I rather like the art direction in Troyes; it does, however, give me the impression that digestive health may have been an issue in 13th century France
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Probably not an unreasonable assumption for 13th century Europe!
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After a week or so, we put Pandemic on the table, and played it three times, two with two players, and one with three. Disappointingly, we lost all three games. I think on all three games we have been focusing on the wrong strategy, and the cards have not been very generous either. I love the dynamic for the spread of disease, and how epidemics reorganize cards that have been drawn already to represent second and third waves, but I still think it is too much based on luck about getting 5 cards on your hand of the same colour, and then moving to a research centre to find the cure.
On all three games we managed the disease spread very well, with only 4 outbreaks on the first game (I had the quarantine specialist and that helped) and 5 and 6 on the other 2, but the last two games we ended a turn or two away from all 4 cures. It is terrible, but I think the game nearly pushes you into staying in one area and not give a damn about the others, just wait to get 5 cards of the same colour to happen. If you spread the team around to deal with the disease, you have no chance to tackle all four curesâŚ
We will have a few more goes, I am sure, if anything out of pride to get a win, but I left the game feeling a bit⌠I donât know⌠cheated would be a hard word, but just a mere few inches below that level of disappointmentâŚ?
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When I have lost Pandemic, itâs usually been by just a few actions. When Iâve won, ditto. So well done them for getting the balance about right, I guess.
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I cannot see how you can win that game by a walloping, which is fair enough, as having one right now and seeing how well we are doing, is not so bad for realism. Is just that I think luck of the draw has a bit too much weight for my liking.
But I will keep playing it to see how it goes.
Have you set the deck up correctly, with an epidemic shuffled into each quarter?
Sorry, if that sounds patronising but weâve messed up the rules a few times. The first time we played I thought we had to eradicate all diseases, not just cure them.
I liked the fact that Pandemic seems unbeatable initially, the feeling when you do win is brilliant.
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Pandemic is REALLY hard. Once you get the hang of it is kind of fine, but up until the point you can get to winning more than half your games it feels like a brick wall. I think itâs really well designed for that.
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What made a difference for me was using the base game roles rather than mixing in On the Brink, which seemed much less powerful. (That was the original edition and they may have been rebalanced.)
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Oh yeah, you should be picking roles for your first games. Somebody should be the medic. Thatâs a really big deal.
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Were you using the Dispatcher or the Researcher? They make it much easier to move cards between players so that you rely less on drawing the right colours from the deck yourself. Given the choice between the Dispatcher and the Medic, I would probably take the Dispatcher, even though the medic is great for curing.
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Again, not technically gameplay, but I set up one of the scenarios from Shootout at Zedâs from Core Space as a reward for getting everything all punched and constructed. Itâs damn alluring!
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I like the three-dimensionality of that!
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This was my big splurge after selling off Conan and refunding my pledge from the recent campaign. I wanted a character-driven skirmisher back in my collection so bad. I had gone so far as to get the stuff to tie Conan into the TTRPG for scenario and campaign building, etc. so it was the big game I was prepared to run and play for years.
I wonât for a second lie and say that the cardboard terrain wasnât a huge part of the appeal of Core Space. It was, and you can probably see why! It sets up reasonably quick, requires little to no real âhobbyingâ element and all collapses into the main box (so far) with room to spare.
But the biggest allure for me was that the deluxe rulebook has all the juicy guts to blow the game wide open. Campaign building, character generation, playing with a GM, and on and on. Just thinking of the potential alone is almost worth owning it!
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My problem with Pandemic is that it feels too prescriptive. You pick your roles, and then for the rest of the game thereâs one, maybe two things that you ought to be doing constantly to maximize your effectiveness. Circumstances might force you to take non-optimal moves occasionally, but it doesnât feel like a real choice to me, just the dues you pay to stay alive long enough to do what youâre actually good at.
My other problem is that it feels nearly entirely abstract to me. The card mechanics may be elegant, but they donât seem to have any thematic expression, and thereâs not much else to hang theme on.
Pandemic Legacy S1 fixes both of these issues for me, and thus is brilliant. For a more replayable take, I tend to recommend Flash Point: Fire Rescue, which feels similar in a (literal) fighting fires way, is also pretty lightweight and approachable, and has roles that clearly emphasize particular kinds of actionsâŚbut unlike Pandemic, you can switch those roles mid-game. And everything feels very clearly tied to the theme, right down to special rules for various places you could be fighting fires, like the subway, or on an airplane, orâŚ
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Thereâs more expansions in the works for Core Space too, introducing a new alien menace and gearing up a more specifically solo experience.
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Yeah Iâve got myself subbed to their newsletter and follow them on KS. Sounds like a new campaign later this year. Iâll definitely be looking at that as a better option to buy/expand. Canadian distribution is sparse in terms of old stock and buying from the UK wasnât cheap (especially after the customs hit).
Soon after I discovered Flash Point, I sold my copy of Pandemic. 
(And itâs because of Flash Point that Iâve demoed for Indie Boards & CardsâŚ)
I should add, this doesnât mean I un-recommend Pandemic; I find FP easier to relate to and more enjoyable but for many people Pandemic is great.
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Played Jump Drive when the seven year old said I could choose tge game.
Itâs great when the last turns youâve strapped a rocket to your wheelchair and get 21 points and draw 13 cards. Definitely a keeper.
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How did the seven year old do, out of curiosity? Concepts and combos accessible enough for a 7yo?
A little bit of coaching required, particulalry on points (galactic trendsetters) but generally making good choices. I won round one and they won round two. Unfortunately bedtime put to bed (ahem) the decider.
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