Reviews written by jeb

This is a very well-presented game of Rummy, with a sliiiiiight chance at screwage. The player interaction is almost completely an afterthought in the two-person game, so I would recommend this strictly for three to five players unless you have the TTR:Switzerland expansion. Four players is probably ideal, as it gives a decent chance at player interaction with minimal downtime. If folks agonize on their turns for more than say, five seconds, a five player game can be kind of a drag.

The game looks great, and it's a great example of a board game with a map that is not Risk. This matter more than you think when you're playing with someone whose most exotic gaming experience has been Yahtzee or Phase 10. The little plastic trains give all the OCD folks something to play with, and the scoring track looks nice and is easy to work with, now that current editions have it going to 100--the original was 80, because the designer is an idiot.

This is a Euro, through and through. An abstracted map, some wooden blocks, stacks of cards, and role selection. Even with all that, the theme is great (diseases are spreading! The CDC is on the scene!), there is a lot of tension as you try to rein in infections, and the player interaction of constantly trying to meet up and exchange cards to quell the next outbreak makes this a "secret AT game". You can play with the Euro crowd and get away with it--they'll never notice!

I like the components--the dark world map looks nice compared to all the Risk map clones out there. The cards are decent enough stock, and the cubes, are well, quite wooden I guess. They're wooden cubes, there's nothing to harp on. I wish the board was a little bigger, just because it can get a little confusing when an epidemic starts spreading cubes everywhere. Well produced rulebook, too.