6

In Pandemic Iberia, the rules for the Malaria historical disease state:

When infecting with black, whenever you would put 1 black cube into a city that has no black cubes in it, add 2 black cubes instead.

Does an outbreak create one black cube in the adjacent cities or two?

  • Case for not applying to outbreaks: There is an Infect step, and the rules for outbreaks are not described in that section, they are in the next section. Furthermore the rules for outbreaks use the word place, not the word infect:

Then, place 1 cube of the disease color on every city connected to the city

  • Case for applying to outbreaks: The rules use the word whenever, which implies more than one situation. Additionally, the word infect is not capitalized. Finally, the flavor text on the card says

NEW INFECTIONS ARE MORE SEVERE

We are not sure. How does it work?

One final thought: not applying to outbreaks makes Malaria sort of toothless and not altogether much more difficult than a basic disease, because in Iberia you can often get away with not cleaning. But this argument is more about balance and less about the text of the rules (perhaps a house rule might be in order?)

1
  • The tag has been created/added, but it will be auto-reaped unless someone adds a description to it or a second question gets tagged with it.
    – ikegami
    Aug 24, 2017 at 7:41

1 Answer 1

1

Infecting and placing disease cubes are different things. It just so happens that infecting often (but not always, as in the case of an outbreak) causes a disease cube to be added.

The rules for Malaria state that you only place an extra cube when infecting. They do not say something like "whenever you would place a cube, place an extra cube".

Rules governing infecting a city:

To infect a city, place 1 disease cube matching its color onto the city. If there is a purification token in a region adjacent to the city, however, remove 1 purification token from an adjacent region (returning it to the supply) instead of placing a cube. (If there is more than one adjacent region with a purification token, the current player decides which token to remove.) If the city already has 3 cubes of this color, do not place a 4th cube. Instead, an outbreak of this disease occurs in the city (see Outbreaks below). Discard this card to the Infection Discard Pile.

Rules governing an outbreak:

When a disease outbreak occurs, move the outbreaks marker forward 1 space on the Outbreaks Track. Then, place 1 cube of the disease color on every city connected to the city (or remove a purification token if any). If any of them already has 3 cubes of the disease color, do not place a 4th cube in those cities. Instead, in each of them, a chain reaction outbreak occurs after the current outbreak is done

An infected city is only one for which an infection card is drawn.

Regarding your arguments for the other interpretation:

Use of the word "whenever":
This word is used to declare that it happens whenever an infection card is drawn for an uninfected city. I cant think of any other way to describe it without using "whenever" or a similar word. It does not imply there are other situations.

"Infect" vs "infect":
Doesn't matter. Infect is not a proper noun and was not made into one by the rules.

Flavor text:
Given my interpretation, infections ARE more severe.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .