The popular Pandemic board game is now available as a dice based version – The Cure. It follows the same storyline of 4 diseases threatening the world and it’s up to you and your team to save humanity by finding a cure for them before they get out of hand. The exception this time is the use of dice and the impact this haves on the gameplay, going to need some good luck here!
Each player will have their own role to play, whilst working together as a team, with unique abilities that will be utilised via the throwing of dice. The dice are thrown each turn to determine players’ actions available to them:
- Travel between the 6 major population centres of the world
- Treat a disease in the current region you’re in
- Collect samples for further research and study
- Exchange knowledge helping you to discover a cure
With each player having their own unique abilities and specialisations this can also make the difference in holding back and treating a disease. For example the Dispatcher can throw dice to move other players around the board, whilst the Medic is particularly effective at treating a disease. Thus all players will need to strategically work together to have the right players in the right place at the right time. Plus some good luck with the dice rolling always helps. Although you can roll the dice as often as you like, but the more times you re-roll for that perfect turn, the more likely the next breakout will occur. Tricky one there!
Watch out for when not so lucky with your dice throws, at the end of each turn, new “infection dice” are rolled to determine the type and location of newly infected regions. When more than three dice of a given colour are rolled an outbreak will occur spreading the disease into an adjacent region. If there becomes too many outbreaks taking place or for the rate of infection is getting to high it’ll then be game over and all players lose. Thus you can only win as team when all 4 diseases have been cured with humanity saved! And a lot of luck!
This dice game is for 2 to 5 players, age 8 upwards, extremely quick to setup and takes 30 minutes to play. Ideal when you don’t have enough time to play the full version or just looking for a quick series of fun games with a bit of strategic depth to them to play one evening – as each time will work out differently with the role of dice! For those that have previously played the original game, the alternative dice element of this game certainly brings another aspect to make it worthwhile considering as a game in its own right. Although it helps to have played the original game, it’s still fairly easy to quickly pick up the gameplay. Each time you play you become more experienced as you develop your strategic knowledge of the gameplay to be better equipped to handle similar scenarios again when they occur.
Can you stop the Pandemic before it takes over the world? Available here
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