts as one, so does moving between cities. You can charter flights with your cards, rather than use them for cures. You can build research stations and fly between those without expending a card, and a few other things. Then you draw cards that you think will help you, but can instead turn out to be epidemics. And you also draw cards for cities that get infected: usually this amounts to adding on square to the city’s pile. As the game progresses, more cards are drawn at a time to be infected. Oh, and when an epidemic happens, the cards for the cities that were infected get put back on the top of the draw pile. Oh dear.I hate to tell you what to do because what do I know anyway?Those of you who beat this all the time should tell me what to do. I understand that finding the cures is everything- lest you run out of time. Others say, make sure that you never have three on on e city at a time, as to avoid outbreaks.Make sure that the medic is only clearing off stacks of infections, the dispatcher should be moving people so that don’t have to move themselves.Again, I never win, so what do I know?ThemeIf it hasn’t been obvious, I am completely sucked in by the theme. There are similarities to other co-operative games especially Forbidden Island: Each character has special powers, you make moves for the team and then the board pushed you closer to defeat, that sort of thing. Forbidden Island also shares the shuffle the cards and put them back on top of the draw deck mechanic. I tell you this so that you won’t be surprised if you decide to add them both to your game closet, this is why I haven’t added Forbidden Island to mine, though I’ve played the game. While this adds to the evidence that the theme could be stripped out of the game, I don’t recall cascading flooding going on in Forbidden Island, or feeling like humanity is hanging in the balance, or being glad I don’t live anywhere in Eastern Europe. That is to say, I think the theme sticks.BalanceI read about people who win all the time and needed the expansion to rouse any concern in them. But who can believe everything they read on the internet, I ask you? Just because I’ve never won though doesn’t mean that it’s not an enjoyable experience, mind you. Because I keep coming back.InteractionInteraction is very high. There’s all sort of collaborative discussion that goes on through this game.Learning CurveLow. It takes all of ten minutes to explain and there are directions on the board and the turn cards.DowntimeNill. You are all in it together! And you even get to move a guy in your turn.What’s not to Like?I actually know where some of these cities are on the map are but they all have these lines that go from the pin-pointed location to the circle where you actually place the blocks. That remains a bit annoying even after playing the game 10 times.Collateral EndorsementMy four year old likes “The one where they get sick” We run around curing cities till the infection deck runs out. He feels a lot better about himself than the rage I feel playing by the real rules.Actually, as I think about it, the first time I played this game I was at the home of some friends and I think we won. But I’m certain I have not won with my copy of the game. I’d say mine is jinxed, but we’ve played on another friends copy and lost there too. Also, I should say that a brother of mine lost two in a row and saw the writing on the wall in the third game and left the table, swearing off the game forever. You might consider your own resiliency before buying this game.

I was originally introduced to this game by a student of mine, who had been working with me on disease modeling. After reading some of the great reviews of the game, my wife and I decided to purchase it last year. We can’t say enough how much we enjoy playing this game; it makes you think, and, more importantly, you have to work together!My wife and I love playing board games, but some of our board games can get fairly competitive and, in some cases, can leave bad feelings afterward (we don’t play trivia games anymore because of this!). If you’ve had these feelings, then Pandemic is the game for you: You don’t compete against each other, but against the game board. This means, you can talk, you can share information, and you can strategize together openly. And, if you win, it’s a strong sense of accomplishment; if you lose, you can always try again!To the game itself: We love the quality of the pieces (sturdy plastic for the disease cubes and game pawns, well-made cards that have withstood numerous plays and shuffles, and a very sleek game board and box!), but we especially love that it’s a different game every time. Each of you randomly selects your role, giving each of you a special ability that can help your team. You then randomly place disease cubes on the board, and then start trying to find cures. Sometimes, you get lucky, and you can discover cures quickly, but, other times, epidemic cards come up so quickly that you don’t know what hit your team! Admittedly, the first few plays are slow, because there are a lot of rules to keep track of. But, after a few plays, you really get the hang of it, and, since you are working together, you can help each other learn the game. We’ve found that a typical game takes around 30-45 minutes, which is a good length of time.Finally, I’ll say that one other thing we really like about this game is you can adjust the difficulty: make it easier by putting in less epidemic cards or laying your hands on the table so everyone can see, or make it harder by adding in more epidemic cards and/or playing with expansion packs. Some other rule changes to make the game more challenging are included in the main rules.The few complaints we have had about the game are that the game is only for 2-4 players (more requires an expansion pack), so, if your family or board game group is large, keep this in mind. Also, although the game is cooperative, it is hard! We’re currently on a streak where we haven’t won a game in weeks, but I’m hoping we’ll save humanity soon enough!Anyway, if you’ve been growing sick (he he he) of the “standard” board games, give this one a try. It was our first venture outside of “standard” board games, and Pandemic is why we now own Ticket to Ride and Forbidden Island, and are looking at Settlers of Catan. This coming from people who started out with Monopoly, Clue, and Life!

Omg I went to Costco today for t.p. and couldn’t get any because they were all out because people are getting crazy about the Coronavirus… buying up t.p., bottled water, flour, hand sanitizer, etc. like crazy. It was bonkers like first episode of your favorite apocalypse tv show where they set up the disaster. I came home and looked at this game sitting on the floor from Xmas, still unopened. I realized we might be playing it soon when we’re all stuck at home because the plague arrives, and thought that was pretty ironic. Maybe if it gets real bad there’s paper pieces we can use for t.p.