Game: Pandemic

Thread: Re: pandemic review

troubadour — 2008-05-15T10:56:04+00:00

The thing that bothers me about this game - and it is a fault with many co-operative games - is that if there's a player in the group who is more experienced than you are he tends to run the game. He simply tells you what to do - and maybe will be telling everybody else what they should be doing.

Its true that in a co-operative game one player can dominate. I would argue that this is a fault of the player, not the game genre. In a competitive (i.e non-co-operative) game, one player can take away from the experience by being too competitive or by king-making or whatever. That is not necessarily the fault of the game. Same with Pandemic. The game is not to be blamed for the way people play it. Nevertheless, to get the best out of Pandemic for all the players, it is true that one player should not be allowed to run the entire show.

Thread: Re: pandemic review

Carver — 2008-05-15T10:28:19+00:00

Thread: Re: A modern solution to a problem as old as the hills.

citylife — 2008-05-15T08:53:42+00:00

meowsqueak wrote:
That makes sense. Although his last sentence doesn't. I almost thought he'd finally crossed the line and written a review for a game he hadn't even played yet! :laugh:

My intention was to express my frustration at not being able to buy a copy after at least a month of trying :( Games in NZ are not like other products, that are hard to get for a bit and then easy to get after a month or so. Sometimes we just don't get them, you have to order them from overseas. Thats sad.

Hmmmmm reviewing an unplayed game .... I'm sure I could have an opinion on it at least!

Thread: Re: Medic question

ekted — 2008-05-15T06:48:35+00:00

rockhpi wrote:
Ok, how about this...

What if the infection causes you to go over your # of cubes and you lose? Shouldn't the cubes have to be :
1 - Placed
2 - Removed for free by Medic

However, if after 1 you run out of cubes, don't you lose before getting to 2?

I'm being ultra-picky because I'm writing a program to play Pandemic solo.
Awesome find. You are right. The rules do not deal with this edge condition. My choice would be to handle it in favor of the players: Don't place cubes of cured diseases at all where the Medic is located.

Thread: Re: Playing a Doctor from WHO (a review of Pandemic)

oldfan — 2008-05-15T06:37:53+00:00

RockLobster wrote:
[COLOR=#993399]Some might think that the nameless diseases take from the feel of the game[/COLOR]

I've taken to thinking of them as The Black Death, [COLOR=#FF0000]The Red Menace[/COLOR], [COLOR=#FFCC00]The Yellow Peril[/COLOR], and [COLOR=#0000FF]The Blue Meanies[/COLOR].

A couple of the names aren't terribly "PC", I suppose, but if someone is offended I invite you to say something unkind about the Irish in my honour.

My nicknames:
Black Plague (or Black Death)
Scarlet Fever
Yellow Fever (I know, two fevers, any alternatives?)

and, my favorite from the union-happy North America and Europe:

Blue Flu!

Thread: Re: Replayability?

zuviel — 2008-05-15T06:27:52+00:00

Cannibal Ox wrote:
I haven't played this game yet myself, but I was wondering if Pandemic was one of those games with limited replayability? Does the novelty wear off after a certain numbers of plays? After you've beat the game, do you feel like having another go at it?

Being the voice of dissent, my group got tired of it after about 1/2 dozen plays. It just gets formulaic after awhile - especially once you can win regularly on hard barring very bad luck.

That said, it's a fair cheap game and I definitely got my money's worth from it. I'll be taking it back home this weekend to introduce it to my family and my other gaming group, which will hopefully give it some new life.

It's presently my group's second most played game after Imperial (barring filler card games), so you will get a lot of enjoyment from it before it starts getting old.

Thread: Re: Replayability?

kilroy_locke — 2008-05-15T05:40:49+00:00

thelegendofhockey wrote:
I would go as far as to say it's addictive. I've owned it for a few month's now...and even my wife likes it.:surprise: It also plays well as a solo game (controlling two roles simultaneously)... I completely agree! It's one of my absolute favorite games now, and we usually play it multiple times in a row each time we pull it out.

Thread: Re: Replayability?

m_r_tyler — 2008-05-15T05:20:54+00:00

Cannibal Ox wrote:
Does the novelty wear off after a certain numbers of plays?
Yes, but that number is acceptably high for a game in this price range. After 42 plays in the past few months I have slowed down on playing it. So there may be a flash in the pan phenomenon here but it is a fun ride while it lasts and certainly worth owning. There are many games in my closet that will never see 42 plays.

Thread: Re: A modern solution to a problem as old as the hills.

Yokiboy — 2008-05-15T05:16:28+00:00

Hey Andrew, I agree with you completely, including your comments about the player pawns sticking out from the rest of the components. Nice review.

Thread: Re: Replayability?

silvanus321 — 2008-05-15T05:11:05+00:00

5 roles *
3 difficulty levels *
2, 3, or 4-player games *
Different mixes of infected cities *
Different intervals of epidemics
= many re-playability opportunities

That's what Matt said in his [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdTVcFo2EQw]speech[/url].

Thread: Re: Medic question

rockhpi — 2008-05-15T04:54:29+00:00

Ok, how about this...

What if the infection causes you to go over your # of cubes and you lose? Shouldn't the cubes have to be :
1 - Placed
2 - Removed for free by Medic

However, if after 1 you run out of cubes, don't you lose before getting to 2?

I'm being ultra-picky because I'm writing a program to play Pandemic solo.

Thread: Re: Replayability?

mojo shivers — 2008-05-15T04:03:30+00:00

Not to mention the very fact it's so difficult to beat at times lends itself to, "we can't go to sleep/end the night/get up from the table until we beat this bastard of a game" mentality.

At least that's the way it is when we play this game. The number one rule when playing games like this is "you can't go out a loser."

Thread: Re: Replayability?

thelegendofhockey — 2008-05-15T04:00:03+00:00

I would go as far as to say it's addictive. I've owned it for a few month's now...and even my wife likes it.:surprise: It also plays well as a solo game (controlling two roles simultaneously). Even though the game is simplistic in nature the level of variability keeps it fresh. I (we) always play on the hardest level, so wins are kept at a minimum to begin with, but your're always trying to fine tune strategies for each role (and how each role interacts with the other). After playing with my wife several times and running into the "let's get over here before we have an outbreak" and she says "-No we should really try to erraticate this color over here first", you really have to learn to think as one or at least listen to each other. I can only imagine how the whole strategy changes with 4 people playing. Anyway, I think this will prove to be one of those games that will always be asked to play in our household, especially once I unleash it on our friends and children. Mooooohahahahaha!

Thread: Re: Replayability?

Favre4MVP — 2008-05-15T03:56:19+00:00

Last year, out of my 150+ games, I played none of them 10 or more times. I played Pandemic 18 times in the first 2 weeks I had it and didn't get tired of it. Yes, it is quite replayable.

Thread: Re: Replayability?

Blott — 2008-05-15T03:45:23+00:00

I'm going to agree with Verkisto and Grimwold. This one is a dandy of a game and doesn't really lose anything with multiple plays. Also it has a lot of potential for expansion since we've already seen several variant roles suggested in the forums. So that will just increase the replay value.

It's a good investment if you think you can focus that competitive nature you mentioned in another thread into beating a game and not the other players.

Thread: Re: Replayability?

Verkisto — 2008-05-15T03:40:57+00:00

Oh yeah, I forgot to include:

5. You can determine the "skill level" of the game by using a different number of outbreak cards in the deck. So once you feel like you've played out the games on medium, you can add a card to increase the difficulty.

(Thanks, Andy!)

Thread: Re: Replayability?

Grimwold — 2008-05-15T03:36:39+00:00

I don't own it (yet), but I've played it 5 times so far (on the medium difficulty setting) and still want to play it some more.

The way the game plays out is very different each time.. partly due to which of the 5 characters are in play, and partly due to how the cards come out of the various decks. The mechanics for the epidemic cards and the intensification of the infections deck means you never know from game to game what areas you need to concentrate on etc.

If you beat the game a few times on the medium skill level (we're currently 3 from 5), you can always throw in the extra epidemic card and make it super difficult.

I'd say it has a lot of replayability...

Thread: Re: Reprint?

l10n0fjudah — 2008-05-15T03:32:37+00:00

Hey, thanks for the tip, that's good to know. Especially since after I posted that i checked TH and realized they don't have it in anyway.

Thread: Re: Replayability?

Verkisto — 2008-05-15T03:32:13+00:00

Well, consider this:

1. There are five roles available, and the game "maxes out" with four players, so you always have a variable arrangement of roles.

2. The player number range (2-4) means that different number of players will have different skill sets, meaning that the number of players makes for a different game each time.

3. The infected cities are determined randomly each game.

4. You only ever go through but about a third of the infection deck, so you're always going to have a different focus for your attentions each game.

So, I think there's a lot of replayability with this game. I've only played two full games of it, and don't feel that I've come close to playing it out.

Thread: pandemic review

troubadour — 2008-05-15T03:29:56+00:00

1. Introducing...

Pandemic is one of the newest contributions to the genre of co-operative games. Up to 4 players work together to save the world from the spread of four different diseases. Each player has a different role to play. The epidemics and outbreaks come fast and furious, so there is always the feeling of barely keeping up with events. So far, with over a dozen plays under our belt at the intermediate level, we have only beat the game a handful of times. A game takes roughly 45 minutes to play. It is easy to explain and scales well between 2 to 4 players.

2. Opening the box.

Pandemic has nice components. The pieces are bright and colourful. Some say that the mapboard is too small for all the cubes that start sprouting up everywhere, but this has not really been an issue for us. If you have sausage fingers, things might get a little messy. Our gameboard came with a very(!) strong smell of ink. Set-up takes a minute or two as you prepare the player card deck by inserting the epidemic cards.

3. Playing the game.

Pandemic is not difficult to play. At the beginning of the game, nine cities (of the 50 or so on the map) receive 1-3 cubes which represent the diseases you are fighting. Each turn, a player receives 4 action points that they can use to move across the board and remove cubes. While searching for the cures for the 4 diseases on the boards, players have to be careful not to let any city get more than four cubes. When a city hits four cubes, this causes an outbreak, represented by the placing of a cube in all neighbouring cities. If any of those cities goes over the limit, another outbreak is caused and things can get out of hand pretty quickly - reminds me of knocking over a row of dominoes. If you hit 8 outbreaks or if you run out of cubes of any one colour, you lose the game and the world is overcome by the pandemic.

The tension in the game is provided by the fact that at the end of their turn, each player has to turn over 2, 3, or 4 infection cards. These cards each have the name of a city. A disease cube is placed in each of these cities, possibly triggering an outbreak. Hidden in the deck are epidemic cards. When an epidemic hits, a new, randomly drawn city receives 3 cubes, and all the previously turned over infection cards are re-shuffled and placed on top of the pile, to be drawn again. This means that those cities will continue to be infected, possibly causing the dreaded outbreaks.

While all this is going on, what the players are really trying to do is cure the diseases. Players collect cards during the game with the names of the cities on them. Cards come in 4 colours, corresponding to the 4 diseases. With 5 cards a player can cure a disease, making it easier to be removed and advancing the team one step closer to winning. It is, however, difficult to collect these cards, and there never seems to be enough action points for putting out fires and researching a cure at the same time.

There are five different roles for the players to use. The Medic can remove more than one cube at a time, the Scientist needs only 4 cards for a cure etc. If the players can cure all four diseases before running out of cards, running out of cubes, or having too many outbreaks, they win the game. Trust me, its easier said than done.

4. Here's what I think.

Pandemic is a very well designed game. People play it, and then they immediately want to play it again. At least that has been our experience. You can play it with two, or you can play it with three or four, making it very versatile.

My favourite thing about Pandemic is that you can share the fun. Many of the other games on my shelf need more experienced players to really bring out the best in them, and that takes time, effort and interest on the part of the other players. Pandemic easily deals with these hurdles. It takes very little time to explain this game. New players can pick it up easily, and you're all on the same team anyway. And it is just so much fun to lose and then set it up again for another crack at it. It is easy to draw even the most inexperienced gamers into the world of gaming fun with Pandemic.

My other favourite thing about this game is the tension, the feeling of things always being just on the edge of getting out of control. When a game grips your attention like Pandemic does, then you know you've got a good one.

When I first got Pandemic, we played it over and over as we tried to best the game. That won't last, and other games will grab your attention, as they always do. Nevertheless I'm very glad to have this game on my shelf. It is a perfect gateway game, yet still a great hour of fun and variety for more experienced gamers.

If you want a couple of hours of deep, contemplative, competitive gaming, Pandemic won't be for you, but even then you won't regret having Pandemic on your shelf to fill a shorter time slot or for when you can't get the players you need for the heavier, more difficult games. Get your stethoscope and your microscope and go save the world!

Thread: Re: Reprint?

RangerRob — 2008-05-15T03:28:43+00:00

I've got the following on order waiting for pandemic...

Manoeuvre
Battle for Hill 218
Cash n Guns
Wizard Kings Expansion Armies
Canvas bit bags

btw, Nexus Ops can by found pretty regularly in the $10-15 range. I made the mistake of ordering it from thought hammer and paying too much when I got started into gaming myself. :) It is a great game, though!

Thread: Replayability?

Cannibal Ox — 2008-05-15T03:20:35+00:00

I haven't played this game yet myself, but I was wondering if Pandemic was one of those games with limited replayability? Does the novelty wear off after a certain numbers of plays? After you've beat the game, do you feel like having another go at it?

Thread: Re: Reprint?

l10n0fjudah — 2008-05-15T03:19:26+00:00

Since I'm just getting into the scene, this is my first TH order and kind of a semi-initial collection surge. Here's the order that Pandemic is holding up for me:
Carcassonne+Inns&Cathedrals
TicketToRide+1910
Last Night On Earth
Through the Desert
San Juan
Coloretto
For Sale
and of course Pandemic

Anybody else have an order on hold to share while we wait?
Sympathy to give?

p.s. I suddenly have an urge to add just one more game, a light war game like Nexus Ops...steady, steady, must resist...

Thread: Re: Reprint?

StckFigure — 2008-05-15T02:55:56+00:00

Boards and Bits (my preorder) said May 15th also, and AFAIK it hadn't changed, but they also had Agricola listed as May until just the other day, so I'm taking their dates with a grain of salt.

Thread: Re: Reprint?

RangerRob — 2008-05-15T01:21:24+00:00

Originally thought hammer had May 15th, but that exact date changed a few weeks back to say only mid-may.

Thread: Re: Reprint?

l10n0fjudah — 2008-05-15T01:18:52+00:00

Maybe today will be the day, after all it is May 15th = Mid-May.

Thread: Re: A modern solution to a problem as old as the hills.

meowsqueak — 2008-05-15T12:15:32+00:00

That makes sense. Although his last sentence doesn't. I almost thought he'd finally crossed the line and written a review for a game he hadn't even played yet! :laugh:

Thread: Re: A modern solution to a problem as old as the hills.

Zirak — 2008-05-15T09:55:17+00:00

He played my copy last Saturday night with Sheila, Aron & I :)

Thread: Re: Pandemic Re-print

Critical Mass — 2008-05-15T08:55:48+00:00

and in Australia

Thread: Re: A modern solution to a problem as old as the hills.

meowsqueak — 2008-05-15T08:34:58+00:00

Hi Andy, where did you get a chance to play this? Do you own a copy?

Thread: Re: Which is the deadliest disease for your group?

Doc Sonic — 2008-05-15T06:07:47+00:00

For me it's always been Black in the middle east. Followed closely by Red in Asia. I think a factor is how many places an outbreak can occur. Some countries just seem to have so many connecting areas.

Thread: A modern solution to a problem as old as the hills.

citylife — 2008-05-15T03:05:07+00:00

For a problem that is as old as the hills the solution certainly looks very space age. Diseases have been ravaging the world’s populations since the beginning of time and yet this game about the cure looks good enough to appear in 3d on Star Trek.

Pandemic is a cooperative game set in a modern world where sophisticated diseases are getting out of control. You are part of a team of experts fighting to find the cures and distribute them before an uncontrollable epidemic breaks out and ravages the world.

The game has a space age feel to it (we are talking high tech scientific research here) and both board and cards suit this theme well. The pawns used for player counters stand out like a sore thumb is this respect. I would usually commend a wooden pawn in a historical period game, but the setting of pandemic is different and deserves something more high tech. But this is a small glitch to what is otherwise a beautiful presentation. The designers were really smart in putting the board together especially. Each city mentioned in the game is represented by a circle and then there is a cone which points to the physical location of the background map. The technique has allowed the designer to create a board that is suited perfected to game play by evenly spreading the physical locations. In doing so the designer has removed any problems involved with geographical closeness and created a beautiful looking board suited to game play. The theme is novel and it’s implementation is very good.

Game play is by collaboration. There are no traitors and people are free to discuss strategies up front. Can we market this to the corporates as a team building exercise, because it has all the elements of a perfect teamwork exercise. Conflict, negotiation and reasoning are all there. But most importantly the game is difficult at first with increasing levels of difficulty. It’s a beautiful thing really because there are no individual winners and so you are all trying to find the best solution to just one puzzle. It’s a beautiful thing.

This is a beautiful product that has novelty, style and challenge. Cooperative games are one of my favourite genre’s because there is no conflict if you discount throwing the board away in frustration. Admittedly there is considerable luck in how the game pans out and one might feel a little powerless at times, but the team must mitigate the risks while pressing on for the cures. All in all a top flight product, I can’t wait till a few copies make it to our shores.

Thread: Re: Reprint?

dwculp — 2008-05-15T01:02:42+00:00

l10n0fjudah wrote:
dwculp wrote:
Hopefully it is here any day now! I used to check Thought Hammer once every day or so, now I am up to checking it a couple of times a day!
I gotta admit, this is me too. Please come soon!

Now I am checking every hour :) I have two games on pre-order that should be in very soon.

Thread: Re: Ultra-Heroic Mode: can it be done?

colonywars — 2008-05-14T08:27:05+00:00

timsteen wrote:
ekted wrote:
I suspect that if you are winning the majority of your games with 6 epidemics that you are playing the game wrong. Check out the thread on [url=http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/300287]Common Mistakes[/url].

Reading reports here I keep assuming that we are indeed playing wrong...I fully expect to lose. But rereading the rules 2-3 times, and now reading the Common Mistakes, I see no place where we've gotten things wrong. All I can assume is that (1) it is still a small sample of games, and the cards have been friendly and (2) I have a smart wife.

From time to time, deep in the discussion of what to do next, we have forgotten "did I draw my cards" "did I play the infector" "who's turn is it anyway?" but we end up 95% sure we have backtracked our steps and remembered all the proper events.

So far this "ease of winning" has been my one knock one the game. And certainly many others are having the complete opposite reaction, so I will continue to assume we are winning with some amount of luck and some decent skill, but we are following the rules.

Also remember that Pandemic gets harder with the more players playing it. I have almost always won in a two player game :P

Thread: Re: Reprint?

nexttothemoon — 2008-05-14T06:04:37+00:00

Pandemic and Race for the Galaxy are certainly the two hottest games of 2008 so far... shame that both will likely get almost zero consideration for SdJ.

Thread: Re: The last card flip....

ronster0 — 2008-05-14T05:07:20+00:00

We call blue the flu.... or sometimes our first name given to it.... blue balls :D

Thread: Re: Reprint?

Henry Rhombus — 2008-05-14T03:36:09+00:00

enoviox wrote:
I'm wondering, since it seems all the games are spoken for with preorders, will retail stores be getting copies of this game?

Those preorders include orders from distributors, and those copies will filter down to retail stores, although as I noted in a [url=http://www.boardgamenews.com/index.php/boardgamenews/comments/gone_cardboard_news_massive_z_man_games_update1/]news item[/url] on Boardgame News, not enough copies are coming to fill all the distributor orders, so their orders will likely be allocated depending on who ordered what when. Another reprint is already in the works but, yes, grab it while you can!

Eric
Editor, http://www.BoardgameNews.com

Thread: Re: Reprint?

l10n0fjudah — 2008-05-14T03:27:32+00:00

dwculp wrote:
Hopefully it is here any day now! I used to check Thought Hammer once every day or so, now I am up to checking it a couple of times a day!
I gotta admit, this is me too. Please come soon!

Thread: The last card flip....

David Gardner — 2008-05-14T03:19:44+00:00

My 9-year-old son and I have taken to naming the diseases in this game, as I know many do. Black is obvious: Bubonic Plague. AIDS can be red or yellow, and the other one can be Ebolla. But blue, blue is our own special one: Blue-hair disease. Catch it and your hair begins turning blue, and in 24 hours you die.

A lot of people died of blue-hair disease. The Medic and the Scientist were working effectively together taking care of everything else. We cured Black first, but the Black Death had spread so far and wide that we never bothered to eradicate it, and it didn't bite us later on. Next was Red, and with only a few blocks on the board, the Medic eradicated it. After a few untimely Epidemics, Yellow was next, and was eradicated as well.

Which left blue-hair disease. The problem was we had had 7 Outbreaks already in the game. Having passed our last Epidemic, and with a few blue cards in hand each, it was very tense. We calculated that the best chance was simply to win the game in three turns, including one Sharing of Knowledge. The problem was, we had just Intensified the disease and had 16 cards to draw from. Two would end the game. We would have to, twice, draw four cards and not draw either of the two that would cause the final Outbreak.

The first four draws at the end of his turn worked. That left 12 cards remaining, and two of them killing us.

The educational lesson was in probabilities. I was able to explain to him that the first draw we would be okay 10/12ths of the time, and if that worked the second draw would be 9/11ths, and if we multiplied those two you'd get the probability of survival, and then you had to multiply by 8/10ths and 7/9ths and when you finished that, you would find that the chances of us winning were roughly 42%.

Upon conclusion of drawing four good cards, he would Share Knowledge one time with me, and then the 9-year-old Scientist would walk from New York to Atlanta and cure blue-hair disease and we would win.

First draw. Safe. No Algiers or St. Petersburg.

Second draw... good. Third draw, oh baby, Ho Chi Minh City. We're fine.

We were down to the 7/9ths part. Our odds were now 78% to win, I told him. Dad flipped the last card of the game: St. Pete.

We had just visited St. Petersburg last summer, in non-gaming (what some people call "real") life. Spent two memorable days there, including a wonderful tour of the treasure rooms at the Hermitage. As we took our tour bus around the city, there was Dad, like an idiot, leaning in front of different tourist destinations, holding up the applicable card from Saint Petersburg (the board game), telling his kids -- his 9-year-old son -- to snap him.

Fast-forward to the present, tonight, here, Pandemic. I flip: St. Petersburg. Blue-hair disease breakout. Major. Game over.

Last flip. Seventy-frickin' eight percent.

My son has quite a good memory. I predict we never forget that one.

David Gardner

Thread: Re: Research Station Question

qwertymartin — 2008-05-13T10:50:13+00:00

boureyborin wrote:
Here's the rules for discovering a cure:

"If your pawn is in a city with a Research Station, discard 5 cards of the same color to cure the corresponding disease."

My best guess is that I interpreted "of the same color" to mean the same color as the city. I wonder if others are making the same mistake.

Played for the first time tonight, and that's exactly how we (mis)interpreted the research stations rule. Which probably made things a lot more difficult for ourselves!

Thread: Re: Ultra-Heroic Mode: can it be done?

timsteen — 2008-05-13T07:09:05+00:00

ekted wrote:
I suspect that if you are winning the majority of your games with 6 epidemics that you are playing the game wrong. Check out the thread on [url=http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/300287]Common Mistakes[/url].

Reading reports here I keep assuming that we are indeed playing wrong...I fully expect to lose. But rereading the rules 2-3 times, and now reading the Common Mistakes, I see no place where we've gotten things wrong. All I can assume is that (1) it is still a small sample of games, and the cards have been friendly and (2) I have a smart wife.

From time to time, deep in the discussion of what to do next, we have forgotten "did I draw my cards" "did I play the infector" "who's turn is it anyway?" but we end up 95% sure we have backtracked our steps and remembered all the proper events.

So far this "ease of winning" has been my one knock one the game. And certainly many others are having the complete opposite reaction, so I will continue to assume we are winning with some amount of luck and some decent skill, but we are following the rules.

Thread: Re: Ultra-Heroic Mode: can it be done?

ekted — 2008-05-13T06:40:40+00:00

I suspect that if you are winning the majority of your games with 6 epidemics that you are playing the game wrong. Check out the thread on [url=http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/300287]Common Mistakes[/url].

Thread: Re: REVIEW ON COMPONENTS: the good (and some bad) but no ugly!

zombiegod — 2008-05-13T04:57:15+00:00

You could try sandwiching it between two plates of Plexiglass, and then bind it with elastic...

Thread: Re: REVIEW ON COMPONENTS: the good (and some bad) but no ugly!

LordTennyson1971 — 2008-05-13T03:03:32+00:00

This game is stored at flat. I do not think that is the issue. There is so much extra space in the box to allow the board to flex and warp. The only thing I can think of it to buy a 4way rubberband and band the board after every game.

LT

Thread: Re: Ultra-Heroic Mode: can it be done?

timsteen — 2008-05-13T01:53:58+00:00

tibbs2 wrote:
I dont have this game, but I saw a "Super Heroic" card for sale at some stores. Is this what you are using?

No, I haven't heard of this. Just that we received 7 epidemic cards in our box. I would love to hear more of Super-Heroic.

Thread: Re: Ultra-Heroic Mode: can it be done?

tibbs2 — 2008-05-13T01:16:53+00:00

I dont have this game, but I saw a "Super Heroic" card for sale at some stores. Is this what you are using?

Thread: Ultra-Heroic Mode: can it be done?

timsteen — 2008-05-13T04:04:43+00:00

I have read that some copies of Pandemic are coming with some "quality control issues"--missing cards or cubes. I am sure Z-Man is handling all this fine. Mine also had a miscount--it came with 7 Epidemic Cards!

After 10 plays of the game overall, my record stands at 9-1. I lost a 4-player Normal game in my first play. My wife and I, however, stand at 7-0. We've played on all difficulty levels, including 3 wins with 6 Epidemics with different roles each time. That is not to say the game hasn't been challenging...all 3 Heroic wins were nail-biters. However, to celebrate my 11th play of the game, we decided to go all out and really take it to the limit--all 7 Epidemic cards mixed in, a new mode I can only call "Ultra-Heroic!"

My wife got the role she wanted: Medic. She loves the medic. Memo to self: check to see if she marked this card. I am a dispatch kind of guy, but this time drew Researcher. A good combo! During the game I realized the weakness: this role puts the Medic in two roles: treater (more efficient) and curer (Researcher can pass all needed cards). The Researcher seems to be mostly a lap dog, following the medic around and saying "hey spike, wanna blue card, spike? do ya spike?" Of course, this parallels our marriage, so all was good ;)

Opening infections were weird: all red and yellow. not a single black or blue. hmmm. Medic hit up Asia while researcher tried to find a convenient path to Johannesburg to stem the outbreak of malaria before it was too late. It took all actions just to get there, and then the first Epidemic struck...in Algiers. Sure enough, 2 immediate outbreaks in Johannesburg while the Researcher could only gaze upon the horror out his window, and Algiers succumbing to a rampant Black Death. So much for no black cubes on the board.

Fires were put out, nerves were calmed. Nothing too scary existed in the world. No cures in sight but "We don't need to worry about all those single black cubes--those cards are in the middle of the deck." OR, perhaps at the bottom of the deck. Another rather quick Epidemic (with 7 stacks to spread the cards out..all Epidemics are quick!) made the Researcher eat his words as one of those single-cube infected black cities from the Algiers outbreak was awaiting us! Actually, I am shocked we hadn't ever run across this somewhat likely scenario in any previous games! But we learned the hard way. We went from no black cubes to 2 black outbreaks, and more and more new black cards being drawn.

The Researcher quickly laid down a research station procured from a government grant in Istanbul, and started patching up the crowds of Eastern Europe. The Medic continued a frenetic race around the board quelling local uprisings. Interestingly, neither of us ever felt we could "waste time" putting down any additional research stations. Overall, we favor stations on an "as needed" basis--eschewing conventional wisdom that they aid in efficiency as the game progresses. It's not that we disagree with that theory, it is that we've always found clever card play sufficient for our travels...and at least in this game, where both of us struggled to gather a critical mass of cards needed for cures, didn't feel like we had a card to spend on them.

2 Epidemics...3 Outbreaks...0 cures. Fortunately, this was about to end. Meeting in Atlanta over tea, our 2 heroes compare notes and realize that the deadly red SARS scourge of southeast Asia can be cured with some shared knowledge. As could the evil yellow Malaria, if enough time was spent together. This is where the Researcher started feeling the call to "heel, sit and stay." After 2 turns without a new Epidemic, 2 cures were found!

However, sitting in Atlanta's research labs with drawn shades leads to problems! The Black Death was once again rearing it's head in Europe, while SARS threatened one last scourge across Asia. The Medic toured her beloved Asian lands, sightseeing amounst the Pacific coast while dispensing miracle cures wherever she would land.

The Researcher, cursing his poor field skills, hoofed it over to Europe, hoping to keep the Plague at bay. Indeed, he once again arrived a moment too late, flying into Istanbul's research station only to see 2 more outbreaks take over the land, threatening mass extinction. 4 black cubes remained. Outbreaks threatened major chain reactions that would render all lost. Just enough time was bought to keep 7 or 8 cubes in storage and the threat of outbreak at bay across the continent.

Epidemics 4 and 5 hit quickly, but the world was spared the worst. New York and Atlanta were hit with a previously unknown disease--a bacterial infection that turned hundreds blue. Indeed, Atlanta was overrun with the strange bacteria before any treatment could be administered.

The count was 6 outbreaks, 5 Epidemics, 2 cures, and about half a dozen black cubes available. The deck was dwindling quickly, and the world was a mess. Fortunately, with a tour of Asia completed and an airlift to South America, threats from red SARS and yellow malaria were minimized by the Medic. Knowledge of the black plague and blue bacteria were being gathered by the researcher. Dare the two heroes meet up again to discuss progress and share knowledge, hoping that another stint in the lab would be quick enough to save the world before it was overtaken?

The two converged upon Istanbul. The black plague was promptly cured! In the meantime, the 6th Epidemic struck previously quiet Lagos. Fortunately, no outbreaks were reported. The world continued to be a mess--disease lay across the globe like never before. The globe was crying out for science to save them and remove the many blights from the land. In Istanbul, a breakthrough was made--the blue bacteria could indeed be cured! The researcher proudly turned his notes over to his colleague, data was cross-checked, and while the world seemed to be aflame around them, the final disease was cured.

It has been done! 7 Epidemics in the deck! (the final epidemic, it turns out, lay at the bottom of the deck. brave souls who wish to attempt a similar game are invited to cheat just a little...deal out 6 player cards from the main deck and put them underneath the 6 Epidemic piles, pretending there is a 7th epidemic as the very last card.)

Thread: Re: Reprint?

dwculp — 2008-05-12T11:01:05+00:00

cagriggs wrote:
I just picked it up today at my local game store. It's really not a game store, but a card store with a few board games. Pandemic has been sitting on the shelf for a couple months but I was just planning to add it to an upcoming game order. But after reading how quickly the reprint was sold out, I figured I'd better get it while I can. I hope to give it a try this week.

Why cant I get this lucky?

Thread: Re: REVIEW ON COMPONENTS: the good (and some bad) but no ugly!

zombiegod — 2008-05-12T07:58:22+00:00

LordTennyson1971 wrote:
After 3 months of ownership, the board has warped itself into a bowl or curved plate shape. After everygame it have been placed into the box and everytime it comes out its a little more warped.

I'd be interested to know how you store the box. Flat or on edge?

Thread: Re: REVIEW ON COMPONENTS: the good (and some bad) but no ugly!

stjase — 2008-05-12T07:53:46+00:00

Yeah, I dig the company as well. My replacement cards came in the mail less than a week after I emailed Z-Man about it. Why can't more companies be as responsive to their customers?