Pandemic: Survival (Round 2)

[Xalxe]

Pandemic: Survival

A game by Matt Leacock
Presented by Xalxe

Overview

Pandemic Survival is an “extreme” version of Pandemic where teams of 2 will face each other in an epic battle to save the world. Their goal: to be the first team to find all four cures, or to be the last team still alive at the end of the game.

In this tournament-style version of the game, all teams will face the same problems: their player cards will all be placed in the same order before the game; the infected cities are the same for everyone; the Epidemics strike at the same time for all teams; every team has the same role cards. The only difference is the decisions they will make! Their strategic choices will lead each team in different directions, and one strategy will pay off in the end and lead to victory.

Game Rules

READ THE FULL RULES

A brief overview of basic turn mechanics is below. This will get you started, but I recommend reading the rulebook for further details if you're not familiar with the game.

On your turn, you have 4 actions, which may be any combination of the following:

Movement Actions

• Drive/Ferry
  - Move to a city connected by a white line to the one you are in.
  
• Direct Flight
  - Discard a City card to move to the city named on the card.
  
• Charter Flight
  - Discard the City card that
  matches
  the city you are in to move to
  any
  city.
  
• Shuttle Flight
  - Move from a city with a research station to any other city that has a research station.

Other Actions

• Build a Research Station
  - Discard the City card that matches the city you are in to place a research station there. Take the research station from the pile next to the board. If all 6 research stations have been built, take a research station from anywhere on the board.
  
• Treat Disease
  - Remove 1 disease cube from the city you are in, placing it in the cube supply next to the board. If this disease color has been cured (see Discover a Cure below), remove all cubes of that color from the city you are in.
  If the last cube of a cured disease is removed from the board, this disease is eradicated.
  
• Share Knowledge
  - You can do this action in two ways:
  
  give
  the City card that matches the city you are in to another player, or
  
  take
  the City card that matches the city you are in from another player.
  The other player must also be in the city with you. Both of you need to agree to do this.
  If the player who gets the card now has more than 7 cards, that player must immediately discard a card or play an Event card.
  
• Discover a Cure
  - At
  any
  research station, discard 5 City cards
  of the same color
  from your hand to cure the disease of that color. Move the disease’s cure marker to its Cure Indicator.
  If no cubes of this color are on the board, this disease is now eradicated.

After a player performs 4 actions, they do the following:

1. Draw 2 cards from the Player Deck, resolving any Epidemics and discarding if they have more than 7 cards in their hand after drawing.
   
2. Draw cards from the Infection Deck equal to the Infection Rate.

How to Lose

A team is considered to have lost the game if any of the following happen:

• Their team runs out of disease cubes of any one color.
  
• Their team suffers eight Outbreaks.
  
• Their team's Player Deck runs out of cards.

How to Win

The winner of the Pandemic: Survival challenge shall be determined in one of two ways:

• The first team to cure (not necessarily eradicate) all 4 diseases will be declared the winner.
  
• Should no team cure all 4 diseases, the last team standing will be declared the winner.

Difficulty & Changes

There will be 5 Epidemics in the Player Deck. The Infection Rate marker will start on the first space of the track.

In order to work with the Survival challenge, the Event and Role cards from the On the Brink expansion have been added to the pool of possible events, and all Events affecting the Infection deck have been removed, as all teams are playing from the same Infection Deck. Four of the following Events will be randomly shuffled into the Player deck:

Spoiler: Possible Events

New Assignment
Remote Treatment
Rapid Vaccine Deployment
Government Grant
Re-Examined Research
Borrowed Time
Airlift
Mobile Hospital
Special Orders

The following Roles are available to be dealt to players:

Spoiler: Possible Roles

Epidemiologist
Generalist
Field Operative
Dispatcher
Operations Expert
Contingency Planner
Containment Specialist
Archivist
Troubleshooter
Quarantine Specialist
Researcher
Scientist
Medic

Wheaton's Law

Don't be a dick.

[Xalxe]

Signups

Signups will last until 24 hours have passed since the most recent signup. You may signup as an individual or a team. You may choose to team up with any player who has already joined by using your words and asking them to be your teammate. At close of signups, all unpaired players will be randomly paired up. If there is an odd number of players, the most recent signup will not be added to a team.

Forum Rules

• Each team will be given a Private Topic to take their actions in. Please use this area to discuss your plans as well, no private communication other than this is necessary, though you may talk elsewhere if it's easier for you.
  
• Player turns will begin with a deadline of 72 hours for each player. The first four epidemics will subtract 5 hours from deadlines, while the last will subtract only 4, so after 5 epidemics, you will have 48 hours to make your actions.
  
• The progress of other teams will be kept secret. You may banter in the main thread, but you will not be informed of how other teams are doing until all teams have finished their challenge.
  
• Draws from both the Player and Infection Deck will be done in the main thread, but updates on outbreaks and such will occur in your individual threads.

Players

Teams

-

BI0CON

: Fluminator & Zulfy
-

Food & Drug Administration (FDA)

: xofelf & ForWhomTheJellyRolls
-

Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA)

: inspiratieloos &

KuroiXHF

heuristically_alone
-

Indian Health Service (IHS)

: Cheery Dog & Bogre
-

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

: Papa Zito & lillith2013
-

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

: Ircher & animorpherv1
-

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

: TehBrawlGuy & Gammagooey
-

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMMS)

: Cephrir & Elekitu

[lilith2013]

/innnnnnn

I don't have a team but I would like to be on one!

[Xalxe]

(players are encouraged to name their teams, once they exist)

[Fluminator]

/in
Competitive pandemic eh?

[animorpherv1]

/in

[Papa Zito]

/in

I dunno this game but it doesn't seem too complicated

[Elekitu]

/in
*Insert a sentence to make this post more original than other "/in"s*

[Gammagooey]

/in

[Fluminator]

Is this going to be like Tetris battle where we can send pathogens to other maps.

[Xalxe]

Is this going to be like Tetris battle where we can send pathogens to other maps.

Maybe in the second iteration

[Papa Zito]

Is this going to be like Tetris battle where we can send pathogens to other maps.

That would be

sick

[Elekitu]

Is this going to be like Tetris battle where we can send pathogens to other maps.

Do you win bonus points if you eradicate all 4 diseases at the same time?

[Zulfy]

Signing up as a team with Flum, call it:

BI0CON

[Ircher]

/in

[TehBrawlGuy]

/in

[Fluminator]

Signing up as a team with Flum, call it:

BI0CON

Let's go destroy disease.

[Cheery Dog]

/in

[Xalxe]

We're up to 5 potential teams, what fun!

[inspiratieloos]

/in

[Bogre]

/in

[Cephrir]

I'll play if you end up with an odd number.

[KuroiXHF]

/in it to /win it.

[JDGA]

/spectate
What happens if multiple teams survive to the end but then time over by player deck?

[Xalxe]

Ah, forgot to write: tiebreaker in that instance would be most diseases cured > most diseases eradicated > first to cure a disease > joint win