Pandemic might feel a bit too close to home these days, but this certified classic is going to be around long after our current crisis and will continue to provide a tense experience for board game nights. The players take on roles that are specialists in a disease control team, and they must work together to keep the outbreaks at bay and find cures before humanity is wiped out.
The players travel between cities on a map of the world, treating infected population centres and discovering new cures. Each player also has a role card that gives them a unique ability to help them tackle the outbreaks: a medic skilled at curing diseases, a researcher who can travel between cities faster, or a specialist that can build research stations to speed up disease tracking and research. Players must balance their actions and plan carefully, as the diseases are spreading faster than they can be controlled.
As if the gameplay wasn’t tense enough, there are Epidemic cards sprinkled throughout the disease deck that can step up the infection rate in a particular location and spread it to other cities. This can make the game unwinnable in certain configurations, and it’s a good idea to try out different setups to get a feel for what works best.
The dice-based spin-off of Pandemic, this requires even more careful planning and teamwork between the players as they roll their special dice to help them combat the spreading diseases. While it doesn’t have the same feeling of creeping dread as the original, its use of lockable dice and event cards to nudge the progression of diseases does make it a tense and quick-paced affair.