3/17 - Pandemic with On the Brink

Hilary and I tried our first game of Pandemic with the new On the Brink expansion this evening. Pandemic is the standard bearer for the new wave of cooperative games that have become popular recently. Whereas older coop games such as Arkham Horror and Lord of the Rings offered an involving story, they tended to run 2+ hours. Pandemic focuses on a slick interface design and speedy gameplay - an experienced group can play a game in 30-40 minutes.

On the Brink is composed of several mini-expansions, each of which make the game harder in some way. We played with the mutated disease, which adds a 5th disease to the board that spreads in a somewhat different manner, as well as the virulent strain, which causes one of the existing diseases to get nastier in some way at each epidemic. To balance this, we played with just 4 epidemics (nominally "easy") level. We also had a couple of the new roles from the expansion, which Hilary getting the Field Operative, and myself the Containment Specialist.

The base game of Pandemic can feel a bit same-y. There are only 5 roles to choose from, and the diseases behave in fairly predictable ways. The On the Brink expansion manages to pull the rug out from under that without making the game significantly longer (though setup is quite a bit more involved). Our game had a huge amount of ebb and flow, with the game alternating between feeling well in hand to on the verge of defeat constantly. With one turn left and one disease left to cure, Hilary managed to get to Bangkok just as she drew the matching card, allowing me to swing by, take the card from her, and cure the final disease on the last possible turn.