Questions tagged [pandemic]
Pandemic is a cooperative game in which players work together to combat the spread of four deadly diseases before they overwhelm the planet. Each player brings a distinct skill to bear on the problem; only through careful teamwork can they ultimately save the Earth! 2-4 players, 45-60 minutes.
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What are good general strategies for Pandemic?
I've looked at a lot of forum posts on several sites on Pandemic and it seems that there is a decent amount of luck. You may win two 6-epidemic games in a row, then lose three 5-epidemic games. I have ...
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Pandemic and Forbidden Island - How similar are they?
We have Pandemic at home. When browsing for some new games I stumbled over Forbidden Island made by the same designer. I thought it could be interesting to have another cooperative game but when I ...
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Is Pandemic harder with fewer players?
I've played a couple of Pandemic games with 2, 3 and 4 players.
From my point of view, the game should be harder with only 2 players since it will be more difficult to get a medic and both players ...
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Does anybody need the 6th epidemic card in Pandemic?
4 epidemic cards in the pile are easy in Pandemic. 5 cards - it is interesting. Our win / lose ratio is about 50% with 5 epidemic cards. But I can't imagine how to play with 6 epidemic cards. Are you ...
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In Pandemic, why take the extra step of eradicating a disease after you've cured it?
I understand that you need to cure all four diseases to win the game.
But the next step beyond curing a disease is eradicating it. Why do this? After you cure a disease, how are you helped by going ...
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Why is Pandemic's Bio-terrorist Challenge not recommended with five players?
The rules say the bio-terrorist challenge is for three and four player games and is explicitly not recommended for five players. Why is that? If it's a difficulty issue, couldn't the number of ...
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What are the differences between Pandemic and Pandemic 2013?
I have seen that there is a new edition of Pandemic for 2013.
What are the differences between Pandemic and the "New Challenge" version?
Can I convert my original edition to use any of the new rules?...
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Clarification of a Pandemic rule involving the Medic
The rules of the French edition of Pandemic are a little unclear about the following game situation. Once a cure for a disease (let's say blue) has been found, at any point the Medic is in an infected ...
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Is this a win or loss?
Does a player need to complete a full turn (i.e. 4 actions, pickup, infect) if during the action portion the final disease was cured? I only ask because there was only 1 player card left in the deck ...
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How can I play Pandemic with 6 players?
I've recently bought Pandemic, and really liked the game. But since the basic game is only 2-4 players, I ordered the expansion "On the Brink", which brings it up to 5 players.
Is there a rules ...
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Does the medic remove cubes of the final cured disease (and thus eradicate it) before the game ends in a win?
Consider a scenario in which your group is doing absurdly well. Three diseases have been eradicated, and while the fourth disease — Red — has not yet been cured, it has been contained to a single city,...
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What are the chances of losing Pandemic on the first turn?
I like probability questions, and it has been a while since tttpp's excellent analysis of losing in the first turn of Forbidden Island. I figured it might be interesting to calculate how likely you ...
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Can Pandemic Legacy be played as "vanilla" Pandemic?
I've never played Pandemic, but thinking of getting the Legacy edition. Is it possible to play it without the legacy elements a few times first, and get an experience that is same or similar to that ...
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Special event cards and timing
The Special Event cards all indicate they may be played "at any time". Are there any restrictions to "any time", i.e. in the middle of someone's turn? Suppose an epidemic card has been drawn -- can ...
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Can you eradicate a disease without finding a Cure first?
If you eradicate a disease in Pandemic without finding a cure first (ie remove all of one colour from the board) does it remain eradicated or can it still come back unless it has also been cured?
The ...
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Why is the Pandemic starting position always Atlanta?
Why did the creators of the game Pandemic decide that the starting position for each game would be Atlanta rather than any of the other possible cities on the board?
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Exchanging Cards in Pandemic
When exchanging cards between two players in Pandemic, does it matter which player's turn it is? I have seen this rule played two ways:
- The active player can only give a card.
OR
- The active ...
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In Pandemic, do certain setup and card order combinations make it impossible to win?
My family has won most of the Pandemic (2 or 3 player games) we've played, but we ran into one recently that I thought impossible to win due to the 2 and 3 cube infections being far from Atlanta, far ...
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Are the (player) cards in your hand supposed to be face up or not?
In playing Pandemic, I've always played where the cards in your hand are face up - i.e., visible to everyone. It is a cooperative game after all, and looking at another player's cards is easier than ...
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Do you know any rules that make Pandemic's difficulty more even?
Pandemic varies vastly in difficulty depending on the number of players. Does anyone know of any custom rules that make it more even?
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Does the Medic need to wait until their next turn to remove cubes when another player researches a cure?
Say Medic got to Paris with 3 blue cubes but didn't have enough action to remove cubes, and a next player cures blue. Do we get to remove those blue cubes from Paris right away or do we wait till ...
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Bottom card drawn during epidemic: What happens if there is already more than one disease cube in the city?
How do you handle a situation where the bottom card drawn in an epidemic is for a city with 2 or 3 cubes (of the same color) on it already?
For example, if Mumbai has 2 black cubes on it due to ...
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How do you handle two epidemics in a row in pandemic?
Instructions on epidemics ask that the discard pile be reshuffled and put back as the last action to take with the card. This means that if a player draws two epidemic cards at the same time, there ...
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Pandemic--epidemics with eradicated diseases
If an Epidemic card is drawn, but the card from the infection deck that is then drawn has an eradicated disease on it, is it necessary to shift the infection rate forward--or does the fact that the ...
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How does the "Special Orders" special event card work?
The "Special Orders" card states:
During this turn, the current player may move one other player's pawn (with permission) as if it were his own.
I have read this and the rule book (which gives ...
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Who goes first in Pandemic?
I've recently bought Pandemic and I'm going to play it for the first time tomorrow. Having read the rules I wasn't quite sure how to interpret:
The player who was most recently sick goes first.
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Bottom card drawn during epidemic: Are 3 cubes added to the city pictured, when the disease in that city's region has already been eradicated?
I suspect not, because the rule on Eradicating Disease states:
From now on, cards of this color have no effect when drawn on the
Infector's turn. Take all of the cubes of the eradicated color and
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Can outbreak chains loop?
Is it possible for outbreak chains to loop - would it be possible for a city to experience an outbreak twice in the same round as a result of a chain?
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Pandemic: "Resilient Population" card
The "Resilient Population" card reads:
Take a card from the Infection Discard Pile and remove it from the game.
When you play the "Resilient Population" card, what exactly are you allowed to do?
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How exactly do cures affect future infection in Pandemic?
How does finding a cure affect future infections in Pandemic?
Scenario 1) Cure IS found, disease cubes for that same color DO exist on the board, and player draws an infection card matching that ...
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How do I mitigate 'alpha playing' in Pandemic?
I don't quite like Pandemic for a simple reason.
Basically - because all players have the same knowledge, and same goal, I don't see the need to have multiple players; one person (the alpha player) ...
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What changes to the game will the "On The Brink" Pandemic expansion offer me?
I'm trying to decide if I should get the pandemic expansion on the brink. Here's the obvious advantages I can see:
lets you play with 5 people
adds some variety with new cards
options to make the ...
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Number of Pandemic players?
Why is the original Pandemic set for up to 4 players when there are 5 role cards?
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Can you choose the role with the "New Assignment" event?
In Pandemic: On The Brink there are several new event cards. We are curious as to whether the "New Assignment" card lets you choose, or whether you pick one at random (as at the start of the game).
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What is the timing of the Hidden Pocket effect?
When does the Virulent Strain Epidemic effect for Hidden Pocket happen? The way the card is laid out, it would seem that it happens after the three epidemic steps; however, that would negate the ...
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Best method for evenly distributing epidemic cards in Pandemic setup?
The rules for Pandemic call for shuffling the Player deck and distributing the initial cards to each player. The remaining 50 or so cards are then seeded with epidemic cards by this rule:
Divide ...
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How many cubes can the containment specialist remove in Pandemic On The Brink
The Containment Specialist role card says the following:
When you enter a city with 2 or more cubes of the same color, remove 1 cube.
We played yesterday with the mutation purple disease, and had ...
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pandemic - can a city outbreak more than once per infect city turn?
Scenario:
- infection rate is 2
- Tehran currently has 2 cubes, Baghdad has 3 cubes
At end of turn, first infect card drawn is Baghdad. It outbreaks and adds a cube to Tehran so Tehran now has 3 ...
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In Pandemic, can yellow infect black, after black has been eradicated?
Let's say that black has been eradicated. Can yellow come into the black cities and infect?
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Making the Contingency Planner more useful
The 2013 version of Pandemic added a new card, the Contingency Planner:
My gaming group has found this card very weak compared to the other roles for a couple of reasons:
It's ability to pull an ...
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In Pandemic, can the Containment Specialist remove more than 1 cube (without the action of treating) in a cured city?
In Pandemic, when there are 2 or 3 cubes of the same color on a cured city, does the Containment Specialist remove only 1 cube when he lands or all of the cubes (like when treating) since it is cured?
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In Pandemic, when does the discard-over-7-cards rule take effect?
Scenario
Pandemic's excess card rule states that if you have more than 7 cards in your hand at any time, you must discard the excess (according to your preference, of course).
Let's say you're the ...
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Is there an extension that converts regular Pandemic to Pandemic Legacy: Season 1?
I own Pandemic. I want to buy Pandemic Legacy: Season 1. It's quite expensive though and it seems that the game board looks the same.
Is there an extension to the Pandemic game that reproduces ...
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What are legal ways to use the Dispatcher's special ability in Pandemic?
I don't quite understand what the person playing the Dispatcher role is allowed and disallowed to do.
If the Dispatcher wants to move i.e. the Medic's pawn, does he need the approval of the owner or ...
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Does the Lab Challenge make Pandemic easier or harder?
We've tried out the Lab Challenge (from the new In The Lab expansion), and I can't quite tell if it makes the game harder or not.
All other things equal (#players, roles, # epidemics), is a game with ...
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Medic abilities
The medic card says that they can “remove ALL cubes of one colour when doing Treat Disease”.
One interpretation from the rules is that Treat Disease applies only to the city you are in. However ...
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Can a disease be eradicated at the beginning of the game?
During the setup the players are required to draw 9 cards to infect the starting cities before the game starts. What if for example no red disease card is drawn? Is the red disease already eradicated ...
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Does the Medic remove all cubes of cured diseases from the cities he travels through?
Does the Medic remove all cubes of cured diseases from the cities he travels through? Let's say he:
drives to one city (3 cured cubes)
drives to another city (2 cured cubes)
drives to another city (1 ...
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Different color cubes in one city
If we had a blue city with one black disease cube due to an outbreak and we pull that blue city card during epidemic infection phase, is it an outbreak?
We thought that 3 was the max #of cubes one ...
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Does the Quarantine Specialist prevent Epidemic in connected cities?
So, by example, if the Quarantine Specialist is in London, and an Epidemic card is pulled and the affected city is New York (or another connected city), does the specialist cancel the placement of ...
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