[Pandemic] - Game 5 - Game Over - Diseases pull it off

stever777

Welcome to Pandemic, Z-Man Games' game of global disease containment. In this game, players take the roles of four Center for Disease Control (CDC) operatives, racing against time to cure outbreaks.


You and your companions are highly skilled members of a disease-fighting team waging a battle against four deadly diseases. Your team will travel across the globe, stemming the tide of infection and developing the resources you'll need to discover the cures. You must work together, using your individual strengths to destroy the diseases before they overtake the world. The clock is ticking as outbreaks and epidemics accelerate the spread of the plague. Will you find the cures in time? The fate of humanity is in your hands!


Four diseases have broken out in the world and it is up to a team of specialists in various fields to find cures for these diseases before mankind is wiped out.

Players must work together, playing to their characters' strengths and planning their strategy of eradication before the diseases overwhelm the world with ever-increasing outbreaks. For example, the Operation Specialist can build research stations, which are needed to find cures for the diseases. The Scientist needs only 4 cards of a particular disease to cure it instead of the normal 5.

But the diseases are breaking out fast and time is running out: the team must try to stem the tide of infection in diseased areas while also towards cures.

A truly cooperative game where you all win or you all lose.


This will be a Play-By-Post Introductory Game of Pandemic for 4 players, participants from the discussion sign ups.

[RULES]
[RULES SUMMARY]
[Discussion and Sign-ups]

stever777

A QUICK TUTORIAL ON PANDEMIC

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.

The Board & Cards

-The Turn Phases-

Each turn, the current player must:

1. Take 4 actions
2. Draw 2 cards to add to his hand
3. Take on the role of the Infector (cards drawn & tokens placed by Host)

After the Infector has gone, the player’s turn is over and the next player begins his turn.

-Actions-

A player gets 4 actions to spend on her turn. A player may select from any of the available Basic and Special actions and spend 1 action to perform it. A given action may be performed more than once during a turn, so long as 1 action is spent for each instance. Each player’s Role will grant them special abilities that are unique to that player. Players may also pass if they have nothing else to do. Unused actions may not be saved from turn to turn.


BASIC ACTIONS

Charter Flight
Play the card corresponding to your pawn’s current location, and move to any city on the board. Discard the card to the Player Discard pile.

Shuttle Flight
If your pawn is in a city with a Research Station, move it to any other city with a Research Station. (See below for details on building Research Stations.)

Direct Flight
Play a card from your hand and move your pawn to the pictured city. Discard the card to the Player Discard pile.

Drive (or Ferry)
Move your pawn to an adjacent city. Cities are adjacent if they are connected by a red line. Red lines that go off the edge of the board “wrap around” to the opposite board edge and continue to the indicated city. (For example, Sydney and Los Angeles are considered to be adjacent)

The Dispatcher may move other player’s pawns on his turn (using any of the available Basic actions) as if they were his own pawn. He may also spend an action to move a pawn to any city that contains another pawn. He may only move other players’ pawns if they permit him to do so.
Note: For the Charter Flight action, the Dispatcher must play the card corresponding to the current location of the pawn he wishes to move.

Pass
A player may also elect to pass (and do nothing) for an action.


SPECIAL ACTIONS

Discover A Cure
Once your team has discovered all four cures, you win!
If your pawn is in a city with a Research Station, discard 5 cards of the same color to cure the corresponding disease. Place the spent cards into the Player Discard Pile.

The Scientist only needs 4 cards of a color to discover the cure of the corresponding disease when performing the Discover Cure action.

Build A Research Station
Building Research Stations helps your team move from place to place.
Research Stations are also required for discovering cures. Play the card corresponding to the city your pawn currently occupies, then place a Research Station in that city. Discard the card to the Player Discard Pile. If there aren’t any Research Stations left in the supply, select one of the Research Stations already in play and transfer it to the city your pawn occupies.

The Operations Expert does not have to play the card matching the city his pawn occupies when performing the Build A Research Station action. He simply spends an action to add a Research Station to his current city.

Treat Disease
Over the course of the game, your team can treat diseases to buy the time needed to discover cures. Remove a disease cube from the city your pawn occupies. (Each removed cube costs one action.) Place the removed cube back into the stock by the side of the board. If players have discovered a cure, instead of one cube, remove all cubes of a cured disease in your current city for one action.

Eradicating a Disease
If a cure for a given disease has been discovered and all of the disease cubes of that color have been removed from the board, flip the Cure marker for the disease to the “Sunset” side. From now on, cards of this color have no effect when drawn on the Infector’s turn. Cubes of the eradicated color will not be used again for the rest of the game.

The Medic may remove all the cubes of a single color (instead of 1) when performing the Treat Disease action. Also, if the Medic at any time finds herself in a city that contains cubes of a disease that has been cured, she may immediately remove all of those cubes. This unique ability is in effect during all players’ turns and does not cost any actions to perform.

Share Knowledge
Sometimes it’s hard for one player to get the cards necessary to discover a cure. The Share Knowledge action (while difficult to perform) can be useful in these cases. Transfer a card from one player to another. Every card transferred costs 1 action. Both your pawn and your fellow player’s pawn must be in the same city, and you may only transfer the card of the city that you are in together. (For example, if you are together in Moscow, only the Moscow card may be transferred from one player to the other.) If either player holds more than 7 cards as the result of a transfer, the excess cards must be immediately discarded to the Player Discard Pile.

The Researcher may give a fellow player any card from his hand when involved in a Share Knowledge action. He is not restricted to giving the card of the current jointly-occupied city, like other players are. This freedom only applies when the Researcher is giving a card—he always receives a card with the same restriction as other players. The Researcher can utilize this ability when involved in Share Knowledge actions on any player’s turn.

-Special Event Cards-

The Player Cards deck contains some Special Event cards. These cards may be played at any time (even on a fellow player’s turn) and do not require an action to play. When you play a Special Event card, immediately follow the instructions on the card, then discard the card into the Player Discard Pile.

-Hand Limit-

Players have a hand limit of 7 cards. If the number of cards in hand ever exceeds 7 as a result of drawing cards (or performing the Share Knowledge action), the player must immediately discard cards in excess to the Player Discard Pile. Players may choose which cards to discard. Players may play Special Event cards (including any they have just drawn) instead of discarding them, to help reduce their hand to 7.

-Sharing Information About Cards-

Players may openly discuss strategies during the game, but like the real world, the players do not immediately know everything that the other players do. To simulate this, if you are playing the Normal or Heroic Games, players may not show the contents of their hands to their fellow players during the game. Players may however, freely tell each other what cards they have. The Introductory Game has no such restriction and players may decide to play their hands openly. Because Pandemic is a test of cooperation and mettle (and not of memory), players may freely examine the contents of the Player Discard Pile and the Infection Discard Pile at any time.

-Infector Phase & Outbreaks-

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. Resolve the cards in the order you draw them. If, however, the pictured city is of a color that has been eradicated, do not add a cube. 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. When this happens, instead of adding a 4th cube, add a cube of the outbreaking color to each adjacent city. Each time a city outbreaks, move the Outbreaks Marker up one space on the Outbreak Indicator. If the number of outbreaks ever reaches 8 (and the Outbreaks Marker reaches the skull symbol), the game immediately ends in defeat for all players. Also, if there are not enough cubes to add to the board when infecting, the game immediately ends in defeat for all players.

Chain Reactions
If any of these new cubes would cause the total number of cubes of that color in an adjacent city to exceed 3, additional outbreaks may occur, causing a chain reaction. Note that each city may only outbreak once in each chain reaction.

DEFEAT OR VICTORY!

The game ends immediately in defeat for all players if any of the following conditions occur:
-A player needs to add disease cubes to the board and there aren’t any left of that color in the supply.
-The eighth outbreak occurs (the Outbreaks Marker reaches the skull symbol on the Outbreak Indicator).
-There are not enough cards in the Player Draw Pile when a player must draw cards.

Players collectively win the game immediately when the cures for all four diseases (Blue, Yellow, Black, and Red) have been discovered. Players do not need to administer cures to every infected city in order to win the game—victory is instant when any player discovers the fourth and final cure.

stever777

We will let the group decide on how many Epidemic cards will be in this game, since no group has won a game yet;
4 (Introductory), 5 (Normal), or 6 (Heroic - really NOT recommended).
Please indicate choice in bold limegreen!

@Cerberus
@Daemonis
@The Ender
@MrTLicious

You may then choose your roles in that player order.

The Ender

There is only one way to play Pandemic.

The Heroic way.

Cerberus

Normal... because I would like a chance to win...

MrTLicious

Normal please!

MrTLicious

Although I think the 4-person game is easier than the 5-person games that have been running.

The Ender

You guys have doomed us right at the outset. You let the cubes know that you fear them.

stever777

@Daemonis

Daemonis

Normal, please

stever777

You may now choose your roles in this order.

@Cerberus
@Daemonis
@The Ender
@MrTLicious

Cerberus

Dispatcher

Daemonis

Researcher

MrTLicious

Don't read this Ender, but I'll put my list so we can start as soon as he gets here.

Medic -> Operations

The Ender

Back off, man.

I'm a Scientist.

stever777

@Cerberus - Dispatcher Turn

You all start in Atlanta, at the Research Station, (red cross icon).

3 cities received 3 disease cubes.
3 cities received 2 disease cubes.
3 cities received 1 disease cubes.
These cities are not in danger of receiving more cubes until an Epidemic card is turned over from the Player Deck.
Then, those card are shuffled and placed on top of the Infection Deck and that's when the trouble starts, as outbreaks begin to occur.
Obviously, the 3 cube cities are the most dangerous, as they could outbreak the fastest.

Please ignore the purple cubes, as we are not playing with them this game.

You can click on the board to see it enlarged to read the cities and texts.

You may want to discuss a strategy before beginning or not.
Cerberus has 4 actions to play.


Starting hands -
Roles, locations, current hand sizes & cards -
Cerberus - Dispatcher; Atlanta; (2) - Manila; Ho Chi Minh City
Daemonis - Researcher; Atlanta; (2) - Mexico City; Tehran
The Ender - Scientist; Atlanta; (2) - St. Petersburg; Karachi
MrTLicious - Medic; Atlanta; (2) - Baghdad; Cairo

Once you decide on your final actions, post them in the color of your pawn on your turn.

Cerberus - mediumorchid
Daemonis - peru
The Ender - gray
MrTLicious - darkorange

The Ender

Okay; my suggestion is that we immediately race to cure black. We've got the cards to do it right now; we just have to fiddle around a bit to get them under my microscope.

If everyone is on board with that idea, Daemonis could give me Tehran this turn.

MrTLicious

Sounds good to me. I'll head there the long way, though, and cure Manilla/HK on the way. Will take 1 extra turn unless the dispatcher helps me out.

Cerberus

My current thought process is that I do the following:

Option 1) Move to Manilla, and then move MrT to me.
This way he can sort Manilla and Hong Kong on his go.
The others don't want to be moved as they are going to trade cards.

Option 2) Alternatively I could:
Move MrT to Manilla for the reasons above, then move The Ender to Washington, on his go he'll be able to get to Paris and clean a block, the only disadvantage is Daemonis will need to move to Washington to give the card.

Thoughts?

The Ender

That plan seems well thought out and straight-forward.


Which of course means things will go horribly wrong and we'll all be killed by flesh-eating bacteria.

Daemonis

I thought MrT was going to collect black? I'll unable to pass Tehran to him if you teleport him.

The Ender

No, black needs to be passed to me; I'm the Scientist, so I can cure black with the cards in the pool right now.

Daemonis

Ok then

Cerberus

Move MrT to Manilla, then move The Ender to Washington

Feels wierd using mediumorchid and not playing as Slaanesh is a CitOW game!

MrTLicious

I accept the move.

stever777

Cerberus - Dispatcher Turn

Player Card Draws -
Paris; Taipei

Infection Card Draws - (1 cube placed in each city)
Miami; Johannesburg

stever777

@Daemonis - Researcher Turn

Roles, locations, current hand sizes & cards -
Cerberus - Dispatcher; Atlanta; (4) - Paris; Taipei; Manila; Ho Chi Minh City
Daemonis - Researcher; Atlanta; (2) - Mexico City; Tehran
The Ender - Scientist; Washington ; (2) - St. Petersburg; Karachi
MrTLicious - Medic; Manila; (2) - Baghdad; Cairo

stever777

Cerberus wrote: »

Feels wierd using mediumorchid and not playing as Slaanesh is a CitOW game!

Who says you're not Slaany?
At least you're not Nurgle, or are you? :shock:

Cerberus

stever777 wrote: »

Cerberus wrote: »

Feels wierd using mediumorchid and not playing as Slaanesh is a CitOW game!

Who says you're not Slaany?
At least you're not Nurgle, or are you? :shock:

Fine, from now on you can all call me The Prince of Pleasure!
Until I am needed next I'll be rocking out with my Noise Marines!

Daemonis

1. Move to Washington
2. Give Tehran card to The Ender
3. Move to Miami
4. Cure

stever777

Daemonis - Researcher Turn

Player Card Draws -
Epidemic!; Miami

Epidemic! Results -
1. Infection Rate moved 1 space. Rate remains at 2.
2. Bottom of Infection Deck draw. Tehran receives 3 cubes.
3. Infection Discards are shuffled and placed on top of Infection Draw Deck.

Infection Card Draws - (1 cube placed in each city)
Mumbai Outbreak!; Osaka

Outbreak Marker moves to 1.
Karachi, Delhi, & Chennai all get a cube.

stever777

@The Ender - Scientist Turn

Roles, locations, current hand sizes & cards -
Cerberus - Dispatcher; Atlanta; (4) - Paris; Taipei; Manila; Ho Chi Minh City
Daemonis - Researcher; Miami; (2) - Mexico City; Miami
The Ender - Scientist; Washington; (3) - St. Petersburg; Karachi; Tehran
MrTLicious - Medic; Manila; (2) - Baghdad; Cairo

Cerberus

That is not a great start, lets be honest...

stever777

it's your fault, Nurgle. ;-)

The Ender

It's not great, but not terrible; if we were gong to have an Outbreak, it's best to have it on the color we're planning to cure.


1-3: Move to New York -> London -> Paris
4: Cure 1 block

stever777

The Ender - Scientist Turn

Player Card Draws -
"Gov't Grant" Special (Build Research Station in any city for free.); Bogota

Infection Card Draws - (1 cube placed in each city)
Johannesburg; Seoul

stever777

@MrTLicious - Medic Turn

Roles, locations, current hand sizes & cards -
Cerberus - Dispatcher; Atlanta; (4) - Paris; Taipei; Manila; Ho Chi Minh City
Daemonis - Researcher; Miami; (2) - Mexico City; Miami
The Ender - Scientist; Paris; (5) - St. Petersburg; Bogota; Karachi; Tehran; "Gov't Grant" Special (Build Research Station in any city for free.)
MrTLicious - Medic; Manila; (2) - Baghdad; Cairo

MrTLicious

1: Cure Manila
2: Move to Hong Kong
3: Cure Hong Kong
4: Move to Kolkata

MrTLicious

If the dispatcher moves both Ender and me to Cairo, we will be in a good position to give him both black cards by the end of this next round.

Cerberus

MrTLicious wrote: »

If the dispatcher moves both Ender and me to Cairo, we will be in a good position to give him both black cards by the end of this next round.

will do...

stever777

MrTLicious - Medic Turn

Player Card Draws -
Tokyo; Essen

Infection Card Draws - (1 cube placed in each city)
Bangkok; Tehran Outbreak!

Outbreak Marker moves to 2.
Moscow, Baghdad, Karachi, & Delhi all get a cube.