Pandemic

Pandemic is a cooperative board game designed by Matt Leacock and published by Z-Man Games in 2008.

Pandemic is based on the premise that four diseases have broken out in the world, each threatening to wipe out a region. The game accommodates 2 to 4 players, each playing one of up to five possible specialists: (dispatcher, medic, scientist, researcher or operations expert). The game is unlike most boardgames as the gameplay is cooperative, rather than competitive. Through the combined effort of all the players, the goal is to discover all four cures before any of several game-losing conditions are reached.

Gameboard

a game of Pandemic in progress - showing the game board, markers, and cards

The game board resembles a map of Earth, with the oceans indicated in blue shading, and the landmasses in dark green. Over this map, the approximate location of several large cities are labeled with colored circles, each containing a symbol that helps to identify that city as part of a group. The cities are thus divided roughly evenly by region into four groups:.red corresponds roughly to Asia, excepting the Indian Subcontinent; black corresponds to the Middle East; yellow corresponds roughly to Africa and South/Central America; blue corresponds roughly to North America and Europe. There are also twenty-four wooden blocks of each of these four colors, which will be placed into cities during the game to indicate the current level of infection therein. Red lines between cities indicate possible direct movement paths.

There are locations on the game board for the draw and discard piles for both the Player Cards and Infection Cards.

Infection Cards are drawn during game play to indicate the cities receiving additional infection tokens.

Player Cards consist of three types of cards: cards labeled with city names, used in curing diseases and movement; "Special Event" cards, allowing for one-time free actions by the holding player; "Epidemic" cards, which, when drawn, immediately cause the infection rate to advance, an uninfected-city to reach full infection status, and for the already drawn Infection cards to be reshuffled and placed on top of the Infection Card deck.

Additionally, there are scales where placed markers indicate the number of "Outbreaks", and the "Infection Rate."

Finally, at the center-bottom of the game board, there is a space for indicating the four cures, and whether each has been discovered. Cures are indicated covering the color symbol with the cure marker, vial side up. If at any point during the game, the last block of a cured disease is removed from the board, the disease has been eradicated. The cure marker is flipped over, and any future direction to place markers for that disease may be ignored.

Setup

Setup of Pandemic is rather complex. The Infection Deck is simply shuffled and laid in place on the game board. The "Outbreak" counter is set to read "0", and the "Infection Counter" is set to the left-most "2".

The Player Card deck is first shuffled without the "Epidemic" cards within, and two cards are dealt to each player (three cards for a 3-player game, four cards for a 2-player game). The remaining deck is then dealt equally into 4, 5, or 6 piles, depending on the difficulty of game play desired, and thus the number of "Epidemic" cards to be included in the Player Card deck. Each pile is then amended with an "Epidemic" card, shuffled, and stacked one on another. The completed Player Card deck is then placed in its location on the game board.

Next, nine cards are drawn from the Infection pile, indicating the starting infections for the game. The first three cards drawn start with three tokens of the city's color, the next three start with two, and the final three with one.

Finally, each player is randomly dealt a Role card, indicating the special capabilities of each player. These are described in the next section.

Players then collectively decide who goes first, with the game rules advising that they choose the person most recently ill.

Roles

There are five available roles:

• Dispatcher: Can move other players as their own or move one player to any city with another player.
• Medic: Can remove every cube in the player's current city with a single action and treat a cured disease in that city without spending an action.
• Scientist: Needs only four cards of a given color to find the cure.
• Researcher: Can give other players any card from their hand as long as both are in the same city (Other players are restricted to trading only the jointly-occupied city card).
• Operations Expert: Can build a research station anywhere without needing the city card.

Gameplay

All players start in Atlanta, chosen because the Center for Disease Control is headquartered there.

Each player can take up to four actions on a given turn, including:

• Moving to other cities through a variety of methods:
  • Direct movement following the aforementioned lines
  • Playing a city player card to move either from or to anywhere else on the board and that city.
  • Move between research stations
• Treating diseases indicated by removing an infection token from the current location of the player—Medic can remove all the tokens
  • Discovering a cure will allow all infection tokens to be removed by any player instead of just one—Medic can do this without using an action
• Building research centers in player's current location used in curing diseases
  • Requires city card for location of construction for everyone other than Operations Expert
• Curing a disease when a player has five, or in the case of the Scientist four, cards of the same color, and is in a city with a research station.

Each player then draws two cards from the Player Card deck, and then the number of cards indicated by the "Infection Rate" from the Infection Card deck. Epidemics are resolved as they are drawn.

Epidemic cards immediately trigger the following three actions: "Infection Rate" to advance to the right; an uninfected city, drawn from the bottom of the Infection Card deck, to reach full infection status unless that color is eradicated; the already drawn Infection cards, including the one just drawn from the bottom, are reshuffled and placed on top of the Infection Card deck. Thus, the same cities may be drawn for infection repeatedly during the game.

Each city drawn from the Infection Card deck receives another infection block of that city's color, unless that disease has been eradicated. If a city has three infection tokens of a color and is targeted with a fourth, the city suffers an "outbreak". Instead of placing a fourth token on the city, a token of that same color is placed on each city connected by way of the direct movement lines. The "Outbreak" counter is also advanced. These "outbreaks" can cascade, but only to cities not yet "outbroken" earlier in the cascade, thus preventing infinitely alternating outbreaks. It is possible for a city infected by an Epidemic to find itself in an "outbreak" during the same player's turn.

When a cured disease has all of its tokens removed from the board, the disease has been eradicated. At that point, no new infection markers are placed for that disease for any reason. Keep in mind, the disease must be eradicated as well as cured to allow for this.

Endgame

Players collectively lose under a few circumstances: needing to draw a card from an empty Player Card deck, accruing 8 outbreaks, or needing to place an infection token when there are no more of that particular color available.

Players collectively win under one circumstance: immediately upon discovery of the fourth cure.

Expansions

Pandemic: On the Brink adds several new roles and special events, and rules adjustements to allow a fifth player. In addition, several rules subexpansions are included, referred to as challenge kits^[1]

Awards

GAMES Magazine - Best New Family Game - 2009 ^[2]

References

1. ^ "Pandemic:OTB". http://www.zmangames.com/boardgames/pandemicOTB.htm. 
2. ^ "GAMES Game of the Year". http://www.gamesmagazine-online.com/gameslinks/gameofyear.html. Retrieved 3 July 2009. 

External links

• Z-Man games' Pandemic product page
• Pandemic rules book
• Pandemic at BoardGameGeek
• Russian edition of the game product page at "Triominos.ru"