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The Legacy of the Pandemic: Season 2, a review of board games

 

The Legacy of the Pandemic: Season 2, a review of board games

You played the original Pandemic (if you haven’t already, stop here and go now). 

You also liked the original Pandemic (if you haven’t done so, stop here and go for a long look).

Now imagine: a Pandemic game where you don’t wipe the slate at the end of the gameWhere your crusade successes and steep failures are not forgotten. A pandemic where your decisions will last forever ...

Don't worry, you can continue calmly. NO SPOILERS AHEAD!

The Legacy of the Pandemic: Season 2
The Legacy of the Pandemic: Season 2
  • STRATEGIC GAME: Embark on an epic adventure to bring humanity back ...
  • GAME COOPERATIVE: Only with group work will you and ...
  • PLAY AFTER THE FLIGHT: Pandemic Legacy requires playing ...

A Brief Pandemic Legacy Summary: Season 2

The Legacy of the Pandemic: Season 2 Game

Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 is the second part of the Pandemic Legacy series. This time, the plague has devastated the world of the majority of the population and your team of between two and four medical professionals must save what is left of humanity.

Unlike the original pandemic, every game you play is one episode in a larger campaign to win. The decisions you make have a lasting impact on the rules and components of physical play. Throughout the campaign, you’ll find yourself writing on the board, sticking stickers on your characters, tearing up cards, and completely rewriting the policy .

With the same card management and gaming cooperative , the older brother will seem familiar. However, it is a different game, as players in 12-24 separate games struggle to save the remnants of the human race (depending on how well you do).

Variations and extensions

In addition to the original Pandemic game and its many extensions, Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 is part of an older trilogy. The trilogy includes:

The Legacy of the Pandemic: Season 1

The first meal is most similar to the original, using largely the same map and mechanics. You then get specific goals to achieve each game, while staying on top of the spread of the disease. As the story unfolds, new rules and components are introduced.

The Legacy of the Pandemic: Season 1
The Legacy of the Pandemic: Season 1
  • STRATEGY GAME: Players must participate in their ...
  • GAME COOPERATIVE: Only by working in groups will you keep ...
  • PLAY AFTER THE YEAR: The pandemic legacy begins as ...

Legacy of the Pandemic: Season 0

Season 0 is the prequel to the Pandemic Legacy season. Instead of chasing diseases, you will manage spy groups that conduct counterintelligence and try to maintain the level of danger. They revamped a lot of the experience from previous games and created something really amazing here. 

It is still highly recommended that if you haven’t played a pandemic game yet and want to dip your toes into the legacy scene, start with season 1, then season 2, and finally save season 0 for the ultimate treat.

Legacy of the Pandemic: Season 0
Legacy of the Pandemic: Season 0
  • STRATEGY GAME: Players have to work during the Cold War ...
  • GAME COOPERATIVE: Only with group work will you and ...
  • PLAY AFTER THE FLIGHT: Pandemic Legacy requires playing ...

Unpacking the Pandemic Legacy: Season 2

Unpacking the Pandemic Legacy: Season 2

Obviously I can’t tell you much about what’s in the box. But as I say, you will get:

  • Cards with 10 characters
  • 4 pussies
  • 53 playing cards
  • 8 reference cards
  • 82 Inherited cards
  • 27 cards for infection
  • 4 work cards
  • 2 prologue cards
  • 6 Files
  • 14 markers / tokens
  • 44 cubes
  • 3 tracking tokens
  • 2 sheets of stickers
  •  8 numbered packages
  • 1 board

The board will be a big shock to most Pandemic players. Instead of the whole world map, most are wrapped in complete darkness. All you can see is the Atlantic Ocean, where three of your floating ‘shelters’ are located, along with a fragment of the coast on the surrounding continents. The rest is available for you to explore !

You also get a bunch of sticker sheets. Stickers play a role in the development of the game and most of them are hidden at the moment. From the new tiles on the game board to the rules you add to the policy, you could change everything.

The best part, though, are the sign cards. These start completely blank, allowing you to select all the details of each character from the role play to the look and home location. It is important that you can even name them as you wish.

Otherwise, there are a bunch of boxes that contain a lot of secret material. And here I can’t stress this enough, the most important thing to remember when playing an abandoned game is to not open anything until they tell you. The game will evolve with a story that is a key part of the fun, so be patient.

How to play Pandemic Legacy: Season 2

How to play Pandemic Legacy: Season 2

Campaign

Pandemic Legacy runs for one year, with one game each month. Your goals will change each month, but in the end you will spend time delivering supplies to the remaining cities and managing the further spread of the plague.

The story unfolds through a legacy deck that dictates your goals and other game changes.

I don’t want to give any spoiler, but I will try to explain the basic rules of your first game. Although these may change over the years ... 

Layout

To begin, infect the board by placing plague cubes in specific places. Then, hand out city cards to all players before building a game board consisting of city cards, event cards, and five epidemic cards. 

Then read the legacy to learn your monthly goals and choose your characters and place your pussies in a home oasis. In the first game you will have to create them from scratch!

When turning

The reversals work similarly to the original pandemic, but with one additional step:

  1. Check exposure 

If your farmer is in a city with a plague cube, inflict one damage.

  1. Take four steps

You can now perform any combination of available actions. These include:

  • Move - either go directly to the adjacent location, go to the destination on the card with the city card, or if you are in the location listed on the card, go to any desired destination.
  • Make stocks - take the supply cube.
  • Deliver supplies - put supply cubes in place.
  • Share knowledge - give the player in the same location a city map that corresponds to the city you are in.
  • Build a care center - discard the five cards that match the color of your current location and build a care center there.
  • Recon - Explore unknown parts of the map. This usually requires a nearby care center and various combinations of city cards.

Your characters may have other abilities / actions, depending on their role, while you can also unlock other actions in the game.

  1. Draw two player cards

Then, in addition to filling the deck, you can also draw an epidemic map. If you're lucky enough to do this, follow these three steps:

  • Zoom in - Move the infection rate one space up the infection rate.
  • Infect - Draw the card below from the Infection deck and remove all supply cubes from this location. Add this card to a bunch of discarded infections.
  • Intensify - mix a pile of waste and put it back on the infection

4. Infected areas

From the top of the Infection Deck, turn as many infection cards as indicated by the infection rate label and add them to the pile of discards. Remove the supply cube from this place. If it does not have a supply cube, add a plague cube and move the event marker one space up the track.

If the site already has three plague cubes, an outbreak occurs. In this case, remove the supply cube from all connected sites or add the plague cube if they do not have one. For each plague cube placed, move the incident marker one space up the track.

When the player finishes the fourth step, go to the next player.

Win and lose

Through the game, you try to achieve your goals. If you run out of game boards or get to the end of the track, your team loses. If you achieve your goals without fulfilling either of these two conditions, you win and move on to the next game!

Your first pandemic legacy game: Season 2

Your first pandemic legacy game: Season 2

Most people playing Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 have probably already played the original Pandemic. And there are many similarities between them. But don’t think you know the rules! There are many differences and small changes to the rules you should know about.

The manual includes instructions for the "prologue game" that allow you to practice alternately without affecting the actual game. I highly recommend running through this person at least once a few times, as if something is stuck, there is no going back!

Event tickets

An example of changing the instructions is attached to the event cards. For those who don’t know, these are special skills that are on the game board and players can use at any time during the game - usually only once. There are two types in this version: rationed and unclassified.

Unsorted event cards are placed in the game board of each game, similar to the original. Rational tickets for events, however, are limited. And you only need to choose a few of them that individual games will move on board.

Advantages disadvantages

Advantages:

  • It uses the same mechanics that make the original Pandemic so great
  • Huge cooperative
  • A pleasant story
  • One of the most flexible legacy games

Weaknesses:

  • You need a committed group of players
  • Once you’ve played, that’s it

When you work with a basic game that is as popular as Pandemic, then you will always start with a strong position. And it wasn’t surprising how much I enjoyed this game. The collaboration, card management and structure of the plants that make the original so attractive are still present. Only the world around him has changed - the goals that your team must meet, and then the story that unfolds from one game to another has changed.

Great collaboration experience

If you haven’t played Pandemic yet, you need to know that it’s one of the best cooperative games out there. The strategy and interaction between the players, as you plan each individual action down to the smallest detail, can be inspiring, all the more impressive given the relatively simple rules it has. Then a threatening sense of doom emerges above you in the form of an infectious deck that steers the board ever closer to an irreversible pandemic. It's hard to match.

Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 has it all, but it’s associated with a brilliant narrative that will make it harder for players to take a break. As the story unfolds and you gradually explore new parts of the map, the natural sense of camaraderie on the team will undoubtedly take hold. You are together in this now. No members were left behind.

Your own unique legacy

Given the old games, the Pandemic Legacy series should be one of the most ambitious when it comes to personalization. I especially liked that you could choose the name of your character, the look and the home refuge. I made such a strong connection with Spud Lightly, my researcher (it just sounded ridiculous ) that adds an extra emotional charge to our strategy discussions.

Tango lasts 4

The main issue that people with the Pandemic Legacy program might have is finding a committed group of players to see it. You have to have the same individuals for each game to really make the most of it and - for the most strategic fun - a total of four players. As a co-op, you could have two people play two characters each, but when you have four players, team interaction and role-playing really take off.

Fortunately, with such a popular game, hopefully it won’t be a big challenge!

TL; DR

Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 is an old version of the classic cooperative game Pandemic. Played in a campaign of 12-24 games, your team of medical professionals must save humanity from extinction after the deadly plague.

A striking story changes an already strenuous pandemic experience, and the amount of personalization and lasting effects you can have on board will not only create stories that will last forever, but also your unique ones.

Conclusion: a verdict?

Since someone who ranks Pandemic as one of my favorite gaming experiences so far and also likes the concept of old games, you won’t be surprised if I learn, I highly recommend you get a copy of this game if you can bring the band together.

Because of the power of storytelling, it’s one of the best story-driven co-op games on the market, while the level of personalization and evolution of rules throughout the game puts it among the best abandoned interpretations of the game, too.

Get ready for one of the most strenuous, compelling, emotional, and exciting group gaming experiences you’ll ever have. Because of the human race, I wish you and your comrades good luck!

The Legacy of the Pandemic: Season 2
The Legacy of the Pandemic: Season 2
  • STRATEGIC GAME: Embark on an epic adventure to bring humanity back ...
  • GAME COOPERATIVE: Only with group work will you and ...
  • PLAY AFTER THE FLIGHT: Pandemic Legacy requires playing ...

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