We played 3 games last night with 4 players. The 1st game was set on normal difficulty (5 epidemic cards), 2nd and 3rd games on hard (6 epidemic cards). We won the 1st and 3rd games, both we were lucky enough to have the same combo but with different players holding the different roles.
Below is the session report for each game
For how Pandemic is played, you may refer to my review
Game 1
Contingency Planner (Me)
Researcher
Dispatcher
Medic
(NORMAL difficulty)
This was a first game for my friends. After going over the rules, we were pumped. Well I was pumped. So pumped I forgot to inform them how to win, just how to lose, haha... This was probably because the only other two games I've won before this was one solo game and a 2 player game with my mom (apparently 2 player games are quite easy). And I've played tons of pandemic, already 10+ games, solo and with other 3-4 players.
We started with me, the contingency planner, as I had to show them the ropes. After treating a few diseases, drawing cards, infecting the board and ending my turn, everyone already knew how the game was going to be played. So bonus for me :) (I never liked to keep teaching everyone how to play again and again).
The dispatcher was all in, moving the medic immediately to treat diseases at locations the were most populated with red and blue cubes. As events were played, the contingency planner would bring those events back from the discard pile again. The airlift helped a bundle. No one needed to build a research station throughout the game as the dispatcher kept teleporting us to different parts of the board. No research station built!!! This is definitely a first.
It was exciting because after everyone collected roughly enough cards, we strategized and everyone came back to Atlanta for a conference meet thanks to our dispatcher. Our researcher shared enough knowledge to the medic to find the last two cures. And we won with lots of player cards to spare and 4 outbreaks in.
Our dispatcher friend said that this game was easy. I found it surprising because it was never this easy when I played the game before this. I can only conclude that this roles combo was one of the best!
So we upped the level to HARD! and thus the next game continues...
Game 2
Operations Expert
Scientist
Researcher
Quarantine Specialist (Me)
(HARD difficulty)
We decided to let the Operations Expert go first after strategizing. Our effective friend, flew and built two research stations, one in red and one in yellow. Pretty neat trick.
It got easy for us to run over to where the disease cubes are and treat them first. However, as time went by, infected areas got stacked together and outbreaks chaining everywhere that we barely managed to find the first cure before the game wiped us out.
The Quarantine Specialist never did her job well, preventing only one outbreak from occurring. The Researcher had no good cards to give away and the Scientist went too far from the others.
We were terribly destroyed this round.
In the middle of the game, we decided to call the disease cubes "Zombies". Oh no, the zombies are coming out of Paris! Kill them, Scientist!
Game 3
Medic (Me)
Dispatcher
Researcher
Contingency Planner
(HARD difficulty)
Ooh I got the Medic!!! My fav character in the whole game. So I decided to use my ticket (player card) to fly over to Red and start treating diseases. After collecting enough cards, the black cure was found by me, followed by the red cure by our Researcher.
This was a closer game for us. We had a hard time figuring out how to win when our player cards were dwindling down so fast. Almost at the end of the game, the infections grouped in the middle of the world. All the blue cubes sprouted out causing outbreaks and chained outbreaks till we were at 7 outbreaks (our last outbreak before losing the game). We also placed our last blue cube on the board. Referring to the rules, we were still safe (until another blue cube is needed).
We paused for a breather and counted our turns left - 6 more turns before the end (4 players which means only 1 round to go). Our dispatcher sacrificed his turn to find a cure to allow the Contingency Planner to find her cure first. Fortunately, no epidemics happened between them and we were able to win the game before losing. This was a really close call (we had one last epidemic card hiding in there)
Summary
3 memorable battles with lots of strategy. That is what makes Pandemic one of the classic games that never fails to entertain medium-heavy gamers like me. And with a gaming group like this, oh joy..
This combo has given me my first 4 player win, and my first HARD difficulty win. So I'm inclined to agree that there are character combos that make the game easier to win. All in all, a good night's worth of gaming.
Memorable times
Like remember that time....
- when the chain outbreaks almost killed us and we were left with one outbreak to go and used our last blue cube but still won in the end
- how our dispatcher called for a conference meet at Atlanta
- all hell broke loose when two epidemic cards were drawn in turns back-to-back?
Oh Joy! Till next time, KUDOS...
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