[Pandemic] - Game 13 - Game Over - Blue Flu Holds Out For The Win

stever777

Welcome to Pandemic, Z-Man Games' game of global disease containment. In this game, players take the roles of five 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 Base Game of Pandemic for 5 players, participants from sign-ups.

[RULES]
[EXPANSION 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.

Phyphor

I have played this once and won once. Clearly the diseases are doomed

enlightenedbum

Jumping in. I have also only played this once... but lost.

Iron Weasel

Pick me! Pick me!
I played in a stever game a while back and we lost so I have no fear of death.

Kristmas Kthulhu

Sure, let me get in on the action

I've never played this, reading the rules right now.

Preda

Conditional sign-up (give precedence to others, i just played in game 12)

discrider

I would like to play but precedence to others who haven't just played.

stever777

Geth roll 6d1000 for P,e,I,K,P,d

Sorry, discrider. Preda beat you out.

P,e,I,K,P,d:

6d1000 3711 [6d1000=677, 710, 296, 494, 786, 748]

stever777

We will let the group decide on how many Epidemic cards will be in this game.
4 (Introductory), 5 (Normal), 6 (Heroic) or 7 (Legendary)
Please indicate choice in bold limegreen!

@Preda‌
@enlightenedbum‌
@Phyphor‌
@Kristmas Kthulhu
@Iron Weasel

You may then choose your roles in that player order.
I know, there are 2 Operations Experts shown.
Only one is available.
Also, the Bio-Terrorist is not available.

Phyphor

I vote normal

enlightenedbum

Normal.

Preda

Let's keep normal.

stever777

Normal it is.
Pick your roles.
@Preda

Preda

Let's be Field Operative!

@enlightenedbum‌ next to choose

enlightenedbum

I'll take Operations Expert

@Phyphor

Phyphor

I'll shoot some trouble

@kristmas kthulhu

Kristmas Kthulhu

Somebody needs to treat the sickies, so I'm taking over Medic duties.

@Iron Weasel‌

Iron Weasel

The only way out of this mess is through SCIENCE!

jdarksun

Reserve up if needed.

Grunt's Ghosts

I missed sign ups? Reserve...

Iron Weasel

Oh, and I guess I'll use this for my color.

stever777

@Preda - Field Operative 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.

Preda has 4 actions to play.


Starting hands -
Roles, locations, current hand sizes & cards -
Preda - Field Operative; Atlanta; (2) - Johannesburg; Baghdad
enlightenedbum - Operations Expert; Atlanta; (2) - Santiago; "Borrowed Time" Special (Current player may take 2 additional actions this turn.)
Phyphor‌ - Troubleshooter; Atlanta; (2) - Khartoum; Jakarta
Kristmas Kthulhu - Medic; Atlanta; (2) - St. Petersburg; Riyadh
Iron Weasel - Scientist; Atlanta; (2) - New York; Miami

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

Preda - goldenrod
enlightenedbum - limegreen
Phyphor - red
Kristmas Kthulhu - darkorange
Iron Weasel - grey

Preda

Let's start working on the yellow fever, that's already the bigger problem...
Drive/Ferry/Drive to Sao Paulo than stole a jellow cube to put on my card.

stever777

@enlightenedbum - Operations Expert Turn

Roles, locations, current hand sizes & cards -
Preda - Field Operative; Sao Paulo; (3) - Johannesburg; Baghdad; "Special Orders" Special (During this turn, the current player may move one other pawn as if it were his own.) - 1 Yellow Cube
enlightenedbum - Operations Expert; Atlanta; (2) - Santiago; "Borrowed Time" Special (Current player may take 2 additional actions this turn.)
Phyphor‌ - Troubleshooter; Atlanta; (2) - Khartoum; Jakarta
Kristmas Kthulhu - Medic; Atlanta; (2) - St. Petersburg; Riyadh
Iron Weasel - Scientist; Atlanta; (2) - New York; Miami

stever777

No fair Preda!
I didn't know the Field Operative was psychic!

enlightenedbum

Wait, how did cities that were initially infected get drawn? Both your rules and the description imply that those cities can't be drawn until we draw an epidemic card.

Anyway, my instinct is to discard Santiago to fly to Cairo, build a research station there, drive/ferry to Riyadh and clean up one cube if this board state is accurate.

Phyphor

Yeah, I think we should have started with those 9 cities in the discard pile

Preda

The city have been drawn because epidemic is the first card we drow first turn. (lucky eh?)

Reguarding the target, ignore Ryadht. New york, osaka and kinshasa will outbreak in the next 4 turns for sure unless we clean them. Sao Paulo and Riadht would outbteak only after the next epidemic (worst case in 5 turns).

Remeber that for the next 3 and half turn we will drow exactly the cities that alredy have cubes. We will have few really diseased areas.

Phyphor

Oh that's annoying. Clean up NY then

Phyphor

I'll clean up africa. Osaka will just outbreak

enlightenedbum

Oh, there it is, OK. I would love a text summary of what happened.

Alternate idea, since I can actually get to Osaka and no one else can while the medic is just two moves from New York, I go there. A risk, considering Madrid, obviously.

stever777

Sorry. Kinda got away from summaries after a number of games.
Epidemic was drawn as the second card. (Upper-right of image)
New York got hit with 3 cubes because of it.
Infection discards, including NY (10 cards), were shuffled and put on top of the draw pile.
Sao Paulo & Riyadh were drawn, getting a cube each. (Middle-right of image)

Phyphor

The thing is an osaka outbreak just dumps 2 cubes. A NY one dumps 4 and puts one in madrid. Also you can use your special action on anybodies turn so we could clean up osaka if we really need to

enlightenedbum

Of course, you'll also know if New York or Kinshasa is coming in your turn and you can treat whichever is necessary. So we're only risking my two draws.

Phyphor

Well it really comes down to risking a NY draw now. I would prefer the safer route of one guaranteed 2 cube outbreak instead of risking a worst case of 2 (drawing NY now + Madrid & Kin between the other 3 cards)

Kristmas Kthulhu

Yeah, I think what Phyphor's saying makes sense. But who's gonna take care of Africa before it outbreaks?

enlightenedbum

Phyphor has the Khartoum card.

enlightenedbum

Move to New York (2), clear two cubes (2)

stever777

@Phyphor‌ - Troubleshooter Turn

Roles, locations, current hand sizes & cards -
Preda - Field Operative; Sao Paulo; (3) - Johannesburg; Baghdad; "Special Orders" Special (During this turn, the current player may move one other pawn as if it were his own.) - 1 Yellow Cube
enlightenedbum - Operations Expert; New York; (4) - Essen; Bogota; Santiago; "Borrowed Time" Special (Current player may take 2 additional actions this turn.)
Phyphor‌ - Troubleshooter; Atlanta; (2) - Khartoum; Jakarta
Kristmas Kthulhu - Medic; Atlanta; (2) - St. Petersburg; Riyadh
Iron Weasel - Scientist; Atlanta; (2) - New York; Miami

Troubleshooter Infection Card Preview (Placed in upper-left corner) -
Madrid; Bogota

enlightenedbum

Way to convince me to make the safe play.