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[Voltgloss]

So, for discussion purposes, here's a very rough possible starting plan for all of our first turns:

Tables
- Give Atlanta to Voltgloss
- Direct Flight to Madrid
- Take Madrid from discard
- Build Research Station

Galzria
- Drive to Miami
- Ferry to Bogota
- Drive to Lima
- Take cube to role card

Voltgloss
- Charter Flight to Baghdad
- Build Research Station
- Drive to Karachi
- Treat Cube

bozzball
- Shuttle Flight to Baghdad
- Drive to Cairo (treating cube)
- Drive to Algiers (treating cube)
- Ferry to Madrid

This sets up research stations on both sides of the Black hotspot, allowing bozzball to Containment Specialist his way through the Algiers/Cairo/Baghdad row and end at a research station whether he's going east or west.

It also starts Galz on the path of gathering Yellow cubes, while putting him near Santiago (where he could quickly get back to meeting with us via plunking a Research Station there).

And it ends with Tables and bozzball both in Madrid, and Tables able to get Madrid back from the discard and hand it to bozzball so that he (bozzball) is at least 3/5th of the way to the blue cure.

Obviously the plan would need tweaking as developments occur.  And I'm not crazy about Galz spending so much time driving on his first turn (though on the other hand, how ELSE are we gonna get down to the Santiago area?).

Thoughts, everyone?  If I'm way off base, please educate me.  I've never played before, and am excited to learn!

[Galzria]

Maths that matter this game:

There are 56 cards in the draw pile, and 5 Epidemics. That means there is 1 per 11 cards (and yes, they are indeed evenly divided throughout the deck).

Each turn a player draws 2 cards. Using this we can determine after each Epidemic both the minimum, and expected variance between Epidemics.

Right now, one COULD come as early as the end of Tables turn. The average, however, says that it will come after Voltgloss's (Cards 5 & 6). Because of this, we may want to consider trying to deal (at least somewhat) with Cairo/Algiers before it gets to Bozzball's turn. If we haven't hit an Epidemic by then - great. But if we draw one before Bozzball can get there, we could very quickly be out of this game.

[Tables]

Okay, so a few small thoughts:

Right now, we'd quite like the Black disease to not be the Virulent Strain. There's four infection cards in the deck with black, which means we'd be seeing a lot of Black, AND we only have one black card between us, making life even more miserable. We don't necessarily have MUCH control over black, but I think that means we want to focus on treating it early if possible. Unfortunately it's 6 cubes ahead of any other colour, so we have to hope to get lucky with infection draws, methinks.

I do, however, like Volt's plan for my turn. I was thinking of doing something similar when I saw I was the Archivist, and I think that's the best 'psuedo-op-ex' move I can do.

In terms of overall game plan, looking at our roles... Galz and Volt will almost certainly want to make at least one cure each. Epidemologist will let Volt take the cards from whom he needs quite easily, Field Op will let Galz make a cure more easily in at least one colour (likely black). I can help us save cards and get extra cards to either Volt or Galz, and psuedo-op-ex to improve our mobility with research stations, while Bozz will mostly be on cleanup duty, but looks the promising candidate to get the blue cure.

1) Tell Volt about Atlanta's secrets (Share Knowledge: Atlanta to Volt)
2) Buy some tickets to Milan and enjoy the flight (direct flight to Milan)
3) Fight the ever tempting urge to archive the plane tickets (Archivist to draw Milan)
4) Sell the plane tickets at the Black Market to fund a Research Station (build Research Station)

[Voltgloss]

Query:  the Virulent Strain = the disease with most cubes on the board when the first Virulent Strain card is drawn, correct?  Is that decided before or after the 3 new cubes are plunked down?  What happens if there's a tie?

Query:  might it be worth using Galz's Remote Treatment card soonish to pluck 2 Black cubes from the board, as part of a plan to stop Black from being the Virulent Strain? 

Query:  if I use Airlift to drop bozzball into a city with 2+ Black cubes, does he automatically remove one from the board as soon as he lands?

[bozzball]

From the rules:
After performing the Infect step of this first Epidemic card, count the cubes on the board for each disease; the disease with the most cubes on the board is the Virulent Strain. (If several diseases are tied for most cubes on the board, randomly determine the Virulent Strain from among these tied diseases.)

This effect occurs even if this pawn is moved by another player (such as the Dispatcher or with the Special Events Airlift or Special Orders). If there are multiple diseases with 2 or more cubes present, remove 1 cube from each such disease.

[bozzball]

Since we can use the Remote Treatment card at the point the Virulent Strain card is drawn, I see no possible benefit in playing it before then (unless Galz has to get rid of a card anyway due to hand limits, but this is Unlikely)

Query:  the Virulent Strain = the disease with most cubes on the board when the first Virulent Strain card is drawn, correct?  Is that decided before or after the 3 new cubes are plunked down?  What happens if there's a tie?

Query:  might it be worth using Galz's Remote Treatment card soonish to pluck 2 Black cubes from the board, as part of a plan to stop Black from being the Virulent Strain? 

Query:  if I use Airlift to drop bozzball into a city with 2+ Black cubes, does he automatically remove one from the board as soon as he lands?

[Voltgloss]

Since we can use the Remote Treatment card at the point the Virulent Strain card is drawn, I see no possible benefit in playing it before then (unless Galz has to get rid of a card anyway due to hand limits, but this is Unlikely)

If Virulent Strain is drawn, can Galz use Remote Treatment before the effects of the Virulent Strain card occur?  (i.e., the addition of 3 new cubes and the determination of one disease as the Virulent Strain)

Edit:  And I assume I can use Airlift in the same way, in response to the Virulent Strain with the same timing as Remote Treatment?

[Galzria]

Yes, I can. Up until the point we actually infect - there is a time gap between DRAWING the card, and taking the action.

[bozzball]

And an even more subtle point - If you draw 2 cards: a Virulent Strain card and then a Special Event card, you can play the Special Event card before unleashing the Virulent Strain.

[Voltgloss]

I realize I'm slicing the timing really thin, but it could be crucial for us:  could we...

1.  reveal the Virulent Strain card;
2.  reveal the bottom card of the Infection deck (where 3 cubes are GOING to go); and then
3.  play Remote Treatment and/or Airlift BEFORE those cubes get added to the board and the other Virulent Strain effects take place?

(And I can't seem to get the link for the rules to work or I'd dig for this in the rulebook myself.  Apologies.)

[bozzball]

I don't think so. I think the infection step is atomic.

[Galzria]

The card works in 5 steps:

1. You draw the card.

2. You Increase the infection rate.

3. You Infect a city with 3 cubes.

4. You reset the Infection Discard pile.

5. You get hit by the effect of the Strain.

You may use any abilities PRIOR to step 3. After you conclude step 2 and step 3 begins, you play to the finish.

[Galzria]

A card:

[Tables]

From my understanding, you can do things in response to drawing an epidemic, but as soon as you start resolving it, you resolve it completely. In particular you can never remove the city you've just drawn in the Infect step with Resilient Population.

[Qvist]

1) Tell Volt about Atlanta's secrets (Share Knowledge: Atlanta to Volt)
2) Buy some tickets to Milan and enjoy the flight (direct flight to Milan)
3) Fight the ever tempting urge to archive the plane tickets (Archivist to draw Milan)
4) Sell the plane tickets at the Black Market to fund a Research Station (build Research Station)

I think you mean Madrid, not Milan right?

[Tables]

You do however draw both of your player cards together, so if you drew an epidemic and special event or the like, you could trigger the special event before the epidemic, or if you draw above your hand limit, you can see both cards before deciding what to discard.

Yes, Madrid.

[Qvist]

Tables (Archivist) draws Washington, Chicago.

Infector: Taipei, St. Petersburg



Player 1: Tables (Archivist)
Washington, Chicago

Player 2: Galzria (Field Operative)
Santiago, Remote Treatment, Atlanta
Remote Treatment: Remove any two cubes from the board. Play at any time during any turn before the infection phase of that turn begins.

Player 3: Voltgloss (Epidemiologist)
Airlift, Baghdad
Airlift: Move a pawn (yours or another player's) to any city. You must have a player's permission to move their pawn.

Player 4: bozzball (Containment Specialist)
London, Milan

Galzria (Field Operative) is next.

[Voltgloss]

Qvist:  Atlanta was supposed to go to me, not Galzria.

[Tables]

Okay, we definitely would like Blue to be the Virulent Strain. We can probably get the cure, it doesn't have too many cards, and it's very reasonable to do.

[Voltgloss]

Galz could get two Black cubes off the board if he shuttles to Madrid, ferries to Algiers, treats once, and takes one cube to his card.  We'd then have the following on-the-board cube counts:

Black:  8
Blue:  5
Yellow:  3
Red:  2

If Galz then draws Virulent Strain, he could (before resolving it) snipe away two more Black cubes with Remote Treatment (maybe both from Cairo?) while I could Airlift bozzball to Karachi and snipe away a cube from there as well.  Then we'd have 5 Black, 5 Blue, 3 Yellow, and 2 Red, and the Virulent Strain will be decided by which color card comes from the bottom of the Infection deck and thus gets +3 cubes.  [Best case we draw Blue or Yellow; if we draw Red it's a 2/3 chance of avoiding Black; and if the card's Black there wasn't much we could have done anyway]

Of course if Galz doesn't draw Virulent Strain we can hold our special cards back.

Depending on the game state when it gets to my turn, I could take three blue cards from bozzball/Tables (one action spent shuttling from Atlanta to Madrid) and thus be one away from the blue cure.  Not sure whether it's more important to do that or to charter to Baghdad/plunk a station there as originally planned.  I'm thinking it's probably more vital to get the station in Baghdad this early - but that's a decision we can defer to my turn anyway.

[bozzball]

Wait, I thought the two purple infections were the first two infection cards that would be drawn.

[Voltgloss]

Wait, I thought the two purple infections were the first two infection cards that would be drawn.

They start in the infection discard, right?  So they won't be drawn until after the first Virulent Strain (when they'll be shuffled into the top of the infection deck).

[Galzria]

Wait, I thought the two purple infections were the first two infection cards that would be drawn.

They start in the infection discard, right?  So they won't be drawn until after the first Virulent Strain (when they'll be shuffled into the top of the infection deck).

Correct. I'll put in my thoughts here in a bit. Going to take a shower, refill my coffee, and then I'll hit up my PC.

[Galzria]

Sorry, detour! Got out of shower and girlfriend wanted to go out for breakfast. Will post when I get home, but I'm debating heading to black to pull cubes down (in the hopes of making a different color the strain), or heading to yellow to pick up cubes of a color I actually have in my hand.

Given my Remote Treatment I'm not terribly concerned about black exploding... But I'm not sure which plan is more advantageous.

[Voltgloss]

Rules question:  If Galz takes cubes of a color to his card (say, Black), and then someone other than Galz cures that color, what happens to the cubes on Galz's card?  Can he return them to the supply?