Dominion Strategy Forum
Miscellaneous => Other Games => Topic started by: markusin on June 01, 2014, 12:05:20 pm
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I was introduced to the Co-op board game Pandemic the other night. We were at a graduation party no less. Amongst sleeping drunks was a group of us obsessed with besting the base game. Two of us had experience playing it, while the others including myself hadn't played it but have experience with board games.
After playing a few primer rounds, we decided to try winning on "Hard Mode". "Hard Mode" involves using the max number of epidemic cards and having roles randomly assigned. After at least 8 attempts and after staying up until 3:00am, we finally won with an unlikely set of roles. It felt good, especially since we were one turn away from losing by running out of time (running out of cards to draw).
I think this game is awesome when you're playing with a group in which all members can contribute to the decisions and have a sense of humour. If we can keep our group going, we might even get the expansion.
But gosh, is this game really supposed to be almost impossible to win with the hardest setup?
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Yes, the hardest setup is intentionally super difficult. If it wasn't, there'd be no mode that was challenging to players who've played it for years.
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Pandemic is a great game, as long as you don't end up with one person calling the shots on everything.
I do remember playing one 2 hour game, which did devolve into the above, and that player calculated the exact probability we would lose if we went for the best option (race together and hope that an epidemic wouldn't happen.) It was ~60% win and we lost.
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Pandemic is a great game, as long as you don't end up with one person calling the shots on everything.
I do remember playing one 2 hour game, which did devolve into the above, and that player calculated the exact probability we would lose if we went for the best option (race together and hope that an epidemic wouldn't happen.) It was ~60% win and we lost.
On the other extreme end of the spectrum, in one memorable game the whole table sat and brainstormed for about 20 minutes on how to win over the course of the last three turns. FOr 19 minutes we kept coming up exactly one action short... and someone finally discovered the way to do it.
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I once played a 4-player game in which one person didn't get a turn, ie we lost in 3 turns.
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Having said that, I have also played hard mode games which have been fairly easy, so I'd say there's a fair bit of variation in how difficult games are.
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Having said that, I have also played hard mode games which have been fairly easy, so I'd say there's a fair bit of variation in how difficult games are.
Yeah, it reminds me of Spider Solitaire and the Ozma battle from Final Fantasy 9; Sometimes, you just can't win.
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Playing with only two players (which is admittedly significantly easier) I win 6 Epidemics in the base game more often than not - possibly around 70% of the time actually. With 4 players, I'd say my win rate is much lower, probably closer to around 30-50% or so (hard to be very certain when I don't play it that often any more). It's tough, but not ridiculously so. Unfortunately it has a very large random element, you can easily get setups that are impossible to win.
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I now have an urge to design Chicken Run: the co-op coop game where you're to get out.
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I once played a 4-player game in which one person didn't get a turn, ie we lost in 3 turns.
Been there too!
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I once played a 4-player game in which one person didn't get a turn, ie we lost in 3 turns.
I haven't quite hit that, but I did recently play my worst game ever; 4 player game in which we lost after each player had just 1 turn.
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I love this game! Was introduce by an old friend, a I loved it instantly (mainly because you can play with yourself...I rarely have the chance to play with others. #foreveralone). What do you think are the two best roles? I like Medic and the construction one.
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Really is one of my favorites. I've got all the expansions, and with base + mutations / base + viral, I'll win about 80% of the time on hard mode with 2 players. Up it to 4, or do Mutations + Virulent, and that drops to about 55%-60%.
Now, add in the Lab expansion.... and a 2 Player Mutation game NORMAL (with picked classes even!) Leads to about a 15% win rate. Tops. That said, I love the thematics of it, and if you have players that don't mind losing 20 games in a row, it's still an absolute blast.
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I love this game! Was introduce by an old friend, a I loved it instantly (mainly because you can play with yourself...I rarely have the chance to play with others. #foreveralone). What do you think are the two best roles? I like Medic and the construction one.
Mostly I dunno if there's a single 'best' role but it's good to cover multiple different bases. Having both a Medic and a Quarantine Expert in a 2 player game means you're limited in how you get around the board to the standard actions, and you're probably gonna need to do that a fair bit to share knowledge due to lacking cure power. You might be good at treating disease, but you're being forced into the long game.
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Having said that, I have also played hard mode games which have been fairly easy, so I'd say there's a fair bit of variation in how difficult games are.
I'd say in the hard mode games it really depends on your shuffle luck in the Player deck. Drawing the first Epidemic card on turn 1 has a lot different effect on the course of the game than drawing the first Epidemic card on turn 10 or 15.
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Having said that, I have also played hard mode games which have been fairly easy, so I'd say there's a fair bit of variation in how difficult games are.
I'd say in the hard mode games it really depends on your shuffle luck in the Player deck. Drawing the first Epidemic card on turn 1 has a lot different effect on the course of the game than drawing the first Epidemic card on turn 10 or 15.
My win percentage went up significantly on hard mode (any expansion variation) after having played it on the forums, and realising I could easily track cards. Hitting that first epidemic on turn 1 sucks, but knowing you have 'x' guaranteed safe turns to follow below it's even possible (not even necessarily likely) for the next to hit is huge in planning strategy. Will the medic have two turns before the next epidemic? Can multiple people get to the hotspots in time? Etc. And flip side, "there's three cards left to draw, of which one is an epidemic, and we COULD see one as soon as the turn after" is quite impactful as well.
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I love this game! Was introduce by an old friend, a I loved it instantly (mainly because you can play with yourself...I rarely have the chance to play with others. #foreveralone). What do you think are the two best roles? I like Medic and the construction one.
Mostly I dunno if there's a single 'best' role but it's good to cover multiple different bases. Having both a Medic and a Quarantine Expert in a 2 player game means you're limited in how you get around the board to the standard actions, and you're probably gonna need to do that a fair bit to share knowledge due to lacking cure power. You might be good at treating disease, but you're being forced into the long game.
Not the Quarantine Expert, the builder one. What is it? Operations Expert?
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Having said that, I have also played hard mode games which have been fairly easy, so I'd say there's a fair bit of variation in how difficult games are.
I'd say in the hard mode games it really depends on your shuffle luck in the Player deck. Drawing the first Epidemic card on turn 1 has a lot different effect on the course of the game than drawing the first Epidemic card on turn 10 or 15.
My win percentage went up significantly on hard mode (any expansion variation) after having played it on the forums, and realising I could easily track cards. Hitting that first epidemic on turn 1 sucks, but knowing you have 'x' guaranteed safe turns to follow below it's even possible (not even necessarily likely) for the next to hit is huge in planning strategy. Will the medic have two turns before the next epidemic? Can multiple people get to the hotspots in time? Etc. And flip side, "there's three cards left to draw, of which one is an epidemic, and we COULD see one as soon as the turn after" is quite impactful as well.
The main problem of a T1 Epidemic is the lack of reshuffle. I once played a 4-player game in which the fourth player didn't get a turn due to a T1 Epidemic.
Keeping track of cards and turns is pretty important though, yes.