Pandemic

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Details

Sourced from: https://jmo.name/games

Player Aid Author: Jarrod Moore

Description

Your team of experts must prevent the world from succumbing to a viral pandemic.

Expansions in Use

  • On the Brink

  • Place game board in centre of table
  • Place 1 research station in Atlanta
  • Place outbreak marker on 0 space of outbreak track
  • Place cure markers vial side up on the discovered cure indicator spaces
  • Place the infection rate marker on the leftmost 2 space on the infection rate track
  • Shuffle the infection cards and flip over 3 of them
  • Put 3 disease cubes of the matching colour on each revealed city
  • Flip 3 more cards over and put 2 disease cubes on each of these cities
  • Flip 3 more cards over and put 1 disease cube on each of these cities
  • Discard the 9 revealed infection cards into the infection discard pile
  • Place the rest of the infection cards on the infection deck space
  • Give each player:
    • 1 reference card
    • 1 random role card
    • 1 pawn matching the colour of the role card given
  • Remove any epidemic cards from the player card deck
  • Ensure that there are 2 event cards in the player card deck per player
  • Shuffle the player card deck and deal cards to each player according to player count:
    • 2P: 4 cards
    • 3P: 3 cards
    • 4P: 2 cards
  • Shuffle epidemic cards into the player card deck:
    • Based on desired difficulty:
      • Introductory => 4 epidemic cards
      • Standard => 5 epidemic cards
      • Heroic => 6 epidemic cards
      • Legendary => 7 epidemic cards
    • Split the deck into 1 pile for each epidemic card
    • Shuffle a epidemic card into each pile
    • Stack the piles on top of each other to ensure good spacing of epidemic cards
  • The starting player is the player who has the city card with the largest population written on it

The game takes place over a series of rounds where players will take do the following things on each turn:

  • Do 4 actions
  • Draw 2 player cards
  • Infect cities

After a player has infected cities, the player on the left takes the next turn

During a turn, any player may play event cards. Playing an event card is not considered to be an action. After the event card is played, it is discarded.

Players should freely give each other advice, and there is no need to withhold information from others to help formulate a cohesive strategy. This is not an official rule, but it might be the stupidest rule in the history of board games that you should keep your hand secret in Pandemic, so I choose to ignore it completely.

When choosing your 4 actions, you can do any combination of the below. You can do each action multiple times, but each time counts as a seperate 1 action.

  • Move to a city connected by a white line to the one you are in

  • Discard a city card
  • Move to the city named on the card you discarded

  • Discard the city card matching the city you are in
  • Move to any city you want

  • Move from a city with a research station to another city with a research station

  • Discard the city card that matches the city you are in
  • Place a research station marker in that city
  • If all research stations have been built, take a research station from another city and place it in this city

  • Remove 1 disease cube from the city you are in
  • If the disease cube has been cured, remove all disease cubes of that colour from the city
  • If the last cube of a cured disease has been removed from the board, the disease becomes eradicated:
    • Flip the cure marker from its vial side to its crossed out side

You can do one of two things:

  • Give a city card that matches the city you are in to another player
  • Take the city card that matches the city you are in from another player

The other player must also agree to the trade for you to be allowed to do it

If the player who gets the card now has more than 7 cards, that player must immediately discard a card or play an event card

  • At any research station, discard 5 city cards of the same colour from your hand to cure the disease of that colour
  • Move the disease's cure marker to its cure indicator space
  • If the last cube of a cured disease has been removed from the board, the disease becomes eradicated:
    • Flip the cure marker from its vial side to its crossed out side

  • Draw 2 cards from the deck:
    • If you draw an epidemic card:
      • Move the infection rate marker forward one space
      • Draw the bottom card of the infection deck
      • Unless its disease has been eradicated, put 3 disease cubes of its colour on that city:
        • If the city already has cubes on it, add cubes to bring its number of cubes up to 3
        • Then the city has an outbreak:
          • Move the outbreaks marker forward 1 space
          • Place 1 cube of the same colour on every city connected to this city
          • This may trigger another outbreak, which means you do the same thing in that city
          • Outbreaks may cause cities to have disease cubes of multiple colours on them
      • Discard the city card
      • Reshuffle the discard pile and put it back on top of the infection deck
      • If you draw two epidemic cards, go through the steps for each one
  • If you ever have more than 7 cards in your hand, discard cards or play event cards until you have 7 cards in hand

  • Flip over as many infection cities from the top of the infection deck as the current infection rate:
    • Flip the cards over one at a time
  • For each city card drawn:
    • Place 1 disease cube matching its colour on the city, unless it has been eradicated
    • If the city already has 3 cubes on it, do not place a cube and instead an outbreak occurs:
      • Move the outbreak markers forward 1 space
      • Place 1 cube of the same colour on every city connected to this city
      • This may trigger another outbreak, which means you do the same thing in that city
      • Outbreaks may cause cities to have disease cubes of multiple colours on them
    • Discard the city card

  • The game ends when one of the following occurs:
    • To win the game:
      • All 4 diseases have been cured:
        • NOTE: This does not mean that they need to be eradicated. They only need to be cured to win
    • You lose the game if:
      • The outbreaks marker reaches the last space of the board
      • You cannot place a disease cube for a disease because you ran out
      • If you cannot draw 2 player cards after doing your actions

  • As an action, they may take any event card from the discard pile and place it on their role card
  • Only one event card can be on the role card at a time
  • The Contingency Planner can then use this event card when they want
  • When the Contingency Planner uses the event card, remove the card completely from the game

  • The Dispatcher may, as an action, either:
    • Move any pawn, as long as the owner agrees, to any city containing another pawn
    • Move another player's pawn, as long as the owner agrees, as if it were their own

  • The medic removes all cubes of a disease when doing the Treat Disease action
  • If the disease has been cured, the medic automatically removes all disease cubes when they enter or are in the city without having to take an action

  • The Operations Expert may, as an action, either:
    • Build a research station in the current city without needing to discard a card
    • Once per turn, move from a research station to any city by discarding any city card

  • The Quarantine Specialist prevents outbreaks and the placement of disease cubes in the city they are in and in all connected cities. She does not affect cubes placed during setup

  • When doing the Share Knowledge action, the Researcher may give any city card from her hand to another player in the same city as her, wihtout this card having to match her city.
  • The transfer must be from her hand to the other player's hand, but it can occur on either player's turn.

  • The Scientist needs only 4 city cards of the same colour to Discover a Cure that disease

  • The Archivist's hand limit is 8 cards
  • He may, once per turn, spend an action to draw the city matching where he is from the player discard pile

  • When the Containment Specialist enters a city, if 2 or more cubes of the same colour are present, remove 1 of them

  • The Epidemiologist, once per turn and on her turn only, may take any city card from a player in the same city. The other player must agree. Doing this is not an action

  • The Field Operative may, once per turn as an action, move 1 disease cube from the city he is in and place it as a sample on his role card
  • When he discovers a cure, he may replace exactly 2 of the needed city cards by returning 3 cubes of the cure colour from his role card to the supply

  • The Troubleshooter, at the start of their turn, looks at as many infections cards as the current infection rate
  • After looking at them, the cards must be returned to the deck in the same order

  • The Generalist may do 5 actions per turn

Thumbnail courtesy of BoardGameGeek and the respective publisher.