The Year We Fell: December

The Year We Fell is a Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 game diary. The previous entry was November. This is the final entry.

To think how far we had travelled. A family that was having trouble finding any time for board games contorted itself to tackle Pandemic Legacy every month. The games were usually around three hours long and sometimes we had to play twice a month. Was it that important to all of us? Or was I just really good at being irritating?

And here we were, under a bleak winter sky mired in a month of short days. Everything had been parked under the heading Last Minute for Christmas while the First Minute column had vanished into the margins like Fermat’s Last Theorem. It was the season to be messy; each moment snatched for fun and relaxation was just a prelude to regret. The year fell in on itself and, instead of offering a chance to renew, December was a brief armistice in an endless war against the joint forces of The Things That Need To Be Done and The Events of Concern.

But we dedicated one special day, December 23, 2023, to playing Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 for the last time. We found the time because this was our cause. Or maybe I was just really good at being irritating?

SPOILERS FOR EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED FOLLOW

THE END OF ALL SONGS

December was, as I suspected, a complete bonfire of the objectives. Everything was gone, including the “cure the three diseases” objective we’d carried since January. We were assigned two new mandatory objectives. One was to vaccinate all the Faded cities. The other? A search…

Zodiac, like the cartoon villains they were, told us their master plan: they had a billion different Faded strains to unleash upon the world even if we eradicated the current strain. Apparently, this stockpile was stored somewhere in Atlanta and we had to conduct a search there. But it was a long and arduous search that thirsted for cards. Here, take a look.

The initial target was 12. There were groans. All of them were mine. But at least we didn’t have to worry about curing diseases for the finale as we probably needed every card we could lay our hands on.

We’d already exhausted the starting military bases so didn’t need to add a “bonus” military base per the Zodiac expansion rule but the initial infection net was spread quite wide. The heaviest infections landed on Sydney, Mumbai and Taipei. Two vaxxed cities which would receive no Faded figures, New York and Miami, were also in the mix, and this cheered everyone. That’s the real spirit of Christmas, right there.

Our win bonus allowed us to move the search up one or pre-load our vaccine factories with 3 doses. Yeah, we chose the search. Similarly, our character decisions needed little debate: my son took the Quarantine Specialist, my wife the Immunologist who was good at speeding up vaccination, my daughter was the Medic and I adopted our Alpha and Omega: the Dispatcher.

We started out at our favourite haunt, Taipei.

THE FINAL PROGRAMME

The biggest problem we were going to face were the three military bases in the Asia region, meaning it would take an entire turn to vaccinate any of those cities – multiple turns if Faded were present. Riyadh, Shanghai and Hong Kong. We would have sabotage at least two of those bases if we wanted any hope of finishing the campaign in one game. It sounded like a big ask but it was too early to chat sabotage.

While we had hoped to send Medic Girl off to sort out the cubes, she ended up in the third seat around the table. It was Lockdown Boy who was out of the gate first so had to hack away at the cubes. He had five moves due to a relationship and went after Taipei and Sydney which he could dispense with quickly as the Crimson Fever was suppressed. He also threw a remote quarantine over Mumbai for good measure. Phew, that was the three big infections taken care of. And guess what he found in his Player card draw?

Yes, the first turn yielded the first epidemic of the session, kicking the search target forward to 13. I had a Grassroots Program unfunded event in my hand which could be used to delete a cube, but as the three-cubers were already taken care of, we decided to hold fire. The epidemic fell upon red city Bangkok. However, the infections were a lovely gift from the board, as those cheeky vaxxed cities NY and Miami turned up again! Go America.

It was annoying that we had to get through another turn before Medic Girl could be ordered into cube combat, so Immune Mum was assigned to pruning Bangkok. And Bangkok was in the infections, so we made the right call. Mum picked up Montreal which had the Aerosol, the “supervax” equipment, attached. This would be useful if we got too many Faded hanging out on the streets of unvaxxed cities.

Finally, Medic Girl was up, but we’d taken care of all the major cube conflagrations, so we sent her to Atlanta to move the search forward. She threw in a couple of cards to advance us to position 3.

In Dispatcher Dad’s turn, we chose to move Immune Mum out of Asia because the lack of bases in the area was a problem. I pulled her into Milan, then gallivanted off to recently-renewed LA to pick up some vax doses. I also received C4 in my Player draw – we’d need this for our Asia Zodiac problem. At this point, we were finally starting to focus on our objectives instead of cube herding.

Lockdown Boy was not best pleased to discover the second epidemic in his Player card draw as getting an epidemic in his first two turns meant his hand was growing too slowly. The epidemic emptied its triple-barrelled shotgun into Cairo. Riyadh, next to Cairo, was on two cubes so a chain reaction was an outside chance.

Immune Mum was up again, now in Europe to do some boss business. We chose to take the risk of a Cairo cubeplosion and just get on with the objectives, so Mum vaccinated Essen, a city I fondly remember being a harbinger of trouble in the early months, and applied the Aerosol to vax St Petersburg to the ground. That was two more Faded cities out of action. Cairo didn’t appear in the infections, but Mum picked up the Riyadh card which prompted a question: should we use it to smite the Riyadh military base?

Before we could answer that question, Medic Girl had to clean up Cairo and Riyadh. (Indeed, Cairo popped from the Infection deck right on cue.)

Okay, what about the Riyadh base? We made the decision to move Immune Mum there, so she could hand the card to Medic Girl and let her burn down the base. I then carried out my own mission: I pranced into Shanghai and applied C4 to tear off another of Zodiac’s limbs. We were getting there. Slowly.

THE BLACK CORRIDOR

But this just set the stage for another huge discussion, full of metaphorical fistfights. Lockdown Boy’s turn ended up on extended pause because we were uncertain about who should blow up Riyadh. Whoever did it would be stranded in the land of the black cube.

I had got Immune Mum out of there just a few turns earlier but now I’d sent her back in. Mum raged that we needed a replacement for the region, a research station, because the cubes kept pulling us back. We made the extremely certain and very final decision to postpone the destruction of Riyadh to Lockdown Boy’s next turn; he headed to Riyadh and took the card.

Once that was done, Immune Mum flew to LA to pick up more doses and committed three searches at Atlanta, moving the search dial to six.

But we changed our extremely certain and very final plan again after reviewing the cards before us. Medic Girl snatched the Riyadh card from Lockdown Boy’s hand and did the deed, then travelled the black lands sweeping up cubes. We expected it to be a red game with Sydney and Taipei but this was the board’s laugh at our expense: a red bait and black switch.

But Medic Girl picked up the Hong Kong card and that meant only one thing: the next turn wrote itself.

Dispatcher Dad was stationed at Shanghai – HK was within my reach. With that familiar dispatcher panache, I headed into HK, yanked Medic Girl over and used her card to scrub out the military base. The Asia region was clear! It had taken twelve turns but we could start vaccinating Asia at last. Plus I’d got Medic Girl out of the Valley of the Shadow of No Bases.

Still, I now suspected we were not going to win. Of course, it was possible, but it seemed on the edge of possibility. If we stretched to a second game we would definitely complete the assigned tasks, but within this one? I could not say.

PHOENIX IN OBSIDIAN

Of course, Lockdown Boy was stranded at Riyadh… but not really. He had a Baghdad card which could get him out. Instead of using it to fly out he did what Mum had been begging us to do. He built a vax fax there, effectively erecting a travel corridor to the infectious part of Asia and taking all the strain out of black cube management – if we still felt the need to come back. He used it to fly to Atlanta sprinkle four cards into the search pot, dragging the search to position 9.

Each epidemic, however, pushed us closer to search failure. I mention this now because Lockdown Boy won a little prize from the Player deck, the third epidemic. If you thought he was unhappy when he picked up the second one, I ask you to imagine his grimace on drawing the third.

This also drove us into the triple infection rate zone. Things were going to get a lot hotter now.

Immune Mum tiptoed out of Atlanta to extract the last thorn in the North American side – Washington. She vaxxed out the two Faded there and then the whole city. North America was now officially safe enough for everyone to walk the streets again, except for all the fucking guns, goddammit. Enough of that “nature is healing” crap, we were doing all the healing work during this pandemic.

Mum moved back to Atlanta to prep for the next searches. And all roads led to Atlanta as Medic Girl, after performing some cube cleanup, headed there and pumped more cards into the search computer. We were now at search position 11. So close.

While I was writing these turns on the log, Lockdown Boy planned my turn. He gave me the instructions as soon as I looked up. I would take out HK cubes, dispatch myself to Atlanta, pass Atlanta to Mum and commit a search, throwing six cards into the search vortex, moving us to position 14.

The point of the Atlanta exchange was to set us up for a late stockpile search if we suffered another epidemic. I followed Boy’s orders and had zero cards left at the end of the turn, wondering what the Player deck would gift m— oh, of bloody course, the fourth epidemic. Lima. And Lima also turned up immediately in the infections, blowing it into a full-blooded outbreak. It was some hot mess, for sure, but no one gave a damn. No one. We were just one more epidemic from failing the stockpile objective as the target was now 16.

Just to keep a lid on things, Lockdown Boy reverted to cube control mode, tossing quarantines onto Lima and Riyadh. But then Cairo rose to three cubes. While we didn’t care too much about outbreaks, cascading outbreaks can end your game with virtually no warning, as we discovered to our peril in August when Chennai almost drove us off a cliff.

Immune Mum was now in Atlanta and she completed the search by pumping two yellow cards and two blue cards into the search computer, taking us to position 16. The stockpile was found. We scratched out the card to discover a “well done” and nothing more. It was only slightly deflating, like when you complete a game and receive a hearty congratulations but there’s no cutscene pyrotechnics. I mean, you did it. Be happy! Be proud!

All we had to do now was refurbish the remaining Faded cities with drugs, so Mum slipped over to Taipei to vax Manila. She picked up a pair of binoculars on a San Francisco card in her Player card draw and then we collectively smacked ourselves in the face. We’d forgotten all about the binoculars! Binoculars could have added an extra two positions to any search action. Gahhhhhhhhh

THE ENTROPY TANGO

We were at turn 19 and time slowed down. The game stopped.

What was left on the board was a nightmare puzzle to solve. We had six cities left to vax and Lockdown Boy had taken the precaution of counting the player cards. There were five turns remaining. If we didn’t succeed, we were likely to spin up a new game immediately and just finish it there and then. But we wanted to succeed if possible. Could it be done?

There were two complications. First there were four distinct Faded city sites: Moscow, Seoul/Shanghai, Osaka and Madrid/London. And more significantly, there were Faded hanging out in Madrid and London, so it would likely mean multiple turns to sort out these two cities.

Dealing with cubes was automatically dismissed from consideration; this was about finishing the campaign. We plotted so many alternatives, such as sending the immunologist to Madrid/London, but each path seemed to end with failure. We sensed that it should be possible and it felt tantalisingly within reach.

The minutes continued to tick by as we tried to find a solution to this puzzle. There was always at least one Faded city left on the board when the final Player card was drawn. We searched the existing equipment for anything that might help. We noted the Airstrike was still in the Player deck if we needed it. To this day, we still don’t know how the Airstrike consistently manages to bury itself so deep in the deck. The curse of Essen.

But it wasn’t a Kobayashi Maru – we found a route to victory! We ran through the plan together and everything looked good. It got the thumbs up, the green light and the white smoke.

The first turn.

Medic Girl is at Atlanta and takes the opportunity to equip a card with an Aerosol. She then flies to Milan. She picks up eight doses and moves to Essen. The only character with two turns, she must prepare for Madrid and London.

All good. The table was holding its breath. Alright, the second turn of the plan began.

Dispatcher Dad is assigned to handle two cities in Asia. He dispatches himself to the Immunologist’s location, Shanghai. Once there, he will vaccinate the city, then transfer to neighbouring city Seoul and vaccinate. That will be his final turn of the campaign. The Dispatcher retires.

Phew, it was looking good. We proceeded to the third turn of the plan.

Lockdown Boy must first— SHIT

Okay, so, that wasn’t a literal instruction. We didn’t expect Lockdown Boy to lock himself in the toilet. No. Despite walking through the plan, writing it down and making sure we all agreed with it… we had fucked up.

MOTHER LONDON

Lockdown Boy was at Riyadh and he was meant to saunter into Karachi then use the Karachi card to fly out to Europe to assist Medic Girl. But we had missed that Karachi was rioting so he couldn’t run a direct flight out. God. Were we done?

Three turns were left and we’d already burnt some bridges getting here. So little room for maneuever. But Lockdown Boy wasn’t about to give in; he thought hard and fast. Less options at our disposal meant it was quicker to figure out whether we were actually fucked or not. And he saw something. He saw that if we used the Airstrike, we could squeeze a spare action from the plan. It might be enough to save December victory from the jaws of December defeat.

Instead of heading to Karachi, he walked to the Baghdad vax fax and took a research flight to Milan, walked to Paris, discarding a card because Paris was in a collapsing state, and headed into Madrid. He used a grenade belt he was carrying to reduce the Faded. His entire turn was dedicated to killing one Faded figure. If Madrid somehow picked up Faded after this – which, frankly, was very unlikely – then it was over as Medic Girl wouldn’t have enough actions to win the campaign.

There was, however, a terrifying wrinkle to the plan. We absolutely needed the Airstrike. We knew it was still in the Player deck but if it was the final card then it would be too late to prepare a city for vaccination, rendering the game unwinnable. At this point, there was a 20% chance the Airstrike was in the fucked-game position.

In Lockdown Boy’s Player card draw, the last epidemic leapt out and stomped on Jakarta, pushing us into four infections per turn. Whatever. WHATEVER. But did the Airstrike reveal itself? Did it fuck. The board remained mute. There was now a 33% chance the Airstrike was shipwrecked at the bottom of the Player deck.

The fourth turn of the revised plan commenced.

Immune Mum travels to Taipei from Shanghai, remotely vaccinates Osaka, then plays the Taipei city card to run a direct flight to Moscow. She vaccinates the city and retires from the game.

As her turn concluded, Mum picked up the Airstrike! Mum immediately deployed against London, murdering the Faded figure there, and Medic Girl used Rivals to grab it back. It was a reflex action, entirely unnecessary, but we couldn’t help ourselves. Never look a military-violence-horse in the mouth.

And thus it came to pass that Medic Girl, who had been barely conscious of our game over the past few months, was in the hotseat for the twenty-third turn of the game and the final turn of our Legacy campaign. She would preside over our ultimate victory.

She was in Essen. She walked to London, our City Zero, and vaccinated it. Then then walked to Madrid and vaccinated the Spanish capital.

With not a single turn nor action to spare, we completed Pandemic Legacy: Season 1. A brilliant heart-in-mouth, photo finish ending.

Okay, okay, if you wanted to be all technical about it, we had a whole spare game in the bag. But if we had slipped into a second game, we would have felt like we had failed.

That’s not what we felt like. We felt like winners.

BREAKFAST IN THE RUINS

Having never played a legacy game before, I had speculated that Pandemic Legacy would not end on a win/lose binary like the individual games but be marked against a scoring spectrum, counting items such as how many military bases were left on the map.

And, reader, I was right. There were quite a few elements to the scoring system as you can see in the photo below.

I believed the campaign had gone well but we had let cities suffer instead of letting characters take scars, seeing character longevity as vital to the long-term health of the campaign. And, surprise surprise, fallen characters didn’t matter to the score, city state did.

Further, we had thrown as many military bases onto the board as the game would let us, which meant we had a lot of mopping up to do in the last few months. There had been no free actions to raze the remaining military base in Bogota during our concluding game and that hurt us.

As a result, while we could claim a happy ending, we were shy of a first class victory.

We also took a peek inside the unopened armageddon box. It contained three copies of an experimental vaccine from New Zealand which had an application so “unconventional” it would create panic. You could use this to dismiss any epidemic but then the event would be destroyed. Yikes.

Now that it is over, what are my big takeaways? What would I say if I were to review the game?

I was surprised, in the end, that the narrative wasn’t actually that deep. It was painted with broad brushstrokes and the mechanics were left to flesh out all the detail. I’m not sure if this is why we felt less attached to the characters or even the ethics of our actions.

In the Shut Up & Sit Down review of the second season, it was mentioned that players of the first season effectively worked within an unofficial ruleset, trying their best to avoid inflicting harm on the humanity they were trying to save. In the beginning, we were absolutely terrified of outbreaks and permanent panic states staining the board; once we got over that, we just accepted it as a mechanic. We no longer felt that much for the people represented by the Legacy map, we were more anxious about how hard the game might become. Our motto: Have grenade? Use grenade!

And let’s not forget, the game is not even remotely accurate when it comes to science. It’s just a cool board game experience with a great theme. As our real pandemic has shown us, serious adversity does not automatically lead to panic and riots, which turns up every time disease outbreaks are featured in feature films, all the way back to 1950’s Panic in the Streets. There’s a whole section of Contagion dedicated to it. Still, some of the anti-vax fever might be a manifestation of Pandemic’s panic state, so maybe? Plus, let’s not forget that Season 1 is about a zombie plague and the infected become hostile rather than weak.

In the comments, RogerBW mentioned that in his campaign, they felt it was usually possible to tell how the game would play out from the pre-card draw. There was definitely something to this as the initial infections would likely rear their head multiple times across a session, although it wasn’t a hard fast rule. And if the infections were spaced far apart, although it would diminish the possibility of cascading outbreaks, it often meant the players might end up dashing back and forth across the world instead of curing diseases.

There were genuinely exciting moments. That first month when it turned out CoDA could not be cured was great, as was the discovery that CoDA was untreatable. The transition into the Faded game was also eye-popping. However, I don’t think anything genuinely hit as hard after that. The search mechanic was too mundane and felt like busywork to interfere with your normal Pandemic activity. The arrival of the vaccine, after a year of CoDA, was delightful. A relief that we could make things better instead of just juggling every month. I missed those blue cubes, though.

The endless stacking of new rules was wearying towards the end; while the act of vaccinating cities with orange stickers felt cool, I did wonder why we needed an alternate rule for vaccinating Faded versus other diseases. And we started to forget the newest rules that would have helped such as self-sacrifice. Even in this last game, adding binoculars to a late search would have made a big difference.

I’m still curious that the board managed to troll me in one aspect: that extra position on the infection track was never used!

So what was our final take on it? How did the Electron Dance family feel about the experience?

I think the three of us who were actively engaged enjoyed it, despite the difficulty of fitting it around our lives. Or perhaps fitting our lives around it. The idea that the rules morph with every game, putting players under constant pressure, is fascinating. It really fired up the brain.

If I were to take on Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 or Pandemic Legacy: Season 0, I would not include my daughter in the player line-up. I’ve learnt from my mistakes. Is another Pandemic Legacy on the cards, though? I don’t know. I get the impression that Season 1 is the infected dog’s bollocks but, while I’m curious, I’m not convinced we need to continue. We’ve played a lot of Pandemic now – and I’ve also just picked up Iberia for Christmas!

We’re going to put legacy board games to one side for now, so we can get back to more transient board game fun. Games you can knock out in a couple of hours. Maybe we’ll dig out that old stalwart Qwirkle. And I’m a man of my word. Once I’ve made an extremely certain and very final decision I never change my mind.

Oh you motherfu—