It’s Christmas so I decided to give my #GameNight group a little present and picked up #PandemicLegacy. Okay, it’s mostly a present for me, but they get to play too! So far we’ve played January so what follows will not explore beyond the first two games but if you don’t want any spoilers look away now.
“It was a cold new year, much like any other, viral infection was rampant with the temperature lowering the populations immune systems. We figured it was a January just like any other, however the lady upstairs felt differently. Disease was spreading rapidly, multiplying and mutating at a rate unseen for decades.
We deployed the team, our scientist went south, hoping to put an early end to the outbreaks in South America while the medic headed east to offer aid to the Asian capitals that were struggling to adapt to such a potent disease.
The dispatcher and the researcher did their best to offer logistical support, ensuring that all the major players were in the right place at the right time with the right resources in hand. It was then that disaster really struck, in the middle east. The disease had gone largely unnoticed, as the team fought to put out the fires in Asia and South America. Something had changed about it, drugs had no effect. All we could do was treat the symptoms.
The whole region began to destabilize, Cairo and Algiers were the first to go and while we fought to bring that under control the whole of Northern Asia erupted into unrest.
The second half of the month brought with it more woes, but we managed to contain the situation with a good degree of control. The northern hemisphere was disease free except for San Francisco but we soon brought that under control and eradicated the strain that was causing the problem. Unfortunately our celebrations were cut short as Algiers fell to riots. We could see the fires, even from the safety of our research station in Cairo.
The Medic and Scientist worked through the night to find the solution, panic erupted in the streets of Taipei but at last we had them in hand, we had the cures.”
So, we lost the early part of January, consumed by diseases that were all next to each other causing chain outbreaks. Despite this early setback and the surprise that the Black Disease was no longer curable we managed to eek out a victory in the second half of the month. This was partly due to the more favourable placement of starting diseases and the knowledge of how to deal with and contain the black cubes. However it was also greatly assisted by our upgrades (remote treatment upgrade for the medic and a research station in Cairo) and our increased funding allowing for 6 events in the deck.
Overall we found January to be an intense month, which can mean things are only going to get more intense! We found the legacy format refreshing and enjoyable, the nice twists and surprises, along with the potential damage we caused by having so very many outbreaks. If the next 11 months prove to be as exciting I will be very happy with Pandemic Legacy.