Week 2: Now I'm starting to get it

This time we played four games over two weeks, with each member taking turns to lead the game. Our teammate Pandemic World, led the first game. She advised us not to discard City cards for travelling, instead use them to build research stations in each colour. This can make travelling easier for all of us. She also asked us to keep in mind what kind of cards were there in the Infection Discard Pile, since it goes back to the Infection Deck during an Epidemic. Things were looking good. We managed to cure few diseases, until we lost the game due to way too many outbreaks, which had caused a chain reaction, and led to many more.

When it was my turn to lead, we focussed on sharing knowledge and collecting City cards with the same colour, in an attempt to cure diseases faster. Halfway through the game, we realised that we didn't have enough research stations built, which made curing diseases difficult. We wasted actions by moving from place to place aimlessly, and also tried to plan way ahead, without considering the amount of Player cards left. In the end, we ran out of it, just before curing the last disease. 

*flips-table*

We were able to reflect after playing these two games. We realised our inability to focus on different things at the same time. At this point, despite repeated failure, it was important to not lose hope, as it can affect the way we play the next game! Also, failure is the mother of success, just like this story suggests (although, I am not that patient).

We didn't have to wait too long, as The Pandemic led us to victory during her turn the week after. Before starting the game, she asked each one of us what roles we wanted to play. During the game, she focussed on curing cities that had three disease cubes, to prevent an outbreak. We won yet again, when Pandemic Strategy took over. The overall plan was sort of similar, but quick thinking (and luck) during the last few actions led us to victory, right before running out of Player cards!

In all the four games, three roles were permanent: Medic, Scientist, and Quarantine Specialist. I think we all had agreed that they were crucial and irreplaceable. We switched the fourth role from Operations Expert to Researcher, and then to Contingency Planner, during each game. I still feel divided on this, since the Researcher can easily share knowledge, but the Contingency Planner can take Event cards, which is a great advantage too. For future games, we can think about little tasks each member needs to look after. For example, one member can keep an eye on cities that have three disease cubes, while another can look at the cards that the players have, and suggest when to meet to share knowledge. Afterall, teamwork + communication + collaboration = success!

This game made me think about how outbreaks are dealt with in real life. What do you do when something like this happens?

The plague is an infectious disease triggered by Yersinia pestis, a bacteria transmittable from animals to humans https://t.co/HtnaBeTxYY

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) 11 October 2017

I'm pretty sure there are more complex actions, other than moving an outbreak marker, building research stations, and removing disease cubes, to be done. What do you do when each move costs money? How do you prioritise your actions? We've still got a lot to learn!