Pandemic

StormingTheCastle

Has anyone played Pandemic? It seems to be getting a lot of hype. Thanks.

Apreche

You mean this? I've never heard of it before now. However, it is published by the Z-man. I've played games with the Z-Man himself, he knows a good game when he sees it. From the description and pictures it looks like this is a new twist on the beat the game game genre. It already looks better than Arkham Horror, but, like all games in the genre, I wonder if it will still be fun after you figure out how to beat it.

Nimrod6

We played it 3 times on game night. I'd say after our 3rd loss, I'd had my fill. Not a bad game, but not a classic either.

StormingTheCastle

Thanks for the comments! I think I'll give it a try and let you know my thoughts.

Kilarney

Zman games has printed some incredible games. He's got the Midas touch. Pandemic, 196); Making of the President and Agricola have all been wildly successful.

The downside...
His games have SERIOUS quality control issues. Duel in the Dark (mold) and 1960 (numerous misprints) come to mind. I doubt that I would order a first-edition from Z-man again.

Apreche

Zman games has printed some incredible games. He's got the Midas touch. Pandemic, 196); Making of the President and Agricola have all been wildly successful.

When we get bored of Through the Ages, I think the next game to get will be Reef Encounter.

J.Sharp

Some friends of mine played it a few weeks ago. They all seemed to enjoy it.

Nuri

I played this game at Game Night a few weeks back. It was quite enjoyable.

It's a co-op game, where you are trying to fight the spread of 4 different diseases. Each player is a different job, and each job has different abilities. There is a lot of strategy involved, but also some randomness from card-drawing. As for winability...it is similar to Arkham Horror. If you don't mind losing, it's a great game. Last time we played we came really close to winning, but there are just so many friggin ways to lose.

Byron

Old thread, but I just wanted to give props to Pandemic. Every board game night I want to play this, and usually some of the other board game night folks do too. We have yet to beat it. Arkham Horror, meh, its doable. We have yet to come close to beating Pandemic at the normal difficulty. And yet we all want to keep playing it over and over. Somehow it doesn't get frustrating.

Apreche

We have yet to come close to beating Pandemic at the normal difficulty.

Sorry, but you just suck.

Byron

Solved game, then? Tips? The group as a whole has only played like 5 times now over the course of a year so it isn't yet obvious.

Rochelle

Solved game, then? Tips? The group as a whole has only played like 5 times now over the course of a year so it isn't yet obvious.

Scott doesn't like those sorts of games. If anything about Pandemic, Matt has some good anecdotes and pointers.

Byron

Scott doesn't like those sorts of games.

I got from his response that the game was too easy. Are "those sorts of games" the ones he finds easy?

I don't actively apply analysis to games when I play them. I rather like to apply game theory to economics, but it sort of kills games. Settlers of Catan still amuses me

Matt

Matt has some good anecdotes and pointers.

I don't actively apply analysis to games when I play them.

I ain't touching this one with a ten foot pole.

Byron

Srsly. People don't like playing me in chess. My moves are pretty random and with very little thought to them. I like my decision trees to be approximately 1 level deep. Sometimes I'll take my time to make it look like I'm thinking on it. That really messes with people trying to figure out my approach. But honestly, I'm gonna lose every time. It amuses me to keep someone on their toes while I go down.

In the case of Pandemic though, we all sort of work through the problem together. I'm not playing randomly there, because it isn't competitive. But even then, I don't consciously use computational or game theoretic analysis tools while playing games.

Rochelle

Yeah, I don't like playing games with people like that. I consider that trolling and want to give them a cock punch.

Byron

Yeah, I don't like playing games with people like that. I consider that trolling and want to give them a cock punch.

If someone has an algorithm they choose to use, doesn't it get boring once you know their algorithm? At that point, you know the winner. Why bother playing?

Anthony Heman

Played Pandemic at PAX. The guys that invited me and one other newbie to play did so on normal mode, and were amazed at our rediculous luck. Basically we had one continent go to hell for a little while (south america) but it was pretty isolated, and we cleared the board relatively quickly. Seems like a great pick up and play game for non board-game geeks.

Apreche

Yeah, I don't like playing games with people like that. I consider that trolling and want to give them a cock punch.

If someone has an algorithm they choose to use, doesn't it get boring once you know their algorithm? At that point, you know the winner. Why bother playing?

Precisely! That's why we don't play Pandemic or TF2.

Schnevets

Forbidden Island is another Z-Man game that might be worth looking into. It's essentially Pandemic Junior, but you're trying to preserve a 4X4 square island. The game sometimes devolves into luck a little too quickly, but it is a very easy game to explain and get into that has many of the same elements as Pandemic, just in a smaller serving.

Also, it's, like $15, and is definitely a worthy "Yo dog" warm-up game.