Pandemic (game)

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pandemic
Game data
author Matt Leacock
graphic Joshua Cappel ,
Régis Moulun
publishing company Z-Man Games ,
Pegasus Games ,
Filosofia ,
Albi ,
Lautapelit.fi ,
and others
Publishing year 2008
Art Cooperative board game
Teammates 2 to 4
Duration 45 - 60 minutes
Age from 12 years

Awards

International Gamers Award 2008: nominated
Game of the Year 2009: nominated
German Games Prize 2009: 3rd place
Game of Games 2009: games hit for experts
As d'Or - Jeu de l'Année 2009: nominated
Japan Boardgame Prize 2009: 2nd place
Dutch Game Award 2009:
Games Magazine 2009 nominated: Best Family
Game MinD Game Award 2011

Matt Leacock (right) worked with Rob Daviau to develop the legacy version of Pandemic

Pandemic (original title Pandemic ) is a cooperative board game by Matt Leacock . The game was published in 2008 in English by Z-Man Games , in German and in other languages ​​by Pegasus Spiele . It was nominated for the game of the year in 2009 and received the MinD game award in 2011 . In 2012, a German-language new edition was published by Z-Man with some design changes, which is distributed by Asmodee .

Issues and style of play

Base game

The aim of the game is to fight four deadly epidemics that have broken out in the world . The players take on the role of one of five specialists: dispatcher (in the new edition logistician ), doctor (in the new edition paramedic), scientist, researcher or operational expert. Each expert has special skills that the player must use in order to achieve the goal of the game together with the other players.

Game board

The game board shows a map of the world on which 48 large cities (12 each in 4 different colors) are depicted. There are connecting lines between these cities that provide a direct link. There are also storage areas for the cards to be drawn in the game and drawbars for the outbreaks of the epidemics and the infection rate.

cards

There are two decks of cards: playing cards and infection cards, which indicate which city is next to be hit by a plague. In addition to city cards, the deck of player cards also contains some action cards and epidemic cards (the number varies depending on the level of difficulty of the game). City cards allow you to travel to or from the specified city, can be used to develop an antidote and enable a research laboratory to be set up. Action cards each allow a certain additional action. Epidemic cards increase the infection rate, and the discarded infection cards are shuffled again and placed on the remaining pile of infection cards. This means that new infections appear first (and exacerbate them) where infections appeared before.

roll

  • Logistician: The logistician (in the 1st edition dispatcher ) can move the pawns of other players during his turn after consultation. Normally each player can only move his own character.
  • Paramedic: The paramedic (in the first edition, a doctor ) can remove all disease markers of one color in one place with one action. Other roles can only remove one disease marker per action. If there is a cure for the plague, the medic can remove all plague tokens of that color from this location without spending an action. Usually this costs an action.
  • Scientist: The scientist only needs four player cards of the same color to develop a cure. Usually five cards are required for this.
  • Researcher: The researcher can pass any player card to a player at the same location. Usually this is only possible with the map of the corresponding city.
  • Operations expert: The operations expert can set up new research laboratories without having to play a map of the relevant city.
  • Quarantine specialist: The quarantine specialist (only in the new edition) prevents new disease cubes from being placed at your location and all locations that are directly connected to yours.
  • Crisis Manager: The Crisis Manager (only in the new edition) can take event cards from the player card discard pile as an action in order to play them again.

Style of play

Players begin in Atlanta , home of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , and travel around the world seeking clues about cures for the disease and preventing it from spreading. Since every player contributes to the spread of the disease at the end of his phase, clever joint action against the game mechanism is required.

An untreated epidemic can quickly cause the epidemic to explode and end the game quickly. If more than three infection markers of the same plague come into a city, this leads to the spread (scattering) in all neighboring cities, and after eight outbreaks the game is lost.

The infection cards of eradicated epidemics, however, no longer have any influence on the game, so it makes sense to completely wipe out individual epidemics as quickly as possible.

Playing

There is only one single victory condition for players: They win immediately if they manage to find a cure for all four epidemics in time.

The players lose if there are eight outbreaks of epidemics in the course of the game or if a single epidemic spreads so strongly that there are no more markers for this epidemic in the supply or they can no longer draw player cards.

New edition of the base game

The German edition was reissued in 2013 by Z-Man with a new cover picture. The game and role cards were given a new design, and four card texts were changed: The dispatcher is now called the logistician, the doctor is now called the paramedic, the operations expert was given the additional ability to move from a city with a research center to any city card by discarding any city card Travel city. In addition, the "tough population" card has been changed so that an infection card is removed from the game from the discard pile instead of from the draw pile. In addition, the game material has been changed, which is particularly evident in the disease cubes, which are now smaller and made of transparent colored plastic (previously wood).

On a knife edge (1st extension)

In October 2009, the 1st extension Auf Messers Schneide went on sale. This contains three new challenges, a new plague and six new player roles including characters. In addition, the expansion brings eight new events and the "Legendary" difficulty level (with 7 epidemic cards) is introduced. There are now Petri dishes to store the disease cubes, which can be pasted. Furthermore, in the first edition, the "business expert" was upgraded with a further additional ability. In the new edition, he already has this ability in the base game.

New roles

  • Bioterrorist (only in module 3): The bioterrorist allows one of the players to work against the other and spread epidemics.
  • Archivist: The archivist has a hand card limit of 8 (usually 7) and can take the card of his location from the player card discard pile as an action.
  • Containment Specialist: When the Containment Specialist enters a city with two or more disease cubes of the same color, he automatically removes one of them.
  • Epidemiologist: The epidemiologist can receive any city card from another player standing at her location without using an action.
  • Operations leader: The operations leader (in the 1st edition field researcher) can place disease cubes from his location on his role card. To discover a cure, he only has to discard 3 cards of the same color and replace the two missing cards with three disease cubes in the color of the disease to be cured from his role card.
  • Generalist: The generalist has up to five (instead of 4) actions per round.
  • Troubleshooter: At the beginning of her turn, the troubleshooter may look at as many cards from the infection draw pile as the infection rate corresponds to, and also only has to show the city card used for a direct flight, but not discard it.

Challenges

  • Module 1 "Malignant strain" (in the 1st edition "Virulent strain"): The epidemic cards are replaced by new epidemic cards, each of which has a unique additional property and thus changes one of the four epidemics (the malignant strain) in the course of the round.
  • Module 2 "Mutation" adds a fifth, purple plague to the game, which behaves differently than the first four. You win the game by either researching all five remedies or by researching the four remedies of the basic game and there is no purple cube on the game board.
  • Module 3 "Bioterrorist" lets one player compete against the others. The rules and plagues of the basic game remain active, in addition the bio-terrorist can move undercover (similar to Scotland Yard) and spread the purple plague.

The modules can be combined with one another (with the exception of the combination “Mutation” and “Bioterrorist”).

In the laboratory (2nd extension)

The 2nd expansion "In the Laboratory" appeared in stores in Germany in 2015. In addition to three new event cards and four new role cards including characters, it also contains a new challenge, a solo version, a team version and additions to modules 1 and 2 from the 1st expansion.

New roles

  • Chief Overseer: The Chief Overseer can also treat epidemics in locations that are related to his current location. He can also move figures from other players, provided they are at his location or at a location that is linked to his location.
  • Informant: The informant can give city cards in the color of their current location to a player who is in a location of the same color.
  • Pilot: The pilot can fly to a city 1, 2 or 3 steps away from his location, taking a player as a passenger. He may not establish research centers or perform normal movement actions.
  • Virologist: While researching a cure, the virologist can discard any two cards in order to replace one card of the disease to be cured. She can also discard a city card and remove an epidemic die of the same color from any city.

The expansion also includes new cards for the researcher and epidemiologist with additions for module 4.

Supplements to modules 1 and 2

  • Module 1: Module 1 contains two additional epidemic cards with unique additional properties.
  • Module 2: Module 2 contains 12 additional disease cubes as well as rule changes to intensify the challenge.

Module 4 "In the laboratory"

In order to research a cure in this module, it is no longer enough to just discard 5 cards of the same color. Medicines first have to be characterized, sequenced and tested in the laboratory. An additional laboratory game plan and 14 sequence cards are included. Actions in the laboratory must be carried out in a certain order with the cured disease cubes. By using additional city cards, a remedy (now represented by an ampoule instead of a flat token) can then be researched.

Solo variant and team variant

  • Solo variant: In the solo variant, the role card “health authority” is used as a virtual player. The player makes his turn as in the normal variant, then he plays an action of the health authority. It is also possible to change the role of the player while the game is running. Winning and losing conditions are the same as in the normal variant. This variant can be combined with other modules, but not with module 3 "Bioterrorist".
  • Team variant: The team variant is played with two or three teams of 2 players each. At the beginning of the game, each team receives a face-down objective card. Each team has 6 actions in its action phase, which the team members have to share. Awards are given by healing or eradicating epidemics. These awards as well as additional bonus cards that are shuffled into the player card draw pile give prestige points for the respective team. Further prestige points can be obtained by completing tasks on the objective card. The team with the most Prestige Points at the end of the game (assuming it was not lost) is the overall winner. The defeat conditions are the same as in the bonus game; the victory conditions change in that it is not enough to discover just three cures and eradicate these plagues. (Different victory conditions apply for a combination with Module 2 “Mutation”.) This variant can be combined with other modules, but not with Module 3 “Bioterrorist” and Module 4 “In the laboratory”.

These variants expand the possible number of players from 2-4 to 1-6.

State of emergency (3rd extension)

The third expansion contains three (plus three for special modules) new roles with characters and new event cards, as well as four new challenges with corresponding game material.

New challenges

  • Module 5 " Quarantine ": Here, a player can temporarily quarantine cities by placing quarantine tiles and thus prevent the placement of disease cubes. The "Colonel" role card is available for this module.
  • Module 6 “ Zoonoses ”: Two game boards placed next to the basic game board symbolize the spread of animal diseases that can spread to humans. These playing fields are more difficult for players to reach than the cities in the base game. The occurrence of animal diseases is not determined by the infection cards, but by a die. The role card " Veterinary " is available for this module .
  • Module 7 “State of emergency”: In this module, the deck of player cards is supplemented by event cards with negative effects.
  • Module 8 “Supervirus”: In this module there is a fifth disease that cannot be cured with the usual methods. Here, an antidote must first be researched, then vaccine factories must be built, vaccines must be produced and these must be transported to the infected cities. The quarantine markers from module 5 are also used in this module. There is a modified "Paramedic" role card for this module.

Pandemic Legacy

In 2016, Pandemic Legacy: Season 1, the first part of the Legacy version of the game, appeared in 2017, Season 2 . These games were developed by Leacock in collaboration with Rob Daviau . Daviau is considered to be the inventor of the legacy games, which he introduced with his risk version Risk Evolution .

As with other legacy games, the individual game rounds of Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 have an impact on the subsequent rounds and thus permanently change parts of the game or the entire game. Changes are made to the various diseases as well as in the team and individual regions and cities are permanently marked with risk levels on the world map based on epidemics that have already occurred. Changes can be brought about by adding new rules, card and board game texts as well as new cards, new units, new properties and the like. Cards and units are also destroyed by tearing up cards.

Awards

The Pandemic game received various awards:

Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 has also won several game awards, such as the

Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 received the

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Pandemic in the BoardGameGeek game database (English)
  2. ↑ Pandemic Legacy - Season 2: Game of the Year awards special prize 2018. In: noz.de. Retrieved March 10, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Tric Trac - Cuvée 2008 at trictrac.net (French)
  4. ↑ 2009 Games of the Year and Other Awards ( memento of the original from May 2, 2015 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at Games Magazine (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gamesmagazine-online.com
  5. ↑ http://spielepreis.mensa.de/sieger.html