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This game scratches a lot of itches for me – worker placement, dice, and sci-fi.

I have the 4th edition proudly displayed and played many times. I love it very much.

Based on the reviews on this site, I purchased it, and due to the policy of the publisher (which may have recently changed) of not allowing it for online sale, I went to many retailers to track it down. It was very worth the time invested, as the gameplay is top-notch.

My main criticism is that it’s too good – it has spawned eleventy-billion expansions, some of which are okay, but none are as strong as the core game. I see them available, and I remember how awesome the base game is, and I purchase them without doing any research. When they add little to the core, and I expel them in favour of the clean awesome core game, I get a bit of remorse. Not much, though.

Thank you!

This game is amazing! Kudos to the designer, to the artist, and to all involved. I played the initial map with my friends, and we liked it fine, but it didn’t shine. I played the initial map with my kids (5 and 8) and they loved it. They loved it so much, they wanted to play the campaign, and so we have. We’re onto the 11th map out of 12 now, and their interest has been kept beautifully. It’s elegant, and lovely, and everything great! Thank you!

I love pandemic, and anything expands to it, I grab immediately.

I’ll admit, I had a bit of buyers remorse with this expansion, but it faded rapidly. The pricepoint is a bit high (almost as much as the standalone game), but it’s well worth it.

It includes the following modules – any of which can be played with just Vanilla Pandemic – On the Brink and/or In the Lab are not required, but also great, and compatible with these:

Hinterlands – More board = more awesomeness – adds the ability for diseases to be spread into, and from, animals in the hinterlands via chance (a die)

Emergency Events – In the Vanilla Pandemic, all events are good, perhaps, great. These ones are bad, perhaps terrible, and remain in effect until a new crisis is to be dealt with…

Superbug Challenge – A disease which cannot be treated, or cured, without the help of a special vaccine factory.

Quarantines – Have some actions to spare after you’ve gone somewhere and need to stay? Look no further! Quarantines are there to help you!

There are new roles – some have special abilities which work great with some of the modules (Veterinarian is great for the Hinterlands), while others are great at everything (for example – First Responder)

The new components are plastic, which is a bit of a bummer for wood enthusiasts, but not a big deal.

Conclusion – Add all the modules, add one, or add none, more Pandemic is always a good thing! Teach the basic version, then add to your hearts content. Lovely!

I was lucky enough to be a backer of this game, and I love it.

Setup is relatively easy – the rulebook does a great job of walking through the steps required, and hopefully will become intuitive after a few more plays.

I love this game for so many reasons – the art is amazing, the character cards are all unique, it plays quickly, and here are some details on the title reasons:

Tech trees – As well as gorgeous looking, when you build your “Pyramid of Power”, you are rewarded accordingly. It does cost more the higher you go, but the rewards are worth it – the higher you go, the better they get. Rewards vary from character to character, and it never feels like an automatic decision.

Gems – The cardboard gems included with the game are great already, and the add-on pack for sale from the manufacturer are super cool. I advise testing the waters with just the cardboard before taking the plunge if you’re interested

Many paths to victory – The scoresheet reminds me a lot of 7 wonders, as there are multiple ways to accumulate victory points, each one is interesting, and there’s even a conflict element, where you have to watch what your neighbours are doing, and react accordingly.

Conclusion – If you’re intrigued by any of these items, I highly recommend giving this game a try, it’s well worth it.

Full disclosure: I love vanilla Pandemic, and my wife loves vanilla Pandemic, so I have a built in soft spot for the ability to play a lot of Pandemic. That being said, I firmly believe that the design and implementation of the legacy component of this game was meant to be joined with Pandemic.

If you’ve played vanilla Pandemic, you know that the game is strong in so many ways, and it lends itself to have players tell a story. Pandemic Legacy still has many random components of awesome, a game can change at any moment based on which cards are drawn, and in which order, but the over-arching story is brilliant and amazing.

If you love Pandemic as I do, you owe it to yourself to pick this up.

If you don’t love Pandemic, this is a harder sell, but many people have said that the extra thematic elements have greatly improved their perception of Pandemic.

Although the game isn’t useful after finishing the story, having the board around in all its unique glory is a great reminder of some great times.

Bring on Season 2!

Here are the 2 main reasons why this expansion is a must-have for lovers of Pandemic.

– Amazing new role cards
– Fantastic new components (re-print set comes with a droolable functional insert) (New disease, new pawns, new event cards, new newness!)

Playing the base game is still a lot of fun, but this expansion brings this game to a whole new level. I personally won’t play without it.

Thank you Matt Leacock!

I have played this game countless times, and I still can’t get enough. It’s absolutely amazing.

When introducing the concept to non-gamers, I often get the question of “Why would I collect all these cards?”, and mid-game, they’re salivating to get more. The theme of attempting to attract the attention of nobles, and being an awesome… gem collector… isn’t really appealing, but collecting is fun and awesome.

The component quality, as has been said numerous times, can’t be talked about enough. The chips are amazing. I kind of want to hold the chips for hours on end, but that might be saying too much.

I highly recommend this game to absolutely everyone – there is no one who won’t love it. It’s easy to teach, replays at least 5 or 6 times in the same evening, and many evenings afterwards.

Any game that totes magnets in it is a winner already, but this game goes further than that, in my opinion.

In this game, you have to travel through an unseen maze in order to collect a number of symbols. Your token consists of a lovely hat which you push around the board, but underneath it holds the physical attention of a mystical ball. When you move through the spaces, the ball remains transfixed when you are moving through open space, but when you move through an unseen wall – UH OH! – the ball falls and you return to your corner. Through your journey, you will hopefully remember which ways are open, and which ways are blocked.

Setup – you construct a maze either by following directions included in the game with variable difficulty, reading online to determine a preferred method, or doing your own thing and making sure to follow the only rule – every tile has to be accessible.

Gameplay is quick, but can be lengthened or shortened by the requirement of symbols. When we played, the goal was to obtain 5 symbols, and it took us about 10 minutes.

Final thoughts – replay value is assured, with all kinds of invisible awesomeness going on. Simplicity of learning the game is definitely there, and the magical theme is awesome as well. Lots of fun!

First off, I should mention that although I like the original Carcassonne, I don’t love it. I love memory games, and I love strategy games, but my feeble brain isn’t capable of remembering every tile possibility in the game, and then extrapolating what is already on the board. Kudos to those that can, but I don’t count myself among the worthy.

This game slightly removes that element – the choices of where to put your meeples strategically is removed. No longer will you leave a meeple stranded to spend the rest of his / her days toiling in an unfinished field. That sets my mind at ease for reasons I cannot describe.

You draw a random tile, and then place it legally. I don’t know the specifics, but it feels MUCH easier to place a tile legally then it is in the original game, so I suspect only roads and ends of roads exist on the four sides.

The only goal in this game is to finish roads, and after the road is finished, you place your meeple(s) on it to remind everyone how cool you are. The first to run out of meeples wins the game. Simple, elegant, lovely.

Because everyone’s meeples are on display, it is possible to tell when someone is closer to winning than you and not go out of your way to end the game, because it has likely been less than 10 minutes.

The components are beautiful – nice, thick, and large tiles (larger than original), and oversized meeples. I sincerely hope the re-printed edition of this maintains this.

Final thoughts – lovely, short, simple. Great to teach game mechanics to anyone, but that tiny bit of strategy to keep us adults engaged.

Enjoy!

To say that this game gives me chills is an understatement. It gives my chills chills. Granted, it is a lot of work to set up, a lot of work to tear down, and a lot of time to play, but all of this effort is extremely well spent. The theme is everywhere, and the feeling that you are a crew member or a cylon is perfectly present throughout. Both roles are equally enjoyable, and at the end of the game, I don’t mind winning or losing – the game itself was fun. I would play this again at every opportunity, I love it. I highly recommend this game to fans and non-fans of the show. Knowledge of the show is definitely not required, and can only enhance the feeling of the game, it does not give an advantage.

I have played this game with family, and friends. The tips regarding the amount of time to read the cards are phenomenal, and have helped a lot with reducing the amount of meta-gaming.

In short, if you have the time, and a copy of this game is around, you owe yourself the pleasure of playing this wonderful game.

This game is amazingly fun, and I wanted to play immediately after having played the first time, but after the 10th time, I was kinda done.

The fact that you have no choice but go or no go wears a bit thin after a while. There’s a lot to be said for simple, but one more choice would make it – I recommend Martian Dice highly for a similar game, but given that one more choice of which to keep.

Increasing the component quality is very easy – as shown on tabletop, just keep some brains around, but don’t eat them.

I love this game – it has everything I want superficially = space theme, dice, fighting, and easy! It definitely doesn’t disappoint either – after 3 different times playing, I have not experienced a single similarity. Absolutely brilliant. The dice are big and beautiful, the mechanics used in the game are extremely elegant and simple. The setup is relatively quick, and the insert is functional. I feel proud to own this game.

When I first heard about this expansion, I was very excited. An awesome sounding expansion, to an already awesome game. My enthusiasm for everything was supreme. It was going to add a race that is fun to play, a third player possibility, and more minis!

However, the things I thought I would love tended to clunk up the game, so I don’t play with this expansion any more. The race is still fun to play, and the minis are cool, but the missions are weak and/or hard, and the play is slowed down so much by the extra player that it isn’t worth it.

Sorry, WizKids. I still love you, but this was bad.

This game is flat out amazing. Every game is phenomenally different, every game is great, and those MINIATURES are gorgeous.

Here is the only petty con I have:

The quality of the cards used for the “board” are poor.

The ability to randomize character decks, space decks, mission decks, and choose 2 different races expands the universe so much. The entire game is steeped in Star Trek – each card provides great flavour and excellent immersion into the story of the game.

Thank you WizKids for this amazing game.

I really enjoyed this game, but the lack of holders for the cards took away from the game play a bit. It was a lot of fun, but I was taken out of the mindset of gaming too often to make this an instant buy. Hard to argue with the price, though. An excellent filler, once someone makes custom components for it, or a multi-tiered filing system which would be really sweet.

The tension that inevitably results in having to make a blind choice, and not wanting to let your fellow players down is real. Who knew fireworks could be stressful?

edit – a member of our gaming group made components to hold the cards out of wood, and it was fantastic