SuperRad Dad

Pandemic: Contagion Review

2014-12-11T11:40:00.002-08:00

(2-5 Players; 30 minutes; Ages 13+;
zmangames.com; MSRP $29.99)

If one was to (as many have) make a list of the top 10-15 games that everyone should play, undoubtedly Matt Leacock's "Pandemic" would be on that list.

Though not the first of its kind, "Pandemic" ushered to the forefront the "cooperative" style of gameplay; with the players not competing against each other, but rather the game itself. Players took on the role of a specialist at the Center for Disease Control tasked with eradicating four diseases that were spreading their way across the globe. With each player's turn, the stakes became higher, the stress increased, and the time-bomb that was global disaster ticked away. It was fun, it was challenging, and it was a wild success.

So much so that the "Pandemic" brand has spawned a card game in the form of "Pandemic: Contagion." In "Contagion," however there is no hope for humanity as players are the disease and "there is no cure" as the box proudly proclaims.

City Cards have three levels of scoring and a special effect.

In Contagion, players will take turns infecting cities with their specific colored disease by playing cards of the same color as the city, in order to place one of their infection cubes onto the city card. Each city card has a certain number of population, denoted by a large number on the card; once the number of cubes from all players reaches this number, the city is considered destroyed. Congratulations! You've just killed every living person in a major city and brought it to ruin, have some victory points! Points are awarded based on who has the most cubes of their color on a city when the city "pops," with only the top three players on the card scoring. However the player who makes the city pop, gets a special effect that is listed on the city card, regardless how how many cubes he has on the card.

Scoring also occurs periodically as players turn over an "Event Deck" of cards which mark the number of rounds. At the beginning of each round, a card from the Event Deck is revealed which changes the flow of that round - it may cause players to discard cards from their hand, remove cubes from the city cards, or allow players to pay a reduced cost to infect cities. Additionally, "Death Toll" scoring may occur when an Event Card reveals a skull and crossbones - the player with the most amount of cubes on a city card will score points for that city. So not only does control matter when a city is about to be destroyed, its incredibly important throughout the game in order to score massive points during Death Toll scoring.

WHO and Event Cards

Occasional rounds will begin with the drawing of World Health Organization (WHO) cards, which will
always affect players negatively somehow - either reducing the number of color cards that can be drawn or the number of cities that can be infected or some similar calamity for the diseases. These negative effects (or positive effects for the surviving world, it's all perspective after all) can be prevented by building up your disease's resistance - a meter you manage on your player board which allows you to take hits and keep on spreading death. The Resistance meter is one of three meters which you can choose to "mutate" on your turn in order to increase the number of cards drawn, infection cubes that can be played, or protect against the WHO cards.

Play ends at the conclusion of the last round or when only two cities are left in the world. Points are tallied and the biggest, baddest disease is the winner.

"Contagion" takes a lot of its cues from another Area-Control card game called "Smash Up" which you can see my review of right here. But whereas "Smash Up" had so many moving parts in it that play ground to a halt when figuring out whether a card "popped" and what it's effect was, "Contagion" feels streamlined and
smooth. It is a very simple, very quick-playing area-control game that is easy to teach and moves seamlessly from round to round. The choices are limited, but the constraint is enjoyable; do you draw more cards so you can infect more cities on your next turn? Do you build up your resistance to get in a stronger position than your opponents? Do you spread out your disease across many cards in the hope of controlling them all a little, or focus on one city with a big payoff? Moreover, do you convince your opponents to join you in that big city so that you can all share a little in its destruction or do they keep away so that your efforts never cause the city to pop? There are a lot of little nuanced strategies here in a small package.

(literally a small package - fitting everything back into the box can be a puzzle game in it of itself, especially if you have those cards sleeved.)

"Contagion" (not designed by Leacock) is never going to be as huge as the original "Pandemic," and likely it'll get eclipsed by the much-hyped and also recently released "Pandemic: The Cure," which is a dice version of the original "Pandemic" (and also designed by Leacock), but I consider it a sleeper-hit. It honors its brand with being a clever game with simple rules and a great production, and well worth your time to pick it up and try it out with gamers and non-gamers alike.

Kris Kingle, Christ, & Christmas

2014-12-11T10:22:00.001-08:00

A great blog entry I read yesterday: What To Do About Santa - http://gospelcenteredmom.blogspot.com

This is something I have struggled with, literally, every year since our oldest was born. I want so much to give into the whole myth of Santa and insist on his magical existence, but I also recognize how much that challenges (and sometimes contradicts) my wife's and my efforts to raise out kids with a specific, Biblical world-view... And that the revelation of Santa's non-existence after years of claiming him to be real can erode the truth of God's existence in a child's mind.

This is the SuperRad Stance: God is real, Santa is pretend. But our family loves to pretend - I have chipmunks, princesses, jedis, and superheros running around the house more often than I do my real kids; and my daughter calls me Peter (Pan) as often as she calls me Daddy.

So Christmas has become a festive time of celebrating the Truth of God's existence and Jesus' miraculous birth, but in celebrating that there are a lot of traditions and legends that have developed over time - one of them is Santa. And for as long as the kids want to pretend Santa visits our house on Christmas Eve - I'm game.

D&D Dungeon Master's Guide Released Today!

2014-12-09T10:41:00.000-08:00

Today, Wizards of the Coast (www.wizards.com) released the final core rulebook for the new Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition roleplaying game.

The DM's guide sits alongside of your Player's Handbook and Monster Manual and is meant for the one guy in your group who is going to spend a lot more time thinking about your DnD campaign than you are. Still, that dude's pretty invaluable, so maybe you want to buy it for him as a Christmas gift.

As with the other books, this one is hardbound and full of fantastic art to get you into the feel of leading a group of loosely-strung-together adventurers into certain peril.

Actually, between this and listening to "The Adventure Zone" podcast, I really need to get my hands on the DnD Starter set to convince my other friends to party up. Of course, this means that I'll inevitably be the DM, so I guess it's a good idea to get this book.

Where have I been???

2014-12-08T19:36:00.002-08:00

It's been a while since SuperRadDad.com has seen any action. In part, because I've needed a pallet cleanse, in part because life gets pretty darn busy with three kids (yeah, did you know Team SRD grew a bit?).

A few months back I had a talk with the head honcho over at the Dice Tower. I had been reviewing for that channel for a little over two years and had a lot of fun doing so. So much fun, that I realized my nerdy nature could potentially conflict with the over-conservative boring nature of my professional life.

See, I'm an attorney in Realsies, and believe it or not, most lawyers don't look too approvingly on the dude dressed in a Batman shirt looking like he's reviewing games in the basement of his mom's house. They could not be more wrong: 1) wearing a Batman t-shirt is still pretty awesome regardless of the age; 2) the reviews were coming from the garage my own house where I'm carrying two mortgages. But how could I ever expect lawyers to acknowledge such fine distinctions. The fact of the matter is that one of their peers is talking about unlawyerly things in a rather unlawyerly appearance.

And so, it hit me - as I look for the next step on my professional ladder, I'm going to get Googled. When that happens, Geek Scott is going to show up, not Bill-by-the-Hour Scott. And unless I have a very cool potential boss who is going to take a look at Geek Scott and think "that guy knows a lot about unlawyerly things, surely his lawyerly intellect must be astounding," one look at Geek Scott and I've already got a mark against me.

So I asked to drop my last name to afford myself a more anonymity in Cyberspace, I was denied, there was a parting of the ways, and I went on hiatus to think of my next step.

Which was... pseudonym.

So here I am, back and writing with a pen name. Sure, you Super Sleuths out there are going to know who I am, but I believe my secret identity is safe with you. In the meantime, let's give a warm round of applause to "Scott Storm," geek blogger, parent, and meteorologist in training.

Now, please allow me to do my thing.

Carcassonne South Seas Review

2014-03-10T11:20:00.000-07:00

A wonderful twist of a classic game or blatant cash-grab? Let's find out.

Trains & Stations Review

2014-03-08T11:17:00.000-08:00

WizKids, creators of such Ameritrashy goodness as Heroclix and Quarriors brings us... An economic-based train game? Well, we'll see...

My 2013 Kids GOTY: Three Little Pigs

2014-01-25T08:47:00.001-08:00

Space Cadets Dice Duel Review

2014-01-23T10:54:00.001-08:00

Can a board game give you the sense of impending defeat with every ticking second? I think I know how Space Cadets: Dice Duel feels about that question...

Dread Curse Review

2014-01-23T10:46:00.001-08:00

Piratey goodness where you screw your friends over time and time again... Plus a monkey!

Last Will Review from Rio Grande Games

2014-01-23T08:12:00.001-08:00

So much I love about this game. And yet, it's totally not the game that I would normally find myself playing. The rock-solid theme, production, and mechanics totally win the day here!

Ghooost! Review

2013-09-12T11:07:00.001-07:00

This one was played and reviewed a while ago, but my friends at Iello properly pointed out that it hadn't made its way to here yet. So here we are, just in time for Fall and Halloween!:

Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island Review

2013-09-05T11:36:00.000-07:00

Do you ever watch Survivor and think: "I could do that. And I'd win, too!" Yep. I used to think that, until I played this game and then realized how quickly I would starve and freeze myself to death - and that's even WITH a full production and medical crew.

Nothing Personal Review

2013-08-29T11:36:00.000-07:00

Some dude I know created some game I played. This was my experience.

Tic Tac Lumberjack Review

2013-08-21T11:34:00.000-07:00

It has been known by many names, and will continue to be known as many until they just call it "The Lumberjack Game."

Dice Tower Reviews: Fortune & Glory: The Cliffhanger Game

2013-08-15T10:06:00.001-07:00

City of Remnants Review

2013-08-14T11:32:00.000-07:00

From the darling of the boardgame publishing world, Plaid Hat Games releases this deck-building, area-control, dudes on a map, hand management, victory point game. You know, one of those.

Skull and Roses Red/Black Review

2013-08-07T11:30:00.000-07:00

Everything you love about Poker without any of the crippling addiction or seedy underbelly.

Batman: Gotham City Strategy Game Review

2013-07-03T11:29:00.000-07:00

It's Batman! It's Heroclix! It's a Euro Area Control Game! Wait - what?

Smash Up and Smash Up: Awesome Level 9000 Review

2013-06-14T11:27:00.000-07:00

Smash Up - do you hate me or do I hate you? I think we're best just considering ourselves "frienemies"

Hive and Hive Pocket Review

2013-05-29T11:26:00.000-07:00

My favorite 2-player game to play with Lady Rad. She loves it, I love it, and I love the sound it makes.

Alcatra: The Scapegoat Review

2013-05-17T11:24:00.000-07:00

Alcatraz, you make me angry. I don't think that's what you were trying to do, but you did it. Thanks a lot.

Quarriors: Quest of the Qladiator Review

2013-05-02T11:22:00.000-07:00

The third expansion in my favorite deck/dice building game. Some may say the overuse of "Q's" is irritating; I say it's following the rule of comedy where something that becomes tired gets funny again if you do it long enough. Plus, it doesn't hurt to have a game with Q's plastered all over it when you've got a daughter named Q! Enjoy!

Sentinels of the Multiverse Review

2013-04-24T11:20:00.000-07:00

Oh Sentinels of the Multiverse, how I love you and your savvy IP-skirting ways. I want to play more of you, and will be doing so long after this review posts.

Telltale Review

2013-04-09T11:18:00.000-07:00

The bigger version of a game I found at the bottom of Mu and Q's kids' meal. It introduced me to a great new game from a great family-friendly publisher.

Escape: The Curse of the Temple Review

2013-04-03T11:16:00.000-07:00

A game for up to 5 players that plays in exactly 10 minutes, powered by a soundtrack, and is the most enjoyable anxiety you'll experience sitting at a table? Wait - this is a boardgame? Yep. It sure is.