Tabletop Tuesday - Pandemic

You may have noticed a rising trend the past few years: Board games.  Those games of dice, cards, luck and strategy are no longer just for rainy days when the power is out.  Board games are proving to provide socially engaging and often deep and rewarding experiences for players of all ages.  So join in every Tuesday as I showcase notable games in this Tabletop world and see if they may be a good fit for your crew.

This week's game...the game of high stakes and viral outbreaks that is Pandemic.

Players: 2-4 (You can add in a 5th or 6th player, but it will affect the gameplay balance)

Time: 30-60 minutes

Genre: Cooperative

For those new to the genre, cooperative board games are where all the players work together to overcome challenges put forward by the rules and design of the board game; Everyone either wins together or loses together.  It's a fun take on board games that puts aside competition and instead facilitates group decisions and keeps players involved throughout the duration of the game.

In Pandemic, each player takes the role of a different specialist starting in the city of Atlanta.  Disease cubes are placed around the world and more are continued to be placed throughout the game with cards being drawn from the disease deck.  Players must use their unique abilities and limited number of actions per turn to navigate the world, contain the diseases, and discover cures.  If players are able to discover cures to all four diseases, they win.  However, as players draw cards between turns for cures, they may draw an Epidemic card which will place three disease cubes on one city and shuffle all the previously drawn disease cards back on top of the disease deck, while also increasing the frequency of disease cards drawn between turns.  This means those cities can receive disease cubes again, and if any city receives more than three disease cubes, it will Outbreak and cause all surrounding cities to receive disease cubes, which could in turn cause additional Outbreaks.  Run out of disease cubes?  You lose.  Too many Outbreaks let loose?  You lose.  Run out of cards in the Player deck?  You lose.  The odds are stacked against you as you desperately try to prevent things from spiraling out of control, but at least you are never alone.

With the variety of roles to play as and the use of decks for diseases and player cards, each time you play offers a unique experience and a lot of replay-ability.  Additionally, you are able to control how many Epidemic cards go into the Player deck at the start of the game, so you have added control over the difficulty of the game.  I would recommend this game for groups who enjoy critical thinking and don't stress easily.  And as mentioned prior, there are enough roles that you can work in more than 4 players, but it will affect the balance of the game.  More players means your player cards are becoming more divided among a wider spread of players, which makes finding a cure more difficult.  It also makes the player deck deplete faster, which leads to defeat.  On the bright side though, you have additional abilities to be used and more friends to enjoy game night with.  :)

If you have any additional questions about Pandemic, be sure to ask in the comments.  Let me know what your favorite cooperative board games are!  And look forward to hearing about Pandemic Legacy and other Legacy games in future installments of Tabletop Tuesday!