Pandemic Legacy
Pandemic is a contemporary board game in which the players work cooperatively to wipe out four global diseases before they overwhelm humanity. Honora and Tristan came back from their 2016 road trip raving about this game that they had played in Seattle, so I bought it to bring on a Virginia beach trip last summer. The kids and I really liked it; Toby doesn’t like board games at all. I especially liked the cooperative aspect; I’m not a decent strategist, but Honora, who can’t do things like remember to take a half-eaten banana out of the car, can think of four different possible strategies and evaluate where each one will land us several moves out, and I love watching this. Basically, I’m anyone’s lackey in the game, but I don’t mind.
Tristan bought Pandemic Legacy for me and Honora last Christmas. This is a version of the game meant to be played 12 - 24 times only, with each time changing the game board, players and play permanently moving forward. We started it tonight. People, it is amazing. There are eight compartments in the box that you don’t open until you are told. There are rules on stickers to be added to the rule book in those compartments, but you don’t know what they are. You will be discarding characters and some cities will collapse and be X-ed off the board. And your own character will acquire “scars,” new traits that you add when directed. Basically, it is the coolest thing you can imagine.
We lost the first round, although we eradicated the blue disease, so we got to name and mutate it. It is now called Blurgh Disorder and it is easier to cure because it got a “positive mutation.” We got to choose an End of Game Upgrade, and we chose “Efficient to Sequence” against a permanent research station, which will speed the eradication of the remaining diseases. We will try January again tomorrow, with increased “funding” and if we lose again, we go on to February with our scars, our new situations and resources.
Tristan bought Pandemic Legacy for me and Honora last Christmas. This is a version of the game meant to be played 12 - 24 times only, with each time changing the game board, players and play permanently moving forward. We started it tonight. People, it is amazing. There are eight compartments in the box that you don’t open until you are told. There are rules on stickers to be added to the rule book in those compartments, but you don’t know what they are. You will be discarding characters and some cities will collapse and be X-ed off the board. And your own character will acquire “scars,” new traits that you add when directed. Basically, it is the coolest thing you can imagine.
We lost the first round, although we eradicated the blue disease, so we got to name and mutate it. It is now called Blurgh Disorder and it is easier to cure because it got a “positive mutation.” We got to choose an End of Game Upgrade, and we chose “Efficient to Sequence” against a permanent research station, which will speed the eradication of the remaining diseases. We will try January again tomorrow, with increased “funding” and if we lose again, we go on to February with our scars, our new situations and resources.