Pandemic - A Game Where You Work Together to Save the World

Pandemic is a great, cooperative board game that offers a change of pace from the usual competitive games.

If you have someone in your family that sometimes gets a little too competitive for comfort, then you might want to try Pandemic. It’s a fun team game where everyone is on the same side and you have to work together to defeat global viruses.

It takes a little time to get up to speed on how this game works. You have a map of the world with key cities that connect to one another. Your objective is to travel between cities and wipe out viruses before they mushroom into a pandemic. There is one way you can win and there are also a few ways you can lose. In fact, my family lost six straight games before we finally beat those pesky viruses.

Each player gets a role card that gives you certain capabilities. For example, one role lets you establish a research center in the city where your token is. That makes it easier for all players to jump to that city from other research centers around the world. Learning how to use each other’s complimentary abilities will be important to your success because these viruses can quickly intensify and overwhelm the world!!

Players move in turn and can complete four actions in their turn. You might move to a connecting city, build a research center, destroy a virus in the city you are in, or give/take a card from another player. If one player accumulates enough cards of a particular virus type, they can discover a cure for that virus. When the players have cured all four of the viruses in the game, they win. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? It’s not. Players need to talk to each other and plan their actions in advance to develop a strategy for curing each virus before the pandemic strikes. Working together to beat this game is tough and fun.