by edknam
Phew, we finally finished our game!# of Players: 3: My Wife, my 11 yr old (but precocious) daughter, and me.
Final Score: 935
COdA: Red
City Zero: Sydney
Traitor: Soldier
Total Scars: 5 on 2 characters
Total Games: 17 (one month loss: May)
We had 1 military base left at the end, so if we had known to destroy it, our score would have been 1015! I was pretty shocked to see that our score was the high score on the survey. I know that we played pretty well, but I didn’t know that we had done THAT well. We think that we could have done better by relying more on the researcher than some of the other characters. And we did lose 3 games in a row (May and June I).
Early on, we set a primary strategy of controlling and minimizing outbreaks. As a result, it meant a lot of shuttle flights (card usage) and slower cures and a VERY busy medic. Mid game saw heavy reliance on the soldier and researcher. We also wanted to get one disease eradicated each month, which helped with infections. We struggled with whether this was the right strategy, but I guess it paid off because we were rewarded handsomely at the end with extra points for having so few rioting/collapsed/fallen cities- we had 14/2/1 respectively.
Late game, we concentrated on quick searches, prioritizing it over almost everything else. We got every search within two rounds (each player going twice). Exceptions being the search for patient zero, which took us 2 months. To do so successful on searches took a fair amount of planning, and assigning characters based on cards dealt and who went first. Most important was having the ability to pick up key cards was. First the solder, then the researcher with the Flexible ability were critical to not only searching, but picking up important equipment.
We also had a lucky November month where we met victory conditions early. Instead of ending the game, we held off on the final victory condition and took the time to vaccinate as many COdA cities as possible. We expected that to help December. Interestingly it didn’t, but it did help gain the 100 point bonus.
It was difficult playing with only 3 players. We were struggling without a dispatcher. On the plus side, the other key characters got more actions between each epidemic on average. We considered adding a 4th non player character.
We can’t wait to play Season 2, but we are going to take a break. It’s a pretty intense game!