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Pandemic: The Board Game?
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Popularity Score: 21
This app was mentioned in 35 comments, with an average of 4.71 upvotes
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There's a mobile app which is the best "tabletop to electronic" game conversion IMHO. Its the best way to play a quick solo game if you want to practice.
In addition to the tabletop game, they make a mobile version if you want to flip your phone. It's the best mobile game I've ever played, HD clean graphics and it plays 100% identical to the tabletop game.
Let me recommend Pandmic. It's a great implementation of the boardgame. Though it's not networked, so works best as a solo challenge, it's really well-implemented and good fun.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.f2zentertainment.pandemic&hl=en
Pandemic just came out. It's based on and a true translation of the coop board game of the same name. You control a group a researchers trying to find the cure for 4 global epidemics before the clock runs out. It's $7 with a single $2 IAP for the On The Brink expansion, which adds more to the game, but is in no way required to enjoy it.
Since OP forgot to post the link (probably changed from Link to Text)... https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.f2zentertainment.pandemic
I have only 4 experiences with gifting board games, 3 to heavy video gamers, 1 to non-gamer.
Results were not expected. I mistakenly assumed video gamers would naturally take to board games.
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Heavy video gamer #1: Late 30's, lives alone, male, entrenched in video gaming culture, doesn't play as many video games as time spent reading/talking about games, has a (video)gamer friend group that meets once a week to play games. I gifted him Clank!, which should be perfect for their type of group - if they ever played it. I'm not sure he ever opened it. Hasn't mentioned it once, it's been at least 6 months.
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Heavy video gamer #2: Late 40's, lives with: 21 year old son (lets call him "Joe"), wife, and sister-in-law, both around his age (upper 40's, low 50's). Doesn't do video gaming news at all, but pirates literally everything that comes out, no job for 15 years, plays computer games 8-18 hours a day. I gifted him Pandemic and the app. The one time it came up was about 3 weeks later. Here was the exchange:
Me: Have you had a chance to play Pandemic with your family yet?
Him: Yes.
Me: How did it go?
Him: Joe won.
Me: Oh.
I changed the subject and never brought it up again.
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Heavy video gamer #3: Mid 30's, lives with his wife, can't work (disabled). Plays video games all day. Gifted Hyperborea, Fire & Axe, and Broadsides (no, I don't hate him, I thought they might like it for a 2 player game that nobody else in our friend circle has). I also gave him print and play versions of Unbroken and Tiny Epic Zombies for him to try out.
Broadsides: Not sure they ever played it, sounded like he was having troubles with the rules.
Fire & Axe: I believe he never played it, or tried it once.
Tiny Epic Zombies: I don't believe he/they played it.
Unbroken: He said he played it 3 times one evening, but it was too random to be any fun (I haven't played it, so I dunno).
Hyperborea: Says he's played it a few times and really likes it.
It's been months and I haven't heard another word about the games.
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Non-gamer: Mid-30's, Lives with husband, no kids. Hasn't played a board game outside of Monopoly. She's a good friend of my wife's and we needed an emergency baby sitter one day. She saw my shelf of games, and, like the 10 year old that I am, I couldn't contain my 40 year old self and spewed forth all kinds of exciting details about modern board games at a blistering pace that would bore anyone to death. I'm certain it came off very poorly, but boy did she do a good job of pretending to listen and care. We took her out to dinner to thank her for helping us, and on the way I sneaked off to the game store and picked up Pandemic to give her.
Hadn't talked to her since then, 6+ months ago, until last week. Her and her husband were over for my daughter's birthday party (2). I'm not good at small talk so I immediately went into "did you have a chance to play Pandemic?"
Not only did she play it, she had stories about it. Her husband seemed to not have a care to give. She also told me that she has since picked up Villainous and "Jurassic Park" (no idea, but it sounds like something she got at Target?).
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^(edit)
BONUS: 2 years old, no job, not yet a gamer. Allergic to eggs and nuts. Lives with mom and dad. I gifted her Here Fishy! Fishy! She loves it. Has played multiple times, wants to play frequently, usually at inopportune times for mom and dad.
The best thing you can do is play a computer version of the game to see if it does anything differently than how you expect.
The official mobile versions: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.f2zentertainment.pandemic&hl=en
https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/pandemic-the-board-game/id700793523?mt=8
There's also an unofficial windows version:
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/618360/yet-another-computer-version-pandemic-windemic
Here are the on-sale titles. This is in USD and Google Play via USA
| Title | Normal Cost | Current Cost | Discount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pandemic: The Board Game | $3.99 | $1.99 | 50% |
| Splendor | $3.99 | $1.99 | 50% |
| Carcassonne | $7.99 | $3.99 | 50% |
| Twilight Struggle | $9.99 | $2.99 | 66% |
| Mysterium | $4.99 | $1.49 | 70% |
| Smash Up | $4.99 | $2.49 | 50% |
| Fighting Fantasy Legends | $5.49 | $2.99 | 45% |
| Colt Express | $4.99 | $1.49 | 70% |
These sales appear to be mirrored for Android:
Forbidden Desert and Forbidden Island aren't available on the Play Store, and Glass Road isn't on sale. Additional sale items:
- Carcassonne 4.99$ > 1.99$
- Talisman 2.99$ > 1.99$
The other commenters are correct that it's hard to know what's going on without a detailed breakdown. However, there are a couple of things that I would add that I consider when it comes to strategy:
Always remember you are playing to win. In regular Pandemic, that means curing the four diseases. In Pandemic Legacy, that may mean a little more. It also means not losing. One of the biggest mistakes I see new groups making is trying to clear lots of cubes from the board. You only need to clear cubes under two conditions: 1) to prevent outbreaks; and 2) to prevent yourself running out of cubes. So the first priority in a new game is addressing the three cube cities, then you should be identifying a route to the first cure.
I see you and others are commenting on the synergy between the dispatcher and the medic. I think the dispatcher has the greatest synergy with the scientist. One of the biggest time sinks in this game is getting two people to the same city to trade a card. The dispatcher's ability to move a pawn to another pawn is a massive help here. And in a four player game, I think the dispatcher is one of the most useful roles.
Direct/charter flights can be an expensive way to travel. Shuttle flights are free after the initial investment. Try to get a couple of research stations out on the board reasonably early. This will help your group's mobility and reduce turns spent on travel.
If you have to choose between preventing an outbreak and trading a card, prevent the outbreak. If you have to choose between preventing an outbreak and curing a disease, cure the disease. You don't want outbreaks, but you can afford seven of them. They're another resource and need to be treated as such.
Watch the discard pile and the player pile. You should know roughly where in the deck you drew an epidemic card from and whether that was early or late for the fifth of the deck it was in. If you drew an epidemic card early, don't worry too much about cities in the infection discard pile. If you drew an epidemic card late, those should be a priority.
If you can eradicate a disease relatively easily, you should. And breath a sigh of relief if this means the infect step of an epidemic is that color. There is an added bonus to this in Legacy, which is visible from opening the box, but I'll keep behind spoiler tags: [](/s "disease upgrades are useful and only acquirable on eradicated diseases.")
And finally, there is a very good implementation of Pandemic in a mobile app, on Android, and on iOS. There's also a version coming soon to early access on Steam. This can be both a way of getting practice and, by having the app manage the rules, you can identify whether you're playing the game correctly.
| Game | Original | Sale |
|---|---|---|
| Pandemic | $4.99 | $1.99 |
| Splendor | $6.99 | $1.99 |
| Small World 2 | $6.99 | $1.99 |
| Twilight Struggle | $4.99 | $1.99 |
| Jaipur | $4.99 | $0.99 |
| Potion Explosion | $2.99 | $0.99 |
| Mysterium | $4.99 | $0.99 |
| Colt Express | $4.99 | $1.99 |
| Mr. Jack Pocket | $2.99 | $0.99 |
| Abalone | $2.99 | $0.99 |
| Mage: The Ascension: Refuge | $4.99 | $1.99 |
| Vampire: Prelude | $4.99 | $1.99 |
Pick up Pandemic for $1.99 while you're at, too.
> Pandemic the video game, not the board game. The video game is the same as Plague Inc. - a single player game where you play as a disease trying to infect the whole world, with talent points to improve your disease, etc.
This sounds like Pandemic: Contagion but I haven't found any digital version of that game. Can you help me with a link?
I only know that the original cooperative Pandemic boardgame has a digital version.
Pandemic is a 4 player co-operative board game where you and your friends try to eradicate 4 diseases using various specialists.
Game can be played by 1-4 players 4 is optimum.
Play version is a faithful rendition. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.f2zentertainment.pandemic
Ticket to Ride is a fun, simple game where you try and connect cities on the board while trying to block other players.
App gets mediocre reviews.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.daysofwonder.tt.android
Carcassonne is a tile placement game with some worker placement aspects.
Pretty fun and the app is decently made.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asmodeedigital.carcassonne
Since you mentioned Risk, you should definitely take a look at the growing library of digital board games available on Google Play. Many of the top ones are premium games, so no IAPs to worry about.
Here are a few:
Pandemic
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.f2zentertainment.pandemic
Neuroshima Hex
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bdc.nh
Among the Stars
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cublo.AmongTheStars&hl=en_US
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Skull Girls is a fighting game that has a fairly decent touchscreen implementation--no floating buttons that I recall. It is more of a freemium/IAP based game, but it's mostly based around unlocking new characters/skins. So if you like the base characters, I think you can play for a while without having to worry about spending money. It's been a while since I looked at this one, so things might have changed:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.autumn.skullgirls&hl=en_US
Good luck!
I really like the port of Pandemic.
You can play pandemic solo if you want! There's also an app. Android and ios