January’s game….Pandemic

The first game that I chose to try out this year was Pandemic. In this game players randomly take on one of five specific roles of specialists at the CDC. Each of these roles can do unique special actions during the game. The team’s mission is to prevent a worldwide pandemic outbreak, treating hotspots while researching cures for each of the four plagues before they get out of hand. The players can lose several ways but can only win by finding cures to all four of the plagues.

Pandemic is a cooperative board game that is published by z-man games. In a cooperative game the players work together as a team against the game itself. The whole cooperative game concept was new to my gaming group but people quickly became very found of it. Pandemic can be played with 2 to 4 players and generally takes right around an hour to play (although we did play one game that we lost within 10 minutes). The components found within the box are about what you would expect of a “euro-game” (simple yet durable). The board is nice and thick, the card stock is average and frankly wooden cubes are wooden cubes. The rulebook is short (only eight pages) but is very well written and full of practical game examples. The game mechanics are relatively straight forward and includes a card mechanic that can make the game either easier or harder. Very quickly smart players will realize that this game is all about resource management (mainly cards and actions) and team work.

The first people that tried this new game out with me were my cousins Buddy and Alex. We played the game twice and won both times (granted we just barely won and played the game on the easiest level but a win is a win). They both liked the game but said that they preferred more competitive combat centered games (not surprising since they both usually play Axis & Allies or a version of Risk).

Next I broke out Pandemic at my weekly gaming group. We promptly lost the first three games played and just barely won on the fourth try. All of the guys really like this game and I discovered a lot more about the game from this session than the previous one. First, the Medic is the most important role in the game. The three games that someone played the medic we won the three that no one played the medic we lost. That pattern has since changed but we still believe that the Medic is almost essential for a winning strategy. Secondly, we discovered that playing the game on hard is a completely different world from easy. We still play the game on hard because it is more interesting (on easy we win most every time now). Finally, this game can be very intense. Almost every game near the end you can feel the tension as you and your teammates try to pull out a win.

Pandemic has become a mainstay in the local gaming group for several reasons:

1. This game plays very fast with most session lasting for less than an hour, making it a perfect game to play when someone has to run an errand or before everyone has arrived.

2. It’s an easy straightforward game that everyone likes. It is actually one of the few games that peoples non-gamer girlfriends will play.

3. Frankly, the game itself comes in a small compact box that easily transports. If I don’t want to bring a lot of stuff to game night I can still find room for this game most of the time.

4. It’s nice to have a game that the whole group can work together instead of competing against each other. Don’t get me wrong, the guys enjoy games that we beat the crap out of each other but this game is a nice change of pace.