PANDEMIC!!! (Don't worry, just the board game)

Yeah, yeah, I know it's probably insensitive, and I shouldn't be writing about this when the swine flu panic is still gripping everyone..... but I'm going to anyway. Because, quite frankly, I think it's all a little bit overrated. What would happen if we all cared about malaria, or AIDs, or world hunger this much? Just a thought. Anywho, I DO want to tell you about this board game, because it's AWESOME.

I forget where we first heard about it, but it's ranked #22 over at boardgamegeek.com, and everyone we talked to about it loved it. So, back in April on our visit to Seattle, we just, you know, happened to visit Ernie's to pick up a birthday present for my little brother, Jacob. And, you know, since we were already there, we just happened to look at Pandemic, and, you know, just happened to pick it up, too. But, it was all just completely one big series of happily unanticipated events. We would never plan something like.

In as far as quality board games go, the first immediate benefit of Pandemic is that it's really quite affordable. Its list price is $35, meaning if you are planning on buying a bunch of games it might be worth it to order it online to save a few dollars (you usually have to buy a few to make the shipping worth it), but even if you just get it at the store, it's still totally doable.

The second immediate benefit of Pandemic is that... it's AWESOME! (C'mon, you totally knew that was coming.) Here are the quick stats:

Players: 2-4 (best with 4, but definitely still fun with any number)
Type: Co-operative

Time: 45 minutes (we've played anywhere from 20-60 minute games, but 45 is probably our average)
Ages: 10+

Company: Z-Man Games

Website: http://www.zmangames.com/boardgames/pandemic.htm

Quick summary: Four deadly diseases have broken out across the world, and it's up to you and your companions to find the cures and stop the diseases from spreading before they wipe out humanity (so not even kidding on that one -- you either win or the whole world DIES). Each player has a role with different skills and advantages, so you have to work together to build research stations, find cures, treat diseases... and all before time runs out.

One of the great things about this game is that it's a really great game... that isn't too long. A lot of fun strategy games you need to allow a couple hours for (or more, in the case of, say, Twilight Emperium). But Pandemic? Well, it packs a lot of quality into a small amount of quantity. Another highlight is that it's a co-operative game, but one that's still really hard to beat. There are three different levels in the game, and the first two times through, playing on the easiest level, we lost (there's one way to win, but three ways to lose). Lastly, because of the game mechanics, it's a completely different game each time you play. There are 5 potential roles you could be, but they're dealt out randomly, and you always only use a maximum of 4 roles (which are always a different combination). The locations infected are always be different, and the times pandemics occur is never the same. Fantastic replay value.

Above is a picture of the board, and below is a picture of the game in play.

The game is played with each player taking a turn that consists of: taking 4 actions (moving, building a research station, treating diseases, finding cures, share knowledge), then drawing two city cards (the nice looking ones in the deck in the bottom right and around the board), then drawing 2-4 (depending on how your game is going) of the evil-looking infection cards up at the top and infecting cities. As stated earlier, each role has some special abilities. The Medic, for instance, treats diseases much more quickly/easily than anyone else. The Dispatcher can basically save the game by moving people around really easily. The Operations Expert can build a research station "for free"... and so on and so forth.

All may be going well.... and then the chaos begins! Throughout the city card deck are "EPIDEMIC!" cards. When you draw one of these, you have increase the infection rate (how many cities you infect at the end of each turn), then you have to draw the bottom card from the infection deck and place 3 disease cubes there, and then you take all the discarded cards from the infection pile, shuffle them, and place them back on the top of the deck. So, all the cities you just went and treated diseases? Yup, they're going to get infected again. And, if they get infected again, they might have an outbreak. Which will affect other cities. And cause your outbreak meter to rise. Which might make you lose the game. AND THEN YOU'LL KILL ALL HUMANITY.

See? I told you this game is awesome.

So, if you're in the Philly area, or if you want to come visit the Philly area (um, which you all should), you can come play Pandemic with us. If you're not, immediately turn off your computer (or at least your monitor -- it saves electricity and your monitor's screen life), tell your boss you're feeling sick (maybe the swine flu), go to your nearest game store, buy Pandemic, and then go home and save the world. It's all in a day's work, friends, all in a day's work.