Pandemic: The Cure Review

   If you have played the popular co-op game Pandemic, there is now a dice version out, Pandemic: The Cure. I was rather excited to get this game. I loved playing Pandemic, but we don't like buying games that people we game with already have. So when this came out, I really wanted to give it a try.

   Inside of the box, there's dice, discs, a dice bag and some cards.

   Each player still gets a role card. Each roll has it's own set of dice that matches with their own special abilities on it.

   This is your infection rate and outbreak track. The center is used as the treatment center.

   You can buy event cards to help you along the way.

   There are lots and lots of dice!

   Set up is simple. Put the outbreak disc in the middle of the table. Place the syringe pegs into the 0 on the outbreak track and the standard difficulty on the infection rate. Put the region tiles in clockwise numerical order. Put the CDC disc, the event cards and the cured disease card where they can be reached. Place all forty eight infection dice in the bag and draw out twelve. Roll the twelve dice and put them on the region discs that match the number on the die. Shuffle the roll cards and pass them out. Place the matching player pawns on the disc with the one on it and give each player their matching dice. You are now ready to play.

   On your turn, roll your dice. If you get a biohazard, move the peg in the infection rate one space for each one. These dice are now spent and can be set off to the side. You can re roll any unused dice, but must move the infection rate for each biohazard rolled. 

   The syringe side helps you to treat a disease. When you do this, you can place them into the treatment center or from the treatment center back into the bag. 

   The ship moves you to a region card that is on either side of the one you are on. 

   The airplane moves you to any other region. 

   The bottle allows you to bottle an infection die that is in the treatment center. 

   Each role has special abilities that are explained on their roll cards.

   As you roll the biohazards and move the infection rate, whenever you pass the line into the next section, there is an epidemic. You roll all of the dice that are in the treatment center plus the number of dice shown on the track. The number of dice on the track is also the number of dice rolled at the end of each turn.

   Anytime you roll the infection dice and get the plus, place it on the CDC disc. You use these dice to buy the event cards.

   If you bottle up a sample from the treatment center, place it on your card with the bottle die on top. Those dice are now out of play until that disease is cured.

   If you are on the same region, you can pass the bottled up disease back and forth. 

   To cure the disease, roll the infection dice you have collected. If you roll and they don't add up to thirteen, place them back on your card to try again on your next turn.

 

   If they total thirteen or more, you have cured that disease. Pass the role dice back to the other players.

   Once a disease is cured, place one of those colored dice on the cured diseases card. Take all of that color of dice from the treatment center and the ones you just rolled and place them back in the bag. Now when you treat this disease, instead of just moving one of that color to the treatment center or into the bag, you move all of that color on that region into the treatment center or from the treatment center into the bag.

   An outbreak occurs when you have more than three of the same colored dice on any region. When this happens, move the outbreak track up one.

   Take the extra dice (any that are over the three) and move them onto the next region. If this causes more than three of a color on the next region, it causes a chain reaction. Keep moving the dice until there are no more than three of the same colored dice on each region. Move the outbreak track for each outbreak that occurs.

   The game ends in a couple of ways. If you find a cure for all four diseases, you have won! If the outbreak track or the epidemic track gets to the skull and bones, you have lost the game. If you run out of dice in the dice bag, too many people have been infected and you have lost.

   I really like this game! I think it has a lot of the same feel to the Pandemic board game, but it's also different enough that it's not the same game. I love being able to roll the dice and then move around and do other stuff with more dice. I love dice games.

   This game is great to play with people who enjoy playing games, but don't enjoy attacking things. Co-op games are also great for playing with children. A lot of the time you have to help them anyway. This way you can help guide them, but they can still have a choice of what to do. This game is pretty simple to understand and play which makes it a great game for a game night.