Leading Pandemic Game

Last time I had a general idea about the game. This time however, my assignment was to lead the game and assign the roles of the other three players. In this blog post, I will be talking bout my enhanced understanding of the game in terms of it components and its rules while taking the game process as we used my previously stated strategy to win.

Pandemic Game contents/ Components:

• Pawns:  are what represents the selected characters - roles - by the team leader. they are color assorted to the role cards. 
  

• Role cards: consist of a medic, dispatcher, scientist, quarantine specialist, contingency planner, operation expert, and a researcher. each one of these individual role have a specific ability in which they contribute to cure all of the diseases. 

         

• Markers: include the outbreak marker, infection rate marker, and cure markers. 

           

• Colored cubes: cubes that represent the diseases to cure as they are distributed around the world alongside each card draw. 

             

• Research stations: these research station is what allows the members of the team to move from a city to another. 

        

• Player cards: these cards are what players draw in order to collect a certain amount of the same colored cards and cure the diseases. the player cards are to be shuffled at the beginning of the game and are stacked into 4 different piles so that event cards and epidemic cards are slipped into them evenly. eventually, these piles are stacked together and are placed into the player card section. 

          

• Infection cards: are cards of named cities alongside the colored cubes which the player would infect when they draw them. 

        

• Reference cards: are not used during the game however. they are used as a guideline for each player to look at when considering their next move. it includes four total actions for each player turn: 

• The board/ the world: is where all the previously mentioned contents go to their specific places.

Rules I had to revise for leading the game can be found in this website as seen in the following screenshots: 

Leading a Game:

Outline: 

A. The old game strategy
B. Progress and result of the game
C. Updated strategy 
D. Lessons learned
E. Evaluations 

A) 

Okay, so I will admit that when I first played the game a couple of weeks ago - when I thought I was prepared enough but I truly wasn't - I though that to win the game we did not need to cure all the diseases to win the game which then occurred to me that I had confused it to the fact that we did not need to clear all cubes of the board to win the game. beside this big drag that I solely believed in to win the game. My strategy mentioned in my previous blog post was that as long as the members played the role they knew best, voicing out opinions if one's felt that they can get closer to victory, keep a limited spread as much as possible (hahaha she thought!), and to only use special events cards when the spread is sever! I also mentioned how the main aim was to keep a trivial spread of diseases til we run out of player cards and BOOM: victory is here............

  

B) 

Although my strategy to win the game was solely built with confusion, mis -and- understanding of the game rules. It is only natural to (SPOILER!)  lose because it is like how a student would treat a question in a text:

Understanding the question is 50% of the answer = Understanding the game is 50% of winning 

So as the game continued, I was applying my learning as I communicated with other members of the team where I made it clear to them that although I am the assigned leader, I am not more acknowledged than any of you. and asked them if they had any intentions of interfering with my strategy - that I made clear before starting- then they are more than welcomed to. One thing I really had to give it up to myself for was that I knew what I was doing while picking specific roles for specific members. At that time I gave who I thought of as the best between us the role of the researcher which in my opinion then the quickest way to cure diseases. I needed someone who is attentive to the locations of the members and their cards so they can switch whenever possible. I had the role of a scientist - and not to say the scientist is trivial as a role - but someone who had the level of knowledge like me back then was suitable for this role, all I had to do was to collect 4 from the same color and that is it. The other two were operation expert and medic. these roles to me are the prefect combination to win the game we can build stations to help move across, exchange cards, removing all cards in one location (medic), and finally rapidly trying to cure a disease (ME!). 


Now, as we played we were never really close to victory and the main reason as i mentioned earlier because my strategy did not have any specific objective and were just directed mainly to win the game..... How? I also failed to mentioned that. On a brighter note, I believe the team communication was great everyone jumped in when the other was in trouble. I myself was learning new things about the game as it went on. literally learning new rules, realizing how I did not know a good 30% of it. therefore, since everyone was following my lead and depended on a fragile foundation (my strategy) to win the game. We had slowly lost. 

C) 

I've updated my strategy from a general to a more focused one that I will hopefully implement next time. First of all I think I will pick the same roles I've picked in the game I had lead. However, since we are 4 players. I would want each player to focus on collecting the color they had the most of from the first two rounds. For example, someone who had dominant red in their first 2 draws could focus on collecting the red with help from researcher and in terms of where they move in the map (which we did in the game I lead but once or twice). Another objective is to use the event cards as soon as possible because it had seemed to me that the sooner the better from the losing game. I had contradicted myself in the old strategy when I said: okay, keep the spread limited, but use the event cards only when necessary. Now that I know better :), it does not work like that. Keeping a limited spread is not an option simply because it is not controllable. Therefore, using the even cards accelerate winning the game. Also, it had occurred to me that not many of the members in the team were using different actions besides moving from city to city in 4 actions, we did build research centers but it completely crossed my mind that we could fly over or charter a flight or the fact that we get to P.A.S.S!! 

D)

I've learned a lot of new rules from this game with the help of the members and their reminders: I have to remember to increase the draw as the the infection rate increases. Instead of focusing on clearing out the cubes, focus on collecting the cards to find a cure for the diseases. Personally, I could change the roles in future games however two roles that must be consistent in my teams are the researcher and the medic. we just have to switch cards and we have to be able to clear any cubes as long as we cure them. I also watched games led by other classmates: I liked one where the leader wanted a member to stick to a region and clear the diseases from there until a cure was found. and for that member to only move outside their zone until necessary to help another region and go back again to their assigned locations. although that strategy was not voiced out, overtime I was able to know what is happening. At the end, we indeed won the game. But again, in terms of communication, I do believe that our team had a very effective communication or else we could have lost are early as we started. 

E) 

My strategy to win this time is more hopeful than the old one in terms of specific objective of roles, turns, where the focus would be, attention to the marker, assigning members to a specific disease and alternating when needed. more tips such as clearing out the regions where most cubes are positioned to avoid outbreaks, and remembering that a player can do more than just move to the near cities in 4 actions, they can fly and move across as well!   

Finally, since I've had evaluated and assessed my technique in leading the game my team members also had the chance to evaluate me according to certain criteria:

Note: One (I) mark for one vote from a total from three members

Leadership Characteristic	Strongly Disagree	Disagree	Neutral	Agree	Strongly Agree
Communicate the plan effectively before the game started				II	I
Supported players in implementing strategy throughout the game			I		II
Kept the team focused on the objective				II	I
Listened to other’s ideas and took them under advisement				II	I
Maintained a positive, professional attitude throughout the game				I	II

As I mentioned earlier, I was only able to provide limited help to the members therefore It might have appeared from their perspective that I was providing minimum help. Beside that, looking at the criteria as a whole. I am aware of the fact that I was not able to reach the strongly agree category in all criteria due to my -Again- lack of full and proper knowledge and proper cohesive thinking of a proper strategy prior to the game.