Pandemic Legacy, Episode 3

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Spoilers for Pandemic Legacy, March

Pandemic Legacy board after our Early March game. Changes made in this session are highlighted.

For our February night we resolved to play two games that night to make up for having lost our first swing at January. It turns out something interesting does come in February, in the form of a new character and new action, Quarantines. That really should have been the end-of-January revelation.

We immediately had someone play as Beyonce, the Quarantine Specialist. Unfortunately, we ended up cheating accidentally with this character and won February all too easily. It was the inverse of the first January game. Discovering this mid-game, we tried to adjust the gamestate as best we could because the group did not want to restart the month.

At the end of the month, we got yet another new action and matching character. We also got two additional win conditions and the requirement to meet two of the three to actually win. I found this to be the most interesting change. Pandemic often feels like the game is playing you. You just keep spinning the tops hoping to inch your way to the finish line before any one of them drops. The ability to choose which win condition you want to go for felt like genuine long-term planning, which is something sorely lacking from standard Pandemic.

We also had the relationships mechanic introduced. At first this seemed interesting, and it incentivized us to use the new characters instead of continuing to max out our existing characters with upgrades. However, during gameplay, I don't think we ever actually made a decision because of the relationships. It was too important to keep the plates spinning to waste actions staying in the same location.

We won that game as well, so for April we'll end up with zero funded event cards. That will prove to be challenging, depending on what we open up at the start of the next game.

Pandemic Legacy characters after our March game. Changes made in this session are highlighted.