Welcome to the World of Pandemics!

Hey there! Join me on a thrilling adventure as we become disease-fighting superheroes. Our mission is to save the world by finding cures for sudden outbreaks before it’s too late. Sounds intense, right?

Our job won’t be easy. We need to be strategic in our approach. We’ll have to juggle between treating those viral hotspots, conducting crucial research, and building research stations that will speed up our progress. It’s a race against time!

If we fail to find the cure before time runs out, or if the disease spreads beyond control, then we lose the game. The fate of the world is in our hands!

Getting Started

First things first! Let’s set up the game. Place the gameboard in the center of our playing area. It’s the heart of our operation.

Now, let’s shuffle the Role cards and deal one to each of us. Each card represents a unique role we’ll play in this mission. Cool, right? Grab the corresponding pawn for your card. Any leftover Role cards or pawns go back in the box. Let’s keep things organized!

We start with one research station, right in Atlanta. That’s our headquarters! The other research stations go beside the board. We’re all set to save the world!

In setting up the game, I place the outbreak marker at the start of the outbreak indicator, and the infection rate marker at the beginning of the infection rate track. The disease cubes are sorted by color and placed beside the board in four stacks. For now, I set the Epidemic cards aside.

Next, I shuffle the player cards and deal them out to all the players. The remaining player cards are divided into different piles, depending on how difficult we want the game to be. I try to make the piles as equal as possible.

Now, I shuffle an Epidemic card into each pile, and stack the piles on top of each other to create the draw pile. I also shuffle the infection cards and place them in the middle to form the infection draw pile. The player who has been sick most recently will go first. And with that, we’re ready to start the game!

Don’t have any buddies to play with? Pandemic can be played on your own as a board game!

LET’S PLAY

Let’s start playing with the first player, and then we’ll take turns clockwise. When it’s your turn, you get to do four actions, draw two cards, and become the infector. After your turn, it’s the next player’s go.

You have four actions to choose from during your turn. Each action gives you a special ability or lets you do something helpful like setting up a research station or sharing information with a friend. It’s all up to what you want to do.

After I finish my turn, I get to draw two cards from the draw pile and add them to my hand. But if I draw an Epidemic card, I have to follow its special rules instead. Once I’ve drawn my two cards, it’s time for me to become the Infector.

As the Infector, I draw cards from the infection draw pile equal to the current infection rate. I also add a cube to the cities pictured on the drawn cards. However, if a pictured city is already free of disease, I don’t have to add any cubes there. Outbreaks happen when a city already has three cubes on it. When that occurs, I must add a cube to every city adjacent to the outbreak, causing the disease to spread further.

Once I’ve resolved all the infection cards, I can end my turn. Then it’s the next player’s turn. We keep playing like this until we find all the cures or we lose the game.

GAME OVER

The game can end in two different ways. If we manage to find all four cures within the time limit, we win. But if we run out of disease cubes, have an eighth outbreak, or run out of cards to draw, we lose the game.

GETTING CREATIVE

While the classic Pandemic game is always a great choice, there are some awesome variations available if you want to switch things up!

• Pandemic: In The Lab Expansion
• Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu
• Pandemic: Contagion
• Pandemic: Fall of Rome

Hello, my name is Ellie! I live in Northeast Tennessee. I adore animals and enjoy reading fantasy books. Outdoor activities bring me joy. I have an incredible husband who loves me nearly as much as our two adorable pets. Being a part of this fantastic community brings me immense happiness.

Hello, my name is Ellie! I live in Northeast Tennessee. I adore animals and enjoy reading fantasy books. Outdoor activities bring me joy. I have an incredible husband who loves me nearly as much as our two adorable pets. Being a part of this fantastic community brings me immense happiness.