Pandemic: non-solo gaming for solo gaming month...

Hulk Not Surprised Either! Husbands are stupid!

My foray into solo-gaming ended with Pandemic.  Although I think that most cooperative games can work well as solo games, I haven't gotten a chance to fly solo because of my wife. Not surprisingly, she has no interest in Heroclix. 
She's not against my playing games like Pandemic in solo mode... NO! She wants to play this one all of the time. She enjoyed Forbidden Island earlier in the month, so I pushed Pandemic. I had my doubts because she is, like most good Americans, into board games like Monopoly, Clue & Risk. I thought that it was going to be a hard sell convincing her to play a cooperative, strategy game. Again, as always, I was WRONG. Not only did she enjoy the game, she wants to play non-stop. She mumbles and grumbles under her breath when things don't go our way and shouts when things go horribly wrong. I, of course, am loving all of this. When I told her that I didn't think she'd go for it, she laughed.  It turns out that cooperative games are much more competitive than the typical American games where one player comes out the winner, usually more by chance than by any type of planning or strategy.

The playing board is reminiscent of Risk

As with game designer Matt Leacock's Forbidden Island, the action of this game is controlled by cards, not dice. And, like his previous game, the team must collect cards (5 of a kind) in order to solve the adventure.  In this case, the players find cure for different deadly diseases represented by different colored blocks (much like those in Risk).  When these blocks run out, however, we lose!  The action is controlled by drawing "cure cards."  When these cure cards run out, we lose.  We have to prevent outbreaks in cities around the world.  When too many outbreaks happen, we lose.  There are just more ways to lose this game than to win.  This, in my opinion, is the game's strength.  It seems almost deceptively easy, yet my wife don't always win.  The outcome of each game we play is in doubt.  When we play Monopoly, for instance, the first player to become a "slum lord" or "railroad Barron" will inevitably win.  If my wife get all four railroads I may as well pack it in.  This is never the case in Pandemic.  When we look like we're going to win, we draw an "epidemic" card and things fall apart.

The payer roles are inventive.  Each role has a different ability that can help the team Save the world.  Roles like Scientist, Medic & Dispatcher are appropriate for the world (that's right, I said world) of Pandemic.  These roles work well in the epic, end of the world scenario, but do not guarantee victory or even a world to wake up in.

I'll give the final word on this game to my wife: it is more cerebral than most of the other games where you win because of luck rather than your wits. And its so much better than those trivia games! Who knows all those answers about movies & comic books anyhow?