Pandemic: A Co-Op Board Game Where Everybody Wins (but Probably Loses)

Co-operative play is quickly becoming today’s must-have gaming feature.  Look at hit titles such as Left 4 Dead and Borderlands if you want an example of how players have voted in favor of teamwork rather than cut-throat versus play.  Wait, we’re not talking about video games?  This is a board game review?!?!  Yes, Pandemic is indeed a board game, and is in my eyes the gold standard for co-operative style play.  Keep reading if you’d like to find out why!

Just the Facts:

Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 45-60 minutes
Age: 10 to Adult
Publisher: Z-Man Games
MSRP: $34.99
Release: 2008

Rating:  

The Gameplay: The premise of Pandemic is centered around the simultaneous global outbreak of four unique diseases.  As employees of the Center for Disease Control, player will have to work together to cure all four before time runs out or the diseases spread too far. Each city on the map below is color-coded to the type of disease it can initially be infected with:

The amount of disease in any one city is represented by small wooden cubes of that disease’s color, which are placed on the city circles to track the spread and strength of that disease.  The game begins by drawing nine cards from the infection card deck, which has 1 card to represent each city on the map, and placing some starting disease cubes on those cities that are drawn.

Players start each turn by drawing two cards from the player card deck, which also has a card for each city on the map, as well as some special one-time-use cards mixed in that allow players to bend the rules.  There are two potential uses of every player city card, and how the team decides to use them will be crucial to their success.  The first use is to discard a city to allow a player to fly across the board.  When fighting rapidly spreading diseases, it can be extremely important to get to a hot spot quickly.  The second use of a player’s city card is to group five cities of the same color in one player’s hand, and discard them all simultaneously to cure the disease of that color.  While map travel is important, curing all four diseases is the ultimate goal, so players must analyze the situation carefully before spending a card.

On each player’s turn, they are allowed to take up to four actions, which can be any combination of several potential moves.  Players can travel to adjacent cities or take a flight (if they meet the requirements or have a proper city to discard) for one action per move, or than can opt to treat or cure diseases for one action as well.  We already covered the requirements to cure a disease, but to treat simply means spending one action to remove a single disease cube from the city the player currently occupies.  Why bother treating the diseases?  To reduce the risk of outbreak, of course.

The catch to Pandemic is that each city can only hold three disease cubes of any one color.  If at any time a fourth cube must be added to that city, an outbreak is triggered and instead of placing that fourth cube, a single cube is added to every adjacent city.  If multiple cities are at the maximum capacity of three cubes, this can trigger horrifying chain reactions.  The risk of losing becomes steep once outbreaks begin, since on the eighth outbreak, the game will end in defeat.  It may not even get to that point, though, as players are also defeated if they ever run out of any color disease cube and still need to place one on the board, or if the player card deck is exhausted.  This is not a simple game of mopping up disease; there are several ways in which you can lose.

Image by Chris Norwood

At the end of every player’s turn, two new city disease cards are drawn, and these two locations each get one disease cube of their color.  As the game goes on, players will be required to deal 3 or 4 cards at the end of their turn, increasing the rate of new infections springing up.  The final obstacle in this game, though, is the dreaded epidemic.

To customize the level of difficulty, players are allowed to shuffle four to six epidemic cards evenly into the player deck.  The more epidemic cards, the harder the game.  When one of these is drawn, a card is taken from the bottom of the infection deck, and that city receives three disease blocks.  To make matters worse, the infection discard pile is then shuffled and placed on TOP of the infection deck.  This means that the same cities which were infected in the past few turns are now about to come up again, starting with a few cards drawn to finish the current player’s turn!  This means there is always a risk of pulling an epidemic card, filling that city up with disease, then shuffling that city into the discard deck and placing it on top, only to have it immediately drawn again, causing an immediate outbreak.  This game does not mess around.

The strategy to Pandemic lies in the random distribution of special role cards to the player.  Prior to the game starting, players will be assigned a specific role such as the Medic or Operations Expert.  Their card will instruct them on one rule of the game that they are given leniency on.  For instance, players may be able to treat all disease cubes in one city for a single action, they may have relaxed flight rules, or even be allowed to cure a disease with four matching cards instead of five.  Each player will have an obvious strength, and if they work as a team to do what they are best at, they just may have a chance to save the world.  If not, it’s just another round of Pandemic!

The Contents:

• 1 Board
• 96 Wooden Disease Cubes
• 5 Pawns
• 6 Wooden Research Stations
• 6 Markers
• 115 Cards

The board for Pandemic is something to be appreciated.  The art is eye-catching yet avoids any unnecessary design that would distract from the game play.  It is also features a European-style board construction, which means the playing surface extends all the way out to the edge of the board, and more importantly, that the board folds are back-sliced.  This means that when the board is laid out on the table, the creases where the board folds for storage will be unnoticeable, rather than showing large gutters or dips in the player surface at the crease points. Even better, once folded up, the game tucks away into a tight 8″x12″x2″ box that can be stashed in any sized backpack for easy transportation.

With the minimal style of Pandemic, it is important that these small things not get in the way.  The game also gets perfect marks in the contents category for having cards printed on a thick stock, and for all-wooden construction of it’s pawns and game pieces.  The only cardboard you’ll find in play are the six markers.  Finally, the rules are an incredibly concise four pages, and are printed in a large font with no shortage of pictures and diagrams.  This is one of the easiest to learn games you will come across.

Our Thoughts:

The first thing you must know is that Pandemic is HARD.  This game has a reputation for putting players to the test, but in a way that is very refreshing.  It is a welcome change of pace to be working side by side with your fellow players instead of trying to outwit them at every turn.  Players often disregard co-operative play because it does not pose enough of a strategic challenge, but I would like to see anyone shuffle in six epidemic cards and beat this game without breaking a sweat.

The team always has a glimmer of hope, though, and Pandemic will not beat you into the ground.  Defeat may come even when you feel that victory is within your grasp, and my prediction is you will immediately want to play another round.  Trust me, your first few losses will come before the advertised 45-60 minute play time, so this game loses no points for being too long.  The first time your team successfully saves the world, it is a truly rewarding experience, as you do feel as though you accomplished something together.

Turns in Pandemic are also paced quite well.  With three phases for each player to complete (four actions, draw player cards, draw disease cards), the game never lags.  It also helps that other people at the table have a vested interest in what happens during other player’s turn.  In fact, being a co-op game, you will often be strategizing with the current player to make sure the team properly coordinates its actions.  With this being the case, Pandemic truly is a game that holds you attention from start to finish.

Elements of luck regarding what cities become infected can weigh heavily on how difficult each individual game winds up being, but never does it feel that victory is completely impossible.  This winds up adding a high replay value to the game as it is never predictable.

The game takes great strides to make itself accessible to a wide variety of players, and accommodates those that are not used to strategy board gaming with a set of beginner rules.  Pandemic passed the all-important test where I broke it out for a quick round with some non-gamers, and they genuinely enjoyed it!

It should not come as much of a surprise to those who follow the board game industry that Pandemic received a perfect score here.  The game is consistently ranked near the top of Board Game Geek’s Top 100 Games, and was a nominee for the prestigious Spiel des Jahres award in 2009.