by TomTi89
As far as I'm concerned, it should all be plain sailing from here!. The bulk of the challenge is behind us, and we're on cleanup duty now. We went into this game with 10 funding, all the experimental vaccines, the nuke, and so on. I've typed all that before.Just one, maybe two difficult sessions where we'll probably lose while focusing on vaccinating cities, and then we should cruise to victory.
Is that how this one played out?
Let's do the initial infection step and find out!
As with last game, we had some concerning clumps of faded in Asia, but mostly a variety of cubes all around the world. Nothing that would prompt fears of chain outbreaks.
We chose the following roles:
Tom: Immunologist
Melissa: Soldier
Penny: Operations Expert [Rivals with Soldier]
That's right. We chose a team with no powers besides the newly-formed relationships. The Immunologist is brand new, and we had never previously played the Operations Expert!
After struggling for a name for the former, we eventually went with Eugene, thinking it sort of mirrored Eugene's plotline in Walking Dead [kinda...not gonna discuss/spoil TV here].
We quickly named the latter Bob, as in Bob the Builder.
Our funding: Everything except for Flexible Aid Package [10 funding]
Other upgrades: Experimental Vaccine x3, Stem Cells, Trending Data, Air Strike, Binoculars, Nuclear Option, Tactical Centres Now Online, Experimental Program
We started in Chennai, with a clear path to our permanent vaccine factory in Tehran. It was possible to get there, and pick up vaccine doses, in four actions. There's none at the start of a game though, so we spent some time clearing up Asia.
But...first turn Epidemic! We get stung by those so often, and still nothing to help prevent it. Urgh.
Well, not to worry, as we can soon start vaccinating.
We did utilise an Experimental Vaccine though, on the second Epidemic. Lagos is out of the way, so we upped that to panic level 1, and prevented outright disaster.
We were also able to use the ever-powerful Resilient Population and One Quiet Night to further halt the spread of diseases.
This allowed the Operations Expert to build more factories. The earliest one was a quick shuttle flight to Buenos Aires to place a factory in Santiago. We also ended up with one in Cairo.
There are three main fronts for the Faded: North America, Europe, and Asia & the Pacific Rim. With two main vaccinators [Immunologist and Soldier] we could only prioritise two, so Asia would have to wait.
One of the key things we achieved was to create a wall, splitting Europe and Africa off from the uninfected parts of Asia. By vaccinating Moscow, Istanbul, Algiers, and, for good measure, Cairo, we have all but guaranteed the safety of the people to the east of that wall.
On the American side we vaccinated City Zero [New York], Montreal, and Washington, in addition to London, preventing countless chain outbreaks there. We also helped Los Angeles, helping to prevent any more faded from entering Sydney and converting more cities.
We were eventually faced with a dire situation. Mexico City and Shanghai were both at risk of outbreaking, potentially spreading into Bogotá and Hong Kong, respectively. Taipei was safe as we had already used Tactical Centres Now Online to protect it with two roadblocks, the third being between Sydney and Jakarta.
We knew an outbreak was coming, but it was a question of what to do, and where. But...we had the Nuclear Option card!
As soon as we realised what a situation we were in, I argued we nuke Mexico City, but Melissa suggested Shanghai. We weighed them up for a long time, including the third option of not nuking at all.
I don't remember every aspect of the decision, but we did settle on Mexico City.
Of all the places I would have thought we'd nuke, I would never have said Mexico City, which now lies Fallen, utterly devoid of life.
I would have predicted somewhere in Europe...
So now, with one card from the infection deck gone from the game, making the others statistically more likely to come up, and a smaller player deck, making the epidemics more likely, AND the obvious [BGCOLOR=#000000]sixth epidemic[/BGCOLOR] card coming up in November or December, the world will get smaller, but potentially more lethal.
Back to the action, and we dodged the bullet in Shanghai as the card did not come up. Next turn we managed to vaccinate Hong Kong, plugging that leak for this game, at least.
As an added bonus, due to our opening moves in Hong Kong, the scramble to be there at the end, and some good old-fashioned luck, we were able to eradicate red, our first eradication in many games! That sure felt good!
Unfortunately the Shanghai outbreak did eventually happen. On another turn we had one in Tokyo, causing chain outbreaks in Shanghai and Osaka, costing us the game.
I expected a loss [though never play for one of course] and think we may suffer one again next game, though I am as optimistic as ever.
Still with maximum funding, two more experimental vaccines, a greatly-reduced faded count [less than half the board - 17 cities] and a host of powerful characters still to use, I'm confident we will win this thing outright.
Goal for next game? Split up some of the massive lines of faded cities. We can not afford any chain outbreaks, especially in December!
Our game end upgrades:
Permanent vaccine factory in Santiago.
Easier Agents for red. Three card cure for the Scientist? Don't mind if I do!
Oh, and a prediction for next month? This military business comes to a head now that we've outed the soldier. I predict we'll be ripping up every single one of our military characters, being forced to use only the medical ones.
To see more images from this game, click here!