No, I’m not talking about everyone’s favourite topic from the past three years, I’m talking about the tabletop game called Pandemic from 2008.
I’m a die-hard fan of boardgames. The more strategic, the better. For years lunch hours were spent in an empty boardroom with Benoit bringing in new games to try out every couple of weeks.
Vero isn’t the biggest fan of games, but she’s not opposed to them either. So with that knowledge, I realized that maybe the best way to approach games is to find one where we weren’t playing against each other, but we were playing TOGETHER against the game itself.
Look up any list of ‘best co-operative games’ and Pandemic is generally at the top of the list.
Two games in, we can see why. The game changes drastically every time you play it. The mechanics of moving to a city, treating disease and trying to find a cure always stays the same but every time you start a game different cities are infected and you have to figure out which ones to tackle first.
Our first game a few weeks ago was pretty brutal. We were focussed on treating diseases that we never really found time to find cures which is the only way to win the game.
This time around, Vero and I lucked into some great cards from the beginning and we just went from there to eventually win the game. It wasn’t easy. It also took two hours!
I think over time we will figure out different strategies (hard to eradicate a disease on your own!) and maybe the game will speed up a bit each time we play. I laugh at the suggested time to play being 45 minutes but I suppose it could happen if we were seasoned veterans.
Either way, it’s a fun game to play and I think we both enjoy the co-operative mechanics of trying to defeat the actual game and not each other.