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  The Full Narrative...

 

Pandemic Legacy: Season 1

The Full Narrative, Including ALL Spoilers

(quoted material is text from the game)

(DO NOT READ ON if you have not played Pandemic Legacy: Season 1)

 

JANUARY  [Jan. 1, 2017]

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CDC, Atlanta: "You know the drill. We've got four viruses causing us problems. They seem to be mutating faster than usual - we have someone looking into that. For now, keep it under control as one of them may grow beyond our capabilities."

[Objective: Discover cures to the 4 diseases.]

Our seasoned medical team assembled: Antonio, our brave and noble medic; Quinn, the dispatcher who keeps him on the move; Olivia, scientist extraordinaire; and Francine her able research assistant. At the last minute, however, Francine was bumped from the team in favour of a new hire at the Centre, Rosita, another field operative, tough as nails and resourceful too.

It was great to see the team back together again, especially the three veterans. They'd battled many a contagion in the past especially with the help of Astrid, a quarantine specialist, and operations expert, Sammy J.

Sadly, neither of those team members were in Atlanta when the call to scramble came in.

[Lyle, Carol, Sharon and I were so excited about Pandemic Legacy that we trained for it. We dusted off Pandemic and played several games of it before breaking out Legacy. Our go-to team in the original was Medic, Dispatcher, Scientist and Quarantine Specialist.]

It was a typical day at the office, putting out fires in North America and the Far East. Then, South Asia exploded with infection.

Olivia identified the problem, COdA-403a. Not only was it ravaging India, Iraq and Egypt but it had become drug resistant. Tony was having to double his efforts to treat these hot spots. Olivia let us know she was at a loss as to how to find a cure for this new mutation. We concentrated on curing the three other viral threats currently at play.

[New Objective: Discover cures to 3 diseases.]

New Year's Day. We begin.

Our efforts met with initial success. The nasty Blue Acne scouring North America was cured then eradicated. Unfortunately, a string of outbreaks elsewhere in the world forced the team to return to Atlanta to regroup. Istanbul, Miami and Mexico City suffered riots.

[Yikes. Our first game was a loss by Outbreak. Cities were burning. There were stickers on the board!]

LATE JANUARY

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The CDC increased our budget. Thank goodness. They also promised us more help should we succeed at combating this new menace, COdA-403a. With new resolve we sallied forth and in short order cured: a new strain of Blue Acne; the virus sweeping through South America and Africa; and the virus torturing the Far East. What a relief. Our team was back in top form.

Oops. Yellow everywhere. We're off to a great start.

[With six Event Cards in the deck this was an easy win. We had time to spare and almost eradicated each of the three possible diseases.]

FEBRUARY

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CDC, Atlanta: "We have to get ahead of this new COdA virus as it is unlike any we've seen in nature. It has mutated again and now it can no longer be treated using any known techniques."

Without the ability to treat those suffering in India and the Middle East what could we do? Quarantine. No one likes using this authority but, as with triage, you do what you have to.

Luckily, Astrid responded to our calls and was available for duty. She has a light touch which makes her the best at handling local authorities and convincing them of the need to lock down their citizens. Less than luckily, she was being seconded from the military, and something in that paperwork prevented her from joining us.

The pressure of the new COdA-403b meant we couldn't wait. Quinn moved us out to kick butt. And kick butt we did, eradicating Acne once again, and eradicating Male Pattern Baldness in South America and Africa.

[This was our third game of the evening. We must have been distracted by the excitement of all the dossier door opening and rulebook stickering, because we totally forgot to put the Quarantine Specialist into play. Didn't matter. We won handily again.]

MARCH  [Jan. 21]

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CDC, Atlanta: "We have been preparing for this contingency. COdA is causing panic so we've hired paramilitary assistance to help with the trouble spots. You are to partner with them to keep things under control until more research can be done on COdA."

[New Objective: Cure 3 Diseases AND Eradicate 1 Disease, or Build Military Bases - 1 in Each Region]

Knowing that COdA was rapidly mutating and would need all of our future energies, we opted for an unconventional and longer-term strategy: eradicate the other health threats around the world as soon as possible to free up our team to cope with the emergent threat of COdA. It wasn't that we were against other measures like quarantine and a military presence to maintain order; we just preferred a science-based strategy. We were a medical team after all.

Our good friend and colleague Sam even offered to build a network of military bases to help get us in and out of troubled areas but we declined. Instead, we called in Francine to assist Olivia. Being co-workers, Francine and Olivia practically read one another's minds.

Astrid still cooled her heels. Francine replaced Tony who had been scarred during an outbreak in January. He felt so regretful about that incident that, while not officially relieved of duty for PTSD, he did not return to the field for the rest of the year.

For some reason, the CDC pulled resources from us. No matter. Our eradication strategy worked. We eradicated Acne and Baldness AGAIN! Each time we eradicated a disease, we learned how to fight it that much more effectively in the future. We were on to something. Combatting global disease had never been this easy.

[Four games in and we were getting cocky. This win was "super quick and easy" according to my notes in the Game Calendar. We worried that we'd sorted the game early, that by concentrating on cures and eradications when the cure requirement was reduced from four to three we'd found Legacy's weakness. Little did we know.]

APRIL

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Confident, seasoned and full of self-regard, the fab four (Quinn, Olivia, Francine, and Rosita) deployed again. Perhaps we were overconfident. Outbreaks of Baldness beset Africa. We couldn't stay on top of the chaos.

In what would later become known as 'The April Incident', Quinn travelled to Atlanta to treat a dangerous concentration of Acne instead of treating an equally dangerous cluster of dry scalps in Johannesburg. Johannesburg suffered an outbreak. Then, during the second epidemic of the month, Khartoum became infected causing it to outbreak. This was bad luck considering the rampant baldness next door in Johannesburg and Kinshasa. Those cities suffered outbreaks too! Why had the CDC cut our budget? All we needed was one quiet night. It was so early in the month. It felt like the deck was stacked against us!

Sure enough Khartoum, Johannesburg and Kinshasa suffered repeat outbreaks. Just like that it was over. Then an alert came from the Centre...

"COdA has mutated again, producing frightening results. Victim's skin turns translucent, showing the viscera and tissue beneath. Even worse, these "Faded" often experience periods of great rage, attacking anything within sight. They are agitated and confused during these times often hallucinating and exhibiting bizarre or abnormal behaviour. After these aggressive periods, the Faded are normal in demeanour, although horrible to behold."

[It was exciting to discover the Faded. But after two games, it was too late in the evening to continue playing. We went home chastened. The Pandemic deck is a fickle thing. Usually it's balanced. Sometimes it's not. Losing so quickly (by Outbreak during the second Epidemic!) had a silver lining however. The Faded didn't have a chance to get on the board.]

LATE APRIL  [Jan. 28]

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Astrid, we need you! Rosita you've been great but now we need our old friend. Once Astrid joined the team we noticed something new, an arch competitiveness between her and Olivia. It was also apparent Astrid had learned some powerful new tricks since last she partnered with us.

COdA-403c. What would this new scourge look like? It didn't take long for us to find out. 403c first appeared in Delhi. It also appeared in Chennai and Mumbai, Baghdad, Riyadh and Algiers. The world sat up and took notice when Faded filled the first European hospitals in Moscow.

With new resolve we worked on all fronts. We eradicated Blue Acne again (now as simple as handing out WHO-branded Clearasil) and eradicated the yellow spores responsible for Male Pattern Baldness again too. The red virus so prevalent in the Orient we could only cure.

The rivalry between Olivia and Astrid came in handy. Somehow the competition between them became cooperative and between them they prevented many infections. It was one quiet night after another.

[Back on track. Not a single Outbreak. It felt like we broke the game a little by repeatedly trading One Quiet Night between Astrid and Olivia.]

MAY

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CDC, Atlanta: "The situation has intensified. The Faded are spreading faster than we calculated. Countries are hesitant to turn troops on their loved ones. We need to control their spread or the world will go into darkness. Don't let the other diseases grow unchecked or we'll have an end-world situation."

[New Objective: Cure 3 Diseases AND accomplish 2 of... Eradicate a Disease, Have 1 Military Base per Region, Quarantine 7 Faded Cities]

Sammy J. you were right. We need military bases! Newly arrived military representative, Colonel Beauregard East, was especially relieved to hear that. He couldn't wait to get into the field and control the situation with road blocks, etc. But first we needed bases from which he and his troops could operate.

Sam replaced Francine. We had eradicated diseases seven times. The eradication strategy had run its course and with luck would pay dividends. It was time to shift focus.

Changing gears is hard sometimes. We couldn't help it, instead of building military bases we eradicated Athlete's Foot in the Orient (goodbye red, itchy feet). We built only one base in Istanbul, a hop-skip-and-a-jump from our research station in Cairo. This at least would let the military protect Europe.

Quinn and Sam were old co-workers at Logistics Inc. so they worked well together. We were sure they'd build fast next month.

[Only 3 Outbreaks. We kept the Faded at bay with many Quarantine Markers.]

JUNE  [Feb. 4]

Seven days in May. The military arrive to help.

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CDC, Atlanta: "You're our best team and you are doing exactly what we need you to, but even you can't do the job without the right equipment. We're gathering resources to help your team do what's asked of you. Pick up your equipment at military bases and research stations."

Finally, we were being resourced. They were even sending more soldiers our way. We continued with construction.

By the middle of the month we'd established military bases in every region of the world. And we built them well. They weren't temporary quilts of quonset huts. Sammy made sure most bases were concrete and asphalt monuments to civil order. We were in this for the long haul and didn't want to be having to constantly rebuild.

During June we also eradicated Acne (by habit); suffered through 5 outbreaks; locked down the Faded (which had completely blanketed the region) with some road blocks; and cured Baldness and Athlete's Foot.

[During this part of the campaign/year, we End Game Upgraded as many military bases as we could to make the Bases/Regions goal easier and easier to achieve. We won this game by the skin of our teeth: 5 Outbreaks; nearly many more. We like to call chain reaction Outbreaks 'making popcorn.' We almost had TWO large bowls on our hands in this game: Africa almost blew again in the same fashion as 'the April Incident,' and the Faded almost popcorned too.]

Grrr. The Faded were angry. Welcome to World War Z.

JULY

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CDC, Atlanta: "A virologist who went missing at a research station in a Faded city was on the verge of a breakthrough on COdA. We need her ASAP as her knowledge is the key to a possible vaccine. Without her, the threat of the Faded will become permanent. We hate to ask your team but, given your level of understanding of this situation, we have no other options. You're going to have to search for her."

[New Objective: Cure 3 Diseases AND accomplish 2 of... Eradicate a Disease, Have 1 Military Base per Region, Quarantine 7 Faded Cities, 
Find the Virologist]

Sammy, having done a splendid job, retired. Colonel East strapped himself into Sam's warm Herc seat and headed off to Istanbul to set up road blocks. 'Road block' is a euphemism for men with guns with orders to shoot. Shoot you in the front if you don't step back. Shoot you in the back if you run. The Faded are sick people. Sure, they're a little rage-y. But no one deserves a bullet when they're out-of-their-mind sick. Escalated quarantine measures like road blocks were a necessary evil. Rolling them out gave us even more incentive to find the virologist and develop a vaccine.

The virologist was last seen in Cairo. The rest of us headed there and began searching its narrow streets. At the same time, we looked for cures for the latest mutations of the Big Three, we knew them well: Acne, MPB and AF. Thankfully, the Faded were quiet this month.

The search was cat-and-mouse but we had lots of contacts in Cairo having had a research station there since January. We found the virologist in short order. She gave us the gene sequence for COdA and said,

"I've done work on COdA and can start some limited treatment but we're going to need an immunologist to fully develop and administer a vaccine."

She also had something curious to say.

"By the way, you should stop taking the anti-viral meds they've been giving you. I've looked at them and they're placebos."

We didn't know what to make of that but pushed on.

[We won this game fairly easily although it took us longer than usual to put together our Cures. We were lucky and drew the Cairo card early which expedited the search for the Virologist.]

AUGUST  [Mar. 23]

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CDC, Atlanta: "We have it on good authority that there is an immunologist who has the knowledge to fashion a vaccine for COdA. We would very much like to speak to him. Could your team find him and bring him to us? His locations have been erratic and he has not checked in recently. Thank you and your team for your help."

[New Objective: Cure 3 Diseases AND accomplish 2 of... Have 1 Military Base per Region, Quarantine 7 Faded Cities, Find the Immunologist]

Did we mention that Colonel East was Quinn's dad? They had wildly different world views but somehow this inter-generational friction helped them get things done. Olivia and Astrid wished the CDC comm app allowed them to unfollow Beau so they didn't have to be party to the East's differences. The Colonel constantly bragged of shooting problem Faded. The rest of the team would rather not have known about his actions but were secretly relieved that he was keeping the hot spots (those Astrid couldn't stay on top of) under control.

And there were hot spots aplenty this month. Ever since May the increasingly hot weather seemed to incubate more COdA. Now things were boiling over.

We dove into the fray, first of all to do our jobs, but also to look for the immunologist. Intel reported he was stuck in a rioting Faded city. That could only mean Riyadh or Istanbul. We found him in Istanbul. He was an edgy character.

"Can I create a vaccine? Yes. Maybe. It depends. I'll need some key data or this won't work. I'm starting to think this is a bio-engineered virus which means someone has the records of how it was put together. I'll need the gene sequence of COdA, some DNA samples from the Faded, and, I don't know where you'll find this, but there would be virus development records if it is, in fact, bio-engineered."

We immediately gave the immunologist the COdA gene sequence we had received from the virologist.

[We drew Epidemic 1 on the first turn! All the same, this game's Cures came easily and we had only 2 Outbreaks. Another easy win. I do have to admit that we sometimes overlooked the Accelerated Incubation rule. We can't remember how often and in which games we played wrong, but it made us sick when we realized we were not placing as many Faded as we should have been.]

One final thing happened in August. At the very end of the month, Colonel East got a call on one of his private numbers, the one with the serious ringtone. He listened silently, hit End Call, then slowly looked up from his phone. "We just received go on the nuclear option for Asia." None of us spoke but we all thought of what had transpired this month in Riyadh, Mumbai and Karachi as we balanced our notions of Hell.

SEPTEMBER

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CDC, Atlanta: "Troubling development. One of our paramilitary soldiers has developed a pathological paranoia, frightening the population with stories of engineered viruses and other conspiracies. We need you to find him and bring him back so that he doesn't fan the flames of the already panicking population."

[New Objective: Cure 3 Diseases AND accomplish 2 of... Have 1 Military Base per Region, Quarantine 7 Faded Cities, Find the Paranoid Soldier]

After all our pacifist talk we betrayed our values by declining to invite Rincy, the virologist, to join our science team. We just couldn't stand up to the Colonel. We needed him and perhaps he would be helpful finding this troubled soldier.

Where do you start looking for an AWOL soldier? Near his military base. This was in Delhi. We soon broadened our search to the other bases in the Faded zone: Istanbul and Baghdad.

We found him in the middle of the month...

"I thought you were with them. Oh, you are with them but you don't know it. Of course they'd send you for me. I was there when it started. They want to shut me up. I took a bunch of files before I left. I think it's time you all knew the truth."

With that he gave us a USB key wrapped in a crumpled, hand written note. It read:

My name is Sgt. Michael Davidson and I am sorry for  what I've done. I 
 write this note in case they get to me before I find asylum.The world needs to know that this current epidemic was not the result of nature but of 
a select group working within the CDC in Atlanta. I know because I 
held a position of authority within the group that granted me access to files.

I was there when they we first administered COdA.

 By causing terror, this group would seize control of the cities, 
the  bank, commerce. Martial law and then a new world order. They are 
 succeeding.

I can no longer face what I did to start this. I was a soldier and
 my job was to follow orders. But those orders do not exonerate 
me. I only hope that I can undo what  I've done.   In this dossier are emails from this group, which calls itself Zodiac. I also have escaped 
 with extensive files showing the development of the COdA 
virus. I do not understand it, but I hope that those with more training can  
use it to help with a cure.

I AM SO VERY SORRY. Please, help us all.

Quinn plugged the USB key into her laptop. The virus development records that the immunologist had requested were there. She immediately forwarded them to him. All we needed now to make a vaccine was a DNA sample from an early COdA victim.

Quinn also found the emails that Michael's note had mentioned. They were somewhat redacted but still chilling. We read through the first one.

<< We've been played! COdA was no accident. We've been agents of fear as well as hope. It's time to do the right thing. We have to undo the paramilitary apparatus we've set up and we have to find a vaccine. >>

[New Objective: Cure 3 Diseases AND Quarantine 7 Faded Cities, or Sabotage 2 Military Bases]

The emails made it clear there was a traitor in our midst. Quinn, Olivia and Astrid looked at each other. They turned around. Where was Colonel East? Had Beau betrayed us? Was he Sagittarius? It certainly appeared that way. Quinn was devastated. Damn that Colonel B. East. His cool ruthlessness and paramilitary escort should have tipped us off long ago.

A civilian named Fauxlivia joined our team. She didn't have our chops but neither did she have any of the scars that these last few months had inflicted on us.

We immediately sabotaged two military bases out of sheer indignation. Then we finished researching cures and went home, frequently looking over our shoulders in case we were being followed. We were paranoid ourselves now. Zodiac could be anywhere. The fruits of their labours (and inadvertently ours) were everywhere.

[OMG. This was the second twist of the game that we did not see coming. We were tickled by the unexpected appearance of the Faded in April. The tiny zombie figurines made of translucent plastic were a masterful stroke of design for the Pandemic board. But this, this was a betrayal that only a board game could deliver. Making us actively complicit in the chaos, death and murder of a pandemic cut more deeply than any novel, movie or piece of theatre ever could. Thank goodness we didn't use the Nuclear Option. It was especially satisfying that the Colonel was Sagittarius (that we had him in play and that we'd Upgraded him with Paramilitary Escort). Again, the candy-like choices offered by the game were so well designed, they steered us, unawares, into a strong consistent narrative.]

OCTOBER  [Apr. 3]

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CDC, Atlanta: "The Faded are a mystery to science. Despite the presence of a clear and violent contagion, they have a very low mortality rate, leading to huge Faded populations. We are aware that a Patient Zero came out of City Zero. We're afraid that someone is going to need to go in and find him as he holds the key to unlocking a possible vaccine. Please deliver him to us."

[New Objective: Cure 3 Diseases AND accomplish 2 of... Quarantine 7 Faded Cities, Sabotage 2 Military Bases, Find Patient Zero]

So. This is the world we made. It was time to set things straight. Turns out, Astrid was not only a quarantine specialist, she was also a demolitions specialist. She had a shady background that she told us about now. With her military credentials giving her ready access to bases, we were all set to take more of them down.

War makes you pragmatic, however. We delayed the sabotage of the military base in Delhi to leverage its resources in the search for patient zero.

We needed a new team member, someone non-military. We knew we could trust Astrid, but she would be the only military member we'd work with from now on. We called up the virologist, Rincy; she had mad skills treating the Faded. But how did we know we could trust her? We barely knew her. There were many others we knew better who'd be happy to rejoin our little group: Francine, Rosita, even Antonio. Rincy was Astrid's sister. Enough said.

The zone was hot but Astrid worked her magic and we found patient zero at the last possible moment. Quinn and Olivia sabotaged one military base each. Rincy didn't get a chance to treat any Faded before month's end. She had her hands full trying to stabilize patient zero.

"It burns in my brain. I can see everything. I can still see it. They came out of the darkness and they grabbed me and we went away somewhere. The feeling is amazing. And there were soldiers and they... you have to talk to the soldier. HE WAS THERE! TALK TO HIM TALK TO HIM TALK TO HIM."

Rincy took a DNA sample from the young girl. She popped it into the sequencer and called Charlie the immunologist. They worked through the night.

<< The vaccine worked! At long last and at the expense of many lives, we'd developed a formula to prevent the spread of COdA. The time for quarantines and half-measures was over. It was time for us to manufacture and deliver this vaccine - before it was too late. >>

[This was our sixth win in a row, all without any Event Cards. Making cures as easy as possible, our early-game eradication strategy, had really paid off. It allowed us to concentrate on the story-driving goals like searching, building and blowing things up. Narrative floated and shimmered on top of the gameplay. The game wasn't a cakewalk, but it wasn't too hard either. This month, we suffered 4 Epidemics and 3 Outbreaks. Like Pandemic proper, Legacy was fantastically well tuned. Legacy felt a little easier because of all the extra resources it provided. But the narrative arc made it much more exciting.]

NOVEMBER

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CDC, Atlanta: "We know you are on to us. You are too late. You will disappear soon."

[New Objective: Cure 3 Diseases AND accomplish 2 of... Sabotage 2 Military Bases, Build 3 Vaccine Factories, Vaccinate 6 Cities]

Creepy threats didn't dissuade our little team, we had populations to inoculate.

Rincy was ecstatic to have a vaccine, as were we all. We built three vaccine factories as quickly as we could and fully vaccinated three Faded cities including Ground Zero, Delhi. After seven months of hell, beleaguered Delhi began to breathe more easily, just like the Faded now recovering in our field hospitals.

These efforts distracted us, however. We hijacked a truckload of C4 but never put it to use sabotaging more military bases. We also neglected resurgent waves of Acne and Athlete's Foot and a series of outbreaks forced us to re-group.

[Our third loss, and our third loss by Outbreak. We almost had our third cure, but were far from a win on this one.]

Vaccine floods Asia. The endgame begins.

LATE NOVEMBER

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Rincy, wouldn't let us feel down. We were pushing back against COdA, that's what was important. Quinn agreed, but we could still see the hurt in her eyes over her father's betrayal. Astrid had an idea. Blow up more stuff! Olivia, cool as always, didn't disagree but reminded us we were still a medical team and had to attend to all public health crises. The four of us set out again to walk the tightrope of this troubled world.

By month's end, we'd vaccinated four more Faded cities, and we'd destroyed three more military bases. COdA plagued only five more cities. Only one military base remained, the one in Atlanta. We were back on track. Zodiac was on the run.

[Having two Event Cards back in the deck really helped our game.]
 

DECEMBER  [May 29]

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CDC, Atlanta: "You and your vaccine are too late. Even if you cure this version of COdA, we have stockpiles with new mutations ready to deploy. But we would like the thank you for establishing the new world government. Without you, we wouldn't have been able to manage the balance between fear and hope, establish our military network, or track COdA's progress so closely. We wouldn't have our checkpoints and roadblocks and a population too contained to even think of resisting."

[New Objective: Vaccinate Every Faded City  AND  Find and Destroy the Secret Stockpile of COdA in Atlanta]

We had to hand it to Zodiac, they were some smug bastards. We knew what we had to do: infiltrate the deepest levels of the CDC containment labs while eluding the Zodiac forces stationed there.

As plucky as Rincy was, she was exhausted by our field work. Charlie, the immunologist, offered to spell her off and continue our vaccination program.

Olivia was spent too. She and Quinn had worked every mission of this long year. Rosita replaced Olivia but Quinn couldn't let go and insisted on shepherding us through this, our most dangerous mission to date.

Fresh and feisty, Rosita was ready to disable security cams and disarm any laser countermeasures we might find in the corridors and air ducts beneath the CDC. Astrid would manage the world's viral fires as always.

South America and Africa were hot. Outbreak after outbreak distracted us from our search. We were so close. Each of us made self-sacrifice after self-sacrifice to achieve our goal but we were overwhelmed again by outbreaks of our nemesis, Male Pattern Baldness.

[This last Search was a doozy. We went for broke and Scarred up our characters to keep the game alive. We had a bad Yellow draw this game. Although we dodged catastrophe for a while, we couldn't stay ahead of the Epidemics and our Search failed. Then... popcorn. We were expecting to finish Season 1 tonight, but the evening ran out on us. Boo.]

LATE DECEMBER  [Aug. 11]

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Although many cities still needed vaccine, we needed more resources to search the CDC. Francine had worked as a researcher at the Centre for years and knew the facility better than any of us. Maybe she could help.

Charlie threw up his hands at our new priorities and walked away. We reassured him we'd continue his work. In fact, we increased production of vaccine at the Delhi factory. It was just that the threat of a new COdA mutation trumped all other concerns.

Francine rendezvoused with Rosita, Astrid and Quinn in Atlanta. She took us to a storm sewer by the river. It led directly to Level 4, she said. That would speed up our search. That, and several sets of binoculars!

If only we'd listened to Charlie. In those cities yet to be inoculated, the Faded came at us like icky translucent spider monkeys. Luckily, Rosita macgyvered together some aerosol units to calm and vaccinate whole districts at once.

Somehow we did it. We found the stockpile and we vaxxed the last of the Faded cities.

<< The stockpile was hidden deep underground but our team had persevered. Some well placed explosives and the alternate strains of COdA were no more. We walked away from the explosion without looking back. >>

<< At long last... it was over. >>

<< Disaster averted. It took a while but our efforts kept the world and its civilization on track. The last of the Faded were cured and those responsible faced trial and were convicted. >>

FIN

[For this last game, we thought extra hard about our End Game Upgrades (after having played late and run out of steam, we often left Upgrading for the very start of the next game). We also reconsidered our Character roster, and our November Win Bonus. After settling on the Researcher and making her a Determined Hero, we planned our first few turns. Our initial hands of cards were ideal; they would allow us to Search right out of the gate, so we counter-intuitively took the free November Vaccine Doses and got a jump on that goal too. The Researcher really improved our Search, as did drawing and equipping Binoculars. Despite a bad draw of Faded at the start of the game, the card decks were kind to us. We didn't need to take any more Scars - Francine didn't need all that determination after all. Interestingly, this final team didn't have any Relationships with each other. Funny note: it had been so long since we'd played, the Generalist kept forgetting to take 5 actions. We played a tight game anyway. It was great to finish with a win.]

"At long last... it's over."

Final Notes / Review

We scored a solid 779. We would have been Legendary but we left 1 Military Base on the board — which seems fitting since Zodiac was such a formidable adversary. We were focused on the goals at hand and didn't realize we were leaving points on the table. We didn't even know there was scoring, which rocks because a) surprise, and b) story is more important than points (in my opinion).

Still, stats are fun and we appreciated the Final Reckoning...

8 outright wins. 4 bottom-of-the-month saves. 0 completely lost months. We found the Funding catch-up mechanism really effective.

30 safe cities, 13 rioting cities, 3 collapsing cities and 0 fallen cities. We might have actually had 1 or 2 more degraded cities than this because early in the campaign we sometimes forgot to sticker cities at the time of an Outbreak. We'd remember a moment or a turn later and sticker them after the fact but we might have missed a few. For one game, the one with 'The April Incident,' we had to reconstruct a few days after playing. It was late in the evening and those chain reaction Outbreaks were so sudden and massive we all just laughed and packed up the game.

We vaccinated all Faded cities and found the Stockpile without the help of Package 8 or Team Bravo. We didn't know who or what Team Bravo was until we dove into the BGG forums. When the game was over, we didn't scratch Time Is Running Out, tempting as that was. It's our trophy and proof we did it all on our own. **

To Tear or Not to Tear?

We did NOT tear up any cards. We threw them into the abyss (the game box) instead. I reconstructed the Legacy Deck to write this session report. Walking through the game again was not easy but was super fun. (Next time we play Season 1, I'm taking more photos of the board/game state before and after each game.) We understood that tearing up cards is essential to the game. It is this irrevocable action that drives the game on. We just didn't have the guts to do it for realz.

Too Complex?

We didn't take our score too seriously because from time to time we messed up a few rules. As already mentioned, Panic Level, was top among these. We corrected our stickering mistakes, but we fear we might have flown in and out of Rioting cities sometimes. With the Dispatcher in every game, we don't think this had a large effect because we rarely used the Direct Flight and Charter Flight actions. Still, we felt bad when we realized we hadn't been paying enough attention. The pass that the rulebook gave us on this didn't really help. All the same, we didn't find the game too complex. We just needed to play it more frequently.

In any story, complexity (as long as it's comprehensible) leavens the plot. Season 1 has a surprisingly intricate plot. Assembling all of the game text with events as they transpired in our play of the game revealed many subtleties. The signs of impending betrayal were everywhere but, like all good foreshadowing, they were invisible: fluctuating funding levels, expendable team members, distracting assignments, free rides on military aircraft...

Some have complained that the plot of Season 1 is hackneyed. I disagree. The broad strokes of the story are a familiar template but they are just a wireframe for the events generated by play to hang on. The real story of the game is the story that emerges from the interaction of this frame and players' decisions. In our case this resulted in a very detailed story about competitive co-workers, a pacifist Med team of tough women who turned into master saboteurs, a shy medic, and family betrayal.

Too Many Choices?

We used the Dispatcher in every game; the Scientist in 14 of the 16 games; the Quarantine Specialist in 11 games; the Generalist in 7 games; the Researcher in 4 games; the Medic, the Colonel and the Virologist in 3 games ; the Operations Expert in 2 games; and the Immunologist in 1 game. We did not use the Soldier at all. The character jackets were brilliant game pieces, as was the game calendar.

Our guiding strategy for most of the game was very conservative. For example, we stopped using the Medic early after he got his first scar out of fear we would lose him. We always intended to bring him back into play but other characters proved interesting and situationally useful. This was a cool part of the game's storytelling: tempting us to deploy new character after new character.

The Dispatcher's distinguished record.

While we didn't always jump on new characters, equipment and other game options, we always focused fully on the goals at hand. The shifting goals of Legacy added a great new dimension to Pandemic. Easy goals needed prioritizing to beat individual games. Difficult goals essential to moving the story forward also needed attention. There was a nice tension between these: win a particular game vs. cover narrative ground.

The panoply of Upgrades was a little overwhelming at first but it was fun to navigate and created a cool new game phase. The powerful stuff tended to jump out at us. Some stuff we had to imagine around for a bit, 'Hey, this could be handy...' Relationships were really neat. Powerful and colourful. We didn't rely on Equipment much because after it's initial use, having it back in hand was so random. The power of the Soldier completely escaped us. The most tantalizing question this game asked was, Will we make similar play choices next time, or not?

Too Long?

We played the campaign in 8 sessions over 8 months. Twice, we played 3 games in a row: the night the shrink came off, and near the end of the campaign. Most often, we played 2 games in a row. Twice, we played single games and felt sad.

Our sessions were sporadic, such is life. The gaps between sessions (in weeks) created this new mathematical series: 3, 1, 1, 7, 2, 8, 10. At the end of our second session, Faded were rampaging. In the first two months of playing, we had completed just over half of the game calendar: built out the military, completed the first search. The game was in full swing before our first play-break manifested itself. The session after this hiatus, the shoe dropped: traitor in our midst. This timing was delightful. We rearranged schedules and played again as soon as we could. Despite life's intrusions on game time, the story stood up to interruption. The plot of Season 1 was well paced. The way it rolled out against all of our session starts and stops was in no way awkward and in fact, created some interesting rhythms. We always wanted to play on.

Replayable?

And we can't wait to play again. Well, I can't. Some in the group need more time because the plot has been revealed. But I think a replay will be just like watching a good movie a second time. Sure you know what's coming but with a little suspension of disbelief it will be just as fun, maybe even a little richer.

We all agreed that the long gaps between plays were less than ideal. Not just because life should be one constant game session, or because the story deserves to have its momentum preserved, but because the mounting complexity of the expanding rulebook requires a lot of attention. We all fantasize about vacationing with a copy of the game and running through the whole campaign with breaks for meals and soaks in the hot spring.

Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 was the highlight of my five years of frequent board gaming. Thank you Matt Leacock and Rob Daviau. I must now re-watch The Andromeda Strain by Robert Wise or Contagion by Steven Soderbergh to test my claim that this game's climax outdoes a traditional linear narrative.

The aftermath of the pandemic... this pandemic.

** Technically, this means that my 'full narrative' isn't complete because it doesn't include the text from this card!