Pandemic is a game for (originally) 2 to 4 players wherein all participants are part of a medical team that set out to find the cure for four different diseases that threaten the planet. Each of you has to travel around the world map, gathering data and cleaning up diseases as you go. But beware: with each passing turn, the diseases grow in number. Luckily you have some fast traveling options, you can trigger specific events and you all have a specialization. Believe me...you're going to need it!



At the start of the game, all players start with a random role to play during the game and 2 research cards. You all start with your pawn in the city of Atlanta. In addition, a bunch of cities start as starting places for the diseases: 3 randomly drawn cities start with three diseases, 3 get two diseases and three cities get one. These drawn cards go on the location card discard pile. The kind of disease always corresponds with the color on the city. Then players pick a starting player. He or she gets to choose up to four actions to pick from the following list:
* travel to the neighboring city over the lines
* travel to the city displayed on his/her held research card (this discards said card)
* travel to ANY city, provided you can discard the card containing the city you're currently in
* travel to another research station, should you currently be in a city containing a research station
* build a research station, should you be able to discard the city you're currently standing on
* give or receive a research card from another player, provided you're both in the city that is being exchanged.
* find a cure for a disease, provided that you can discard five cards of the same color AND the city contains a research station.
* remove one disease cube
* use one of the specific actions of your role requiring an action (see below)

I'll get to these in more detail. In any case: after you've done your actions, you draw 2 additional research cards. If needed, you discard down to 7. And then the player turns over a given amount of country cards. This amount - 2 at the start - means that this many cities get an extra disease counter of their color. I'll get to this as well.

In any case: keep in mind that whenever I say "he or she", I should really be saying "we" or "the team". This is the main difference with all those 'heroic' co-op games. If you go lone wolf against the diseases, your team will lose. Not "you might lose" or "it is unlikely you'll win" but "your team will lose". Pandemic is designed in such a way that you simply cannot even begin to catch up to the diseases. Only having four actions to take is seriously limiting the actions you need to properly do your work. You need everyone to spread out to make sure the diseases are kept in check, yet at the same time you need to plan meetings strategically to pass research cards of a given color to your team members.




As said: at the start of the game, each player gain a specific role. These are specific strengths that your team will need to properly use if you want to overcome the challenge presented in the next section of this review. The possible role of the base game are as follows:
* scientist: this person only needs to collect four research cards of a specific color to research the cure for the disease
* researcher: this person can give or take research cards to another person in the same city without the requirement of being both in named city
* medic: for a single action, you can clear out ALL diseases instead of only one cube
* quarantine specialist: whenever a disease is set to be put in the city this player is in or directly next to this city, put no disease instead
* contingency planner: not all research cards feature cities. Some contain powerful events that can help your team. As an action, the planner can put an earlier-played card from the discard pile in hand and play it a second time (only once per card).
* operations expert: for one action, you may build a research station in your current city. In addition: if you're in a research station, you may fly to any city by discarding any city card
* dispatcher: this player can do two things, provided he's allowed by fellow players
1) spend an action to move another pawn as if it was his own
2) put any pawn (including his/her own) on any city that already has a pawn


Again: the only way to win is by discarding 5 (or 4) cards of the same color in a city with a research station, and this needs to be done for each of the four disease colors. And while everyone draws 2 resource cards, the chances you'll randomly gain what's needed is stacked against you. As such, you need to come up with move-efficient ways that allow for people trading cards. It's pretty normal to hear someone say something things like "I've got 3 blacks. You...you've got Cairo (which is black). How about I end my move there and you come to me to give me that fourth one?". More so: pandemic is not just about coming up with A plan but with coming up with THE BEST plan. In nearly all games I've played with my girlfriend (who loves this game even more than I do), we end up with both of us throwing a couple conflicting ideas around and then coming to an agreement on the best course of action.




Thus far, I haven't talked much about the diseases. Yes, there are four colors of 'em (yellow, red, blue and black) and yes, at least two more are added to the board each turn. But that's just the mere basics.

For one: cities can never have more than 3 disease cubes on them. Should a city have three cubes, and a fourth (of the same color) is to be added, a so-called 'outbreak' happens. An outbreak means that one cube is instead added to each adjacent city. Should this city also have three cubes of the same color, this one also has an outbreak. The only difference is that it does not pass cubes back to the location of the initial outbreak.
In any case: there is a serious doom clock. Should your team ever hit eight outbreaks, you'll lose the game. You'll also immediately lose if you run out of cubes to add on the board, so there's more threat there than it looks.

The second danger is an epidemic. Epidemic cards are cards that are shuffled in the resource deck in such a way that they are distributed somewhat evenly (meaning: if you play with four of them, you make four stacks of resource cards and shuffle one epidemic cards into each pile). Once these are drawn, you should do the following:
1) increase the location counter. The first time an epidemic hits, it's still two diseases each turn that are added each turn. After that, it gets to three or even four diseases that will then be added EACH TURN for the rest of the game.
2) you draw the card from the BOTTOM of the location deck. Put three disease cubes on this city
3) shuffle ONLY the discard pile from the locations pile, and put these cards on TOP of the locations deck

As bad as the first two parts of drawing this card are, it's the third action that seriously puts the pressure on the game: the top of the location deck now contains almost nothing but cities that already have diseases on them. And that can of worms starts immediately, as adding new diseases to the board happens directly after the 'draw location tiles' phase.

So what does this all mean? Mostly that you need to reduce the disease level of cities with three cubes ASAP. And while it's tempting to spend more actions to completely clear th entire city, it's often not the best strategy. The actions are limited and shouldn't be spent in less-than-optimal ways. Outbreaks can spiral out of control faster than you might think, so preventing them from happening strongly beats attempting to clean them up afterwards.

Before I forget: there's one detail that might get your hopes up. Once you've researched the cure for a disease, it costs just one action to clean any number of disease cubes of that color for everyone. It's even more fun as the doctor: just being in the same city as this disease removes all cubes (meaning: you're basically playing Jesus at that point ). Having a cure originally won't remove diseases from cropping up, but if your team manages to clear the entire board of this color, then the disease is considered eradicated. Meaning: whenever new diseases of this color should be added for whatever reason, no diseases get added instead. This is a very helpful asset to achieve ("okay...for this turn we draw...2 yellow cities. And since we've got that eradicated, this means no new diseases this turn! "), but it might not always be the best strategy to pursue.





Pandemic is the sort of game that actively encourages both forward thinking and table talk. Perhaps on paper this all seems very complex, but perhaps aside from the specific roles, you'll get in the groove fairly quick. I've seen first-time players who started making suggestions halfway through the first game and had genuinely good ideas from the second game onward. And to be fair: that's also a bit needed. Estimating everyone's roles is one thing, but keeping track of who has which cities (and thus can make a given destination in just one or two actions) is a tad harder. Plus...it's not as fun if one player is just in it to basically watch while another player dictates all his or her moves.
I already mentioned that my girlfriend and me are often at odds when it comes to conflicting ideas on how to pursue. This really is a GOOD thing. There are quite some options in the game, and estimating the priorities correctly isn't easy. The option to take a flight is one of those examples. This requires you to discard a resource card showing a city. Discarding it means that it can no longer be used to save up five cards to research a cure. Event cards like "move one pawn to anywhere on the board" can be played at any time for no actions, but if there is no discussion on which player gets to move where to do what, then you're not playing the game correctly. Everyone on the team has an individual mind. And it'd be a waste of mindspace to have someone sit back because he or she is less experienced in the game.



Regular pandemic can be played with two to four players. And I've got to say that it scales amazingly well for this. With two players, each player gets more turns in the game (there are much more event cards, and in a certain way, the epidemics don't show up as fast) but it makes positioning pretty hard. With four players, keeping things under control is relatively easy but it requires more coordination to get the diseases researched before the deck runs out.

As I stated in the intro: pandemic is a milestone in co-op games. The idea of fighting against a self-cycling deck of cards rather than an opponent was unique at that time, and influenced many later co-op board games (admitted: designer Matt Leacock designed a good bunch of 'em). Pandemic itself also became a renowned franchise with multiple expansions and stand-alone games (heck...it even has a cthulhu version). It is even so known that I was hesitant to write a review on it. I mean...the base game is ten years old at this point. I'd imagine that even non-gamers have heard about it at this time. Similar how non-videogamers must have heard about tetris or Mario by now. But alas: two of my friends had never heard of it. Of course this was a main reason to invite them over, but really...why? I mean...I get that the general audience hasn't heard about the current rage in board games (Gloomhaven! Terraforming Mars!). But many of these are complex beasts and/or have weird themes that only appeal to a nerdy or geeky audience. Pandemic is neither: you're doctors and you're trying to save the world. Both the concept and execution is easy to follow, and the theme is universally inspiring. In addition, pandemic is laden with prizes and is picked up by any toy store worth its salt.

Now...yes, it does have both a computer and a mobile version. But while I've played it with my girlfriend, it's not the same. It's convenient that the management is taken care of for you, but you have less of an overview. And most of all: while mechanically very good, it is ultimately the social aspect that makes this a great game.




So what do I think of it? 'Awesome' is a good description. Depending on my mood, I even consider it my favorite board game. I've heard from people who played this over a hundred times, and I can see why: the randomness of both the disease location and the role distribution makes this a puzzle that's different each time. And the teamwork I've seen in this game is simply unmatched. This obviously has to do with the turn-based nature: in games and team sports that require quick reflexes, you can't stop the game to discuss strategies and tactics. The same goes for games that have hidden information (like playing cards).
The only disadvantage I can think of is a potential one. It's called "alpha gamer", and it's where potentially good ideas are smothered by the ego of one of the players. You can somewhat avoid this by examining the table talk: if the majority of the executed actions in the game come from the same person, then things are amiss (especially if that person is you). Likewise: avoid talking in terms of "I" and "you" when the team fails. At worst, blame the game draws (things may turn out pretty difficult). But when playing with a good group, you might analyse mistakes in a decent matter.