This is the second instalment of our ongoing Pandemic Legacy campaign. Do not continue if you don’t want any spoilers. For the first article follow this link.

Game 5: April Mk 2

Players: Adam, Sean, Nicole and Danny Mac

Characters: Operations Expert (Leroy Malone), Quarantine Specialist (Felicia Tomkins), Researcher (Ada Marie) and the new Dispatcher, Chung Wang

We started into April again, this time with starting infections fairly spread out – although Beijing and Seoul had some faded to start the game. With our permanent military base in Paris, we thought it prudent to spread out and get some more bases on the board to aim for the military base objective. We established temporary military bases in Khartoum, Mexico City and Bogota.

Things were looking good. We had outbreaks under control and were able to cure the three treatable diseases (blue/yellow/black). We weren’t able to hold back the faded entirely during this, however and Beijing, Bangkok and Taipei became marked as permanently ‘faded’ cities.

We found the local initiative unfunded event a huge help, and used it to quarantine NYC & Lima; thankfully due to funding we also made use of One Quiet Night to stave off a bad round of outbreaks.

Once we had everything mostly under control, we won by curing the three diseases, and establishing military bases in each sector of the world. Finally, what seemed like a well-earned victory mixed with some lucky breaks. We gave our medic some training to upgrade to a pilot, and we converted to a permanent military base in Bogota.

Game 6: May

Players: Danny Mac, Sean, Nicole and Adam.

Characters: Medic (Bro Jackson), Operations Expert (Leroy Malone), Quarantine Specialist (Felicia Tomkins), Researcher (Ada Marie).

As we entered may, military support ramped up and we had a Colonel join the ranks of available team members. We forged ahead with the dream team of medic, ops expert, researcher and quarantine specialist, knowing we were down to no funding once again. We’re also able to place road blocks on every road from a city with a military base, so we need to figure out how best to strategize with that as an option!

Bad news came in on the Coda front – unfortunately the virus is now mutated to the point that every time we gather cards from Asia into our hands, that city becomes infected with faded. Now with the slate of 4 objectives, 3 must be completed (with curing three diseases still being mandatory).

The first outbreak of the game was in Delhi – things are escalating there now and it’s at level 3. We really need to stay on the ground and manage that! On top of that, faded city Sydney had an outbreak, which led to Los Angeles having its first instance of the faded. North America, we’re sorry.

We managed to get black and blue cured and were on our way to curing yellow when there was a series of outbreaks out of Khartoum that cascaded (after already suffering outbreaks earlier) – we didn’t quite hit the failure level of outbreaks, but that series meant we’d run out of yellow cubes to get out on the board, ending our game as we watched helplessly.

Though we failed, we upgraded to a permanent military base in Riyadh. We also made it so ‘blue balls’ is a common structure, in hopes that the more we know about these ‘basic’ diseases the easier it’ll be to handle those while the faded epidemic grows worse.

Game 7: May Mk 2.

Players: Adam, Sean, Nicole.

Characters: Operations Expert (Leroy Malone), Quarantine Specialist (Felicia Tomkins), Researcher (Ada Marie).

Exhausted, the team soldiered on. We caught some lucky breaks, and managed to meet 3 objectives – cure three diseases, eradicate one – black (named Goth Germs) – and put a lot of our time and resources into getting 7 quarantine markers out in faded cities. WIN!!! Oh sweet victory over May.. however, our quarantine specialist Felicia is scarred after being in a faded city while infection occured.

Following on from our last game’s efforts to make each non-Coda disease easier to treat, the black strain (Goth Germs) is now a common structure. In order to make it a little easier for non-military personnel to move around the board, we upgraded the research station build in St Petersburg to a permanent structure. Here’s hoping we’ve set ourselves up well for June.

Game 8: June

Players: Nicole, Sean, Adam

Characters:  Operations Expert (Leroy Malone), Quarantine Specialist (Felicia Tomkins), Researcher (Ada Marie).

Back out into the world with the dream team! We decided to use our victory bonus (roadblock any city) to isolate Sydney in hopes that would contain outbreaks a little better. We had a lot of infection in Asia to start the game, which doesn’t always bode well.

Thanks to the way the initial map state was spawned, we had an outbreak in Lagos our very first turn. Okay, this was gonna be an uphill battle. Then, turn after turn, outbreaks all throughout Africa, so hard to keep under control.

We managed to cure and then eradicate Goth Germs, and cured Blue Balls. We got cocky, though we had no problems with Yellow Fever.. But Africa had other ideas. Ada Marie got a scar from being in a city with an outbreak in Khartoum. It’s okay, we can still make this happen. We had the military bases objective done, eradicated 1 disease, and were about to have the mandatory objective of curing all 3 diseases done…

And then.. OUTBREAK. Bam, Manila that cascaded to Hong Kong, Taipei and Shanghai, ending the game on outbreaks reaching the failure level. It’s such a heartbreak to watch that happen and not be able to step in! We decided to continue on our path of understanding of these diseases, and upgraded our knowledge of Goth Germs further. We also made the decision to make the military base in Sydney permanent to help with that objective in further games, and help military personnel get around easier. So, onward..

Game 9: June Mk 2.

Players: Adam, Nicole and Sean.

Characters: Colonel (Mr Army rival with..), Scientist (Heather McScience), and trusty quarantine specialist  (Felicia Tomkins). Adam switched out from the Colonel to researcher Ada Marie ⅔ of the way through the game.

The start of the game wasn’t too bad, as we had zero infections in Asia. PHEW. But that meant there were a lot concentrated in Europe and Africa which ended up being bad news. We had 3 permanent military bases on the board as well as a few research stations so we were set up well to move around, and aim towards the military base objective as one of our 3 for June.

A few rounds in, after some red location draws from the player deck and a couple of unfortunate draws from the infection deck, Asia started to look pretty bad. Shanghai had outbreaks just a few turns apart, which had a nasty chain reaction to those cities surrounding it.Colonel Mr Army tried to get in there to triage, but that meant it was just Heather and Felicia trying to patch up Europe and Asia.

Struggling along with keeping cities from outbreaking, we had managed to cure the 3 non-CODA diseases. Things were looking good as we were about to get our last military base on the board in Khartoum. On top of that, we were close to eradicating Blue Balls. And then the worst combination of infection and cascading outbreaks occurred, taking us up to the 8 outbreak failure for the game. Heather and Felicia were scarred in Istanbul due to the outbreak there.

June Mk 2 was done for. Licking our wounds, we upgraded to a permanent military base in Miami and researched more to upgrade our facilities to make Goth Germs easier to cure with less samples. Next time, July.. with a little more funding to help!