Pandemic Review and Competition
We were sent Pandemic and Pandemic on the Brink (the expansion set) from Esdevium Games. I really love the concept you work as a group to take out the disease before it takes out the world! The only thing is as much as we try we still have not managed to beat the game. Once we came VERY close. We were very confident (smug even) humanity would be saved. We rather frustratingly ran out of cards a turn away from finding the last cure!!! Damn the disease, it spreads so fast!
Regardless we cannot get enough and keep playing determined to get the outbreaks under control! I love that the boys are just as enthusiastic to play the game. It is challenging, co-operative fun! If being part of a disease fighting team can actually be classified as fun that is… but its surprisingly entertaining!
There are lots of rules to grasp but you can make it a little easier to begin with and only add 4 epidemic cards to the deck. It is tempting to not go up to 5 for the standard game and 6 for heroic is madness. But even though it can be tricky we absolutely love the game and we will beat it soon I am sure! Until then we mainly look like this…
Working As A Team Against The Disease
Each of the players has a role and some of them can really make a difference. For example them medic can cure all the disease in a location in one go rather than having to use three turns to clear three cubes. Youngest is always eager to play this character, but you are meant to draw the roles at random really! You also have some useful event cards like a quiet night so you can stop the spreading disease for one turn.
It’s the kind of game that you get really caught up in; it helps if you’re all on the same wavelength and effectively working together to quickly find cures. My eldest usually has his own agenda, going off on a long hike to place a research station in the most perfect spot! Hubbie and I want to have a game on our own to see if we fare any better, but it will probably still be the disease that wins!!!
Once we have mastered Pandemic we will be moving on to the expansion, which sees one disease turn even more deadly! I think we need a bit more experience before we brave that; we have enough difficulty with four diseases never mind adding the fifth! Then you have a Bio-terrorist to locate.
You might also enjoy Pandemic Contagion which we reviewed back in February.
Pandemic Giveaway
If you would like to see if you would cope better than us at saving the world from disaster, please fill out the form below for a chance of winning both games. The competition will close on the 6th of May.