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[Qvist]

Hey, I really want to host a game too. But I like to host a game that I know well and have at home. So let's play Pandemic.
Especially newbies are welcome, but anyone can join.
Here are the rules: http://files.boardgamegeek.com/file/download/2ccgb5zbx6/Pandemic_Rules.pdf?

Pandemic is a cooperative game. You and your fellow players are members of a disease control team, working together
to research cures and prevent additional outbreaks. Each of you will assume a unique role within the team, with special
abilities that will improve your team’s chances if applied wisely. The object is to save humanity by discovering cures to
four deadly diseases (Blue, Yellow, Black, and Red) that threaten to overtake the planet.
If you and your team aren’t able to keep the diseases contained before finding the necessary cures, the planet will be
overrun and the game will end in defeat for everyone... Do you have what it takes to save humanity?

Short Rules Summary:
1.) On your turn make 4 of the following 8 availiable Actions:
a.) Drive/Ferry Move your pawn to an adjacent city.
b.) Direct Flight Play a card from your hand and move your pawn to the pictured city.
c.) Charter Flight Play the card corresponding to your pawn’s current location, and move to any city on the board.
d.) Shuttle Flight If your pawn is in a city with a Research Station, move it to any other city with a Research Station.
e.) Build A Research Station Play the card corresponding to the city your pawn currently occupies, then place a Research Station in that city.
f.) Discover A Cure If your pawn is in a city with a Research Station, discard 5 cards of the same color to cure the corresponding disease.
g.) Treat Disease Remove a disease cube from the city your pawn occupies. If the cure of that color is already discovered, remove all disease cubes from that city.
h.) Share Knowledge If your pawn and another player’s pawn are in the same city, you may transfer the card of the city that you are in together to this player.

2.) Draw 2 Player Cards
Hand Limit is 7 cards. Special Event cards can be played at any time. Epidemics card must be immediately executed.
Epidemics:
a.) The Infection Rate Indicator moves up by one on the Infection Rate Track.
b.) The bottom card from the Infection Draw Pile is placed on the Infection Discard Pile and 3 cubes to this city are added. This could cause an Outbreak (see below).
c.) The Infection Discard Pile gets shuffled and then placed on top of the remaining Infection Draw Pile.

3.) Infector
Draw cards from the Infection Draw Pile equal to the current Infection Rate and add one cube to the pictured cities, using a cube of the same color as each card. If a city already has 3 cubes in it of the color being added, instead of adding a cube to the city, an Outbreak occurs in that color. That means that you move the Outbreaks Marker up one space on the Outbreak Indicator. And any adjacent city gets a cube of that color instead what may cause another Outbreak and more and more chain reactions.

Losing conditions:
a.) There aren’t enough cards in the Player Draw Pile to draw.
b.) There aren’t enough cubes left of any color in the supply.
c.) The eighth outbreak occurs.

Roles:
The Dispatcher may move other player’s pawns on his turn (Basic actions a-d) as if they were his own pawn. He may also move a pawn to any city that contains another pawn.
The Operations Expert may build a Research Station without discarding the corresponding card of the city he's standing on.
The Scientist (white) only needs 4 cards of a color to discover the cure of the corresponding disease.
The Researcher may give a player any card from his hand when involved in a Share Knowledge action even on another player's turn.
The Medic may remove all the cubes of a single color when performing the Treat Disease action. If the cure of the city he's standing on is already discovered, all disease cubes from that city are automatically removed without spending an action.

Setup:
This is a 4 player base game with randomized roles.
Difficulty level: Standard, so there will be 5 Epidemic cards.
Player cards are visible to everyone.

Forum Rules:
Please try to look in this thread at least once per day.
I don't think we need a move deadline. But try to make a move within 2 days.
I'll then update the map regularly.
Communication isn't only allowed, it's demanded.
In your turn, write all your 4 player actions in bold.

Example:
Charter Flight to Essen (discard Santiago)
Build a Research Station (discard Essen)
Discover the blue Cure (discard Paris, Madrid, London, Atlanta, San Francisco)
Treat Disease

Sign-up:
I want to wait a little bit before starting.
So signup until Sunday 11/11 around 4pm UTC.
Please post if you are new to the game or not. I will then choose 4 out of the most newest players.
If we reach even 8 people I will eventually start an Expert game with higher difficulty.

Signed up:
Galzria
Jimmmmm
Schneau
shraeye
SwitchedFromStarcraft
Tables

[Qvist]

Player 1: Jimmmmm Scientist (white)
Kolkata, Khartoum, Baghdad, Chennai, Hong Kong

Player 2: SwitchedFromStarcraft Researcher
Seoul, Chicago, Essen, Kinshasa, Johannesburg, Government Grant
Government Grant: Add a Research Station to any city for free.

Player 3: Schneau Operations Expert
Bangkok, Karachi, Madrid, Tokyo, Dehli, Paris, Shanghai, Riyadh, Mumbai

Player 4: shraeye Medic
Algiers, Istanbul, Moscow, Cairo, Buenos Aires

[SwitchedFromStarcraft]

I'm in, and have never played before.  (I've also never played a co-op game that I can remember, so this will be cool.)

Self ninja'd, as I HAD NOT READ ALL OF THE OP.  Shame on me.

[Qvist]

This is a 4 player base game with randomized roles.
...
Please post if you are new to the game or not. I will then choose 4 out of the most newest players.
If we reach even 8 people I will eventually start an Expert game with higher difficulty.

[Schneau]

I'm interested. I've played 3 games of Pandemic before now.

[Tables]

I'm a pretty experienced Pandemic player (usually win 2 player games on Heroic), so I'd be willing to join an advanced game.

I think starting 4 player on Normal is probably too hard, though. I mean 4 player Initiate isn't that much easier than 2 player Heroic, 4 player Normal is almost certainly harder than it. Unless you want to include expansions special events+special event rules, which balance things a bit.

[SwitchedFromStarcraft]

I'm a pretty experienced Pandemic player (usually win 2 player games on Heroic), so I'd be willing to join an advanced game.

I think starting 4 player on Normal is probably too hard, though. I mean 4 player Initiate isn't that much easier than 2 player Heroic, 4 player Normal is almost certainly harder than it. Unless you want to include expansions special events+special event rules, which balance things a bit.

Tables - In looking at the rules, seeing the board, etc., I'm potentially interested in buying this game. However, my gaming group numbers 2 (me and my GF).  Is this a game that has serious merit in 2p?  Is it actually better in 2p than 3 or 4?

[Galzria]

I would be /in for an expansion game with Mutations/Virulent Strain (or both!) at a more advanced level (5/6 Epidemics).

I will also fill in here if there aren't enough newer players to go 'round.

[Lekkit]

I would be interested, but I don't really have the time. Will probably be following this.

[Qvist]

Tables, yeah 4player on normal is harder than 2player, but I don't think it matters that much, especially as I think that at least one player will join who has at least played a few games. He can then give some advices. And losing isn't really that bad in this game. The Pandemic games I lose I often remember longer than the ones I won.

SFS, it works well with 2 players same as with 4 players, but it's harder with more players. You could possibly even play it with 5 players (playing all roles), but that's really hard.
It's one of the few games my wife plays with me, but I like to play it with friends too.

[SwitchedFromStarcraft]

@All, any feedback on the questions I posted in #6 would be appreciated.  Galz posted in another thread that he like the game with 3 to 4, so now I'm curious.  I'll hold off on a purchase until after I've played.

Ninja'd.

[Galzria]

I'm a pretty experienced Pandemic player (usually win 2 player games on Heroic), so I'd be willing to join an advanced game.

I think starting 4 player on Normal is probably too hard, though. I mean 4 player Initiate isn't that much easier than 2 player Heroic, 4 player Normal is almost certainly harder than it. Unless you want to include expansions special events+special event rules, which balance things a bit.

Tables - In looking at the rules, seeing the board, etc., I'm potentially interested in buying this game. However, my gaming group numbers 2 (me and my GF).  Is this a game that has serious merit in 2p?  Is it actually better in 2p than 3 or 4?

I prefer 3/4 for the social aspects and the variety of powers - however it can still be incredibly challenging at 2 players. It really does expand well to all levels.

(In essence, the fewer people you have, the fewer powers you have to help save the World, but the more people, the more spread around the cards are. Since one way to lose the game is to empty the draw pile, you see more of the deck gone between individual turns with larger numbers of players, which significantly increases difficulty).

The sweet spot really is 3 for balanced play, but since you decide how many Epidemics you play with, it can still be very difficult for two players with bad power combinations.

[Galzria]

In terms of actual enjoyment, any number is awesome.

[SwitchedFromStarcraft]

In terms of actual enjoyment, any number is awesome.

I just read through the full rules, it looks really cool.

[shraeye]

Totally new, interested in possibly playing.

[Tables]

I'm a pretty experienced Pandemic player (usually win 2 player games on Heroic), so I'd be willing to join an advanced game.

I think starting 4 player on Normal is probably too hard, though. I mean 4 player Initiate isn't that much easier than 2 player Heroic, 4 player Normal is almost certainly harder than it. Unless you want to include expansions special events+special event rules, which balance things a bit.

Tables - In looking at the rules, seeing the board, etc., I'm potentially interested in buying this game. However, my gaming group numbers 2 (me and my GF).  Is this a game that has serious merit in 2p?  Is it actually better in 2p than 3 or 4?

It's easier with 2, without the expansion. Fun factor is pretty much the same with anything from 2-4, I've found. I know the game's still fun if you lose, but I think the introductory game difficulty might be better, that's all.

[Jimmmmm]

I own the game, and I'll play if there's room.

[Qvist]

Game starts! See board in second post.

Player 1: Jimmmmm Scientist (white)
Manila, San Francisco

Player 2: SwitchedFromStarcraft Researcher
Sydney, Mexico City

Player 3: Schneau Operations Expert
Lima, Toronto

Player 4: shraeye Medic
Algiers, Sao Paolo

Starting cubes:

Mexico City (3), Johannesburg (3), Lima (2), Bogotá (1)
Chicago (3), Toronto (2), Madrid (1), Paris (1)
Ho Chi Minh City (2)

Jimmmmm's next.

[Jimmmmm]

I take it from the map that we're using the Mutation/Virulent Strain (or whatever it's called) expansion. If so, can you add the expansion rules please?

[Jimmmmm]

In terms of strategy, here's what I'm thinking:

Clearly the most important thing always is to deal with the critical cities (those that have 3 cubes on them). To that end, I could spend my first turn taking one cube from Chicago and one from Mexico City. We could wait for shraeye's turn to do that and take all the cubes at once, but that opens us up to outbreaks if we get an epidemic before then.

If I end up in Mexico City, SFS could come over by either driving or direct flight, and share Sydney with me. That will give me 2/4 reds, and with a bit of luck I could draw another one or two at the end of my turn. If SFS draws one or two I can take them off him on my next turn.

Schneau could then drive to Toronto and fly over to Joburg and take a cube from there, then set up a station next turn.

That doesn't leave much for shraeye to do, maybe just clean up after me? Things could be quite different by then I suppose.

What do you guys think? Should I just go ahead and have my turn?

[Qvist]

No sorry, I use VASSAL for that and I found no way to disable the expansion for the map. We're just playing the base game.

[SwitchedFromStarcraft]

In terms of strategy, here's what I'm thinking:

Clearly the most important thing always is to deal with the critical cities (those that have 3 cubes on them). To that end, I could spend my first turn taking one cube from Chicago and one from Mexico City. We could wait for shraeye's turn to do that and take all the cubes at once, but that opens us up to outbreaks if we get an epidemic before then.

If I end up in Mexico City, SFS could come over by either driving or direct flight, and share Sydney with me. That will give me 2/4 reds, and with a bit of luck I could draw another one or two at the end of my turn. If SFS draws one or two I can take them off him on my next turn.

Schneau could then drive to Toronto and fly over to Joburg and take a cube from there, then set up a station next turn.

That doesn't leave much for shraeye to do, maybe just clean up after me? Things could be quite different by then I suppose.

What do you guys think? Should I just go ahead and have my turn?

I like your idea. If I've understood, you'd drive to Chicago, remove a cube, drive to Mex. City, remove a cube. That's four actions.  Once my turn starts, I would Fly Direct to Mex. City, remove two cubes (leaving zero in Mex. City), and use my final action to share Sydney with you, which I can do without being in Sydney, as I am the researcher.  I feel that removing the 2nd cube in Mex. City is more valuable than removing 2nd cube in Chicago, since Atlanta is just one action away from Chicago for subsequent players, though it would allow me to save, rather than use, a Yellow card (Mex. City).  How important is saving a card?

Also, I have a suggestion.  For the first few turns, it may help in cementing the game's mechanics to provide a high level of specificity (type of flight, special ability, cards being discarding, etc.) in discussing our potential moves.  As an example, in reviewing your suggestion for Schneau's move, I couldn't immediately figure out how he'd get to Jo'berg.  Such an approach would also assist us in previewing turns for viability.

[SwitchedFromStarcraft]

Schneau would not treat any disease, right? 2 drives, one fly, setup research station - that's four actions.  Shraeye could possibly treat in Chicago and Toronto.  If he does, then at that point we would have gotten rid of a fair amount of blue and yellow in one round, with an inroad to more yellow on round 2, with Schneau in Jo'berg.

What generalizations are true of the game (e.g. it's good to have a research station on every continent; larger hand sizes are more important in late game than in mid-game; transportation generally becomes the limiting factor in late-game; etc)?

[SwitchedFromStarcraft]

Qvist: In the lower center of the board, just above the "Cures Discovered" area, is a purple cube (quantity remaining 12) next to the symbol for the research stations. What are the purple cubes?  Will there be 6 research stations?

Also, if 8 Player cards have been dealt to the players, should there be 51 cards left in the draw pile, rather than the 50 stated on the board?

[Qvist]

Ok, I should have made it more clear. Ignore the purple cubes. This is from the expansion "On the brink". I don't know how to remove this from the board in VASSAL.

And we're playing in Standard mode = 5 Epidemic cards. This makes 4 colors * 12 cities + 5 Special Event cards + 5 Epidemic cards - 8 cards already dealt out = 50 cards. So this is correct.