Pandemic

The board is a world map of 48 cities in four colours, one colour for each disease. Each player takes a role card, such as the Medic or the Scientist, with one special ability. At the start, Infection cards place disease cubes on nine cities. Then 4, 5 or 6 Epidemic cards are shuffled into the player deck: 4 for an introductory game, 5 for standard, 6 for heroic.

On your turn you take four actions. You can move: drive to a connected city, discard a city card to fly there, discard the card of the city you are in to fly anywhere, or fly between research stations. You can also build a research station, treat a disease (remove a cube from your city) or share knowledge (hand over the card of the city you and a teammate are both in). To discover a cure, discard five cards of one colour while standing at a research station.

After your actions you draw two player cards, and the hand limit is seven. If you draw an Epidemic, three things happen. The infection rate goes up, a new city suddenly gets three cubes, and the used Infection cards are shuffled and put back on top of the deck. That means cities that were already sick come back sooner. Finally, you flip Infection cards equal to the infection rate and add a cube to each of those cities.

If a city would get a fourth cube of one colour, it has an outbreak instead and spreads a cube to every connected city, which can set off a chain. The team loses if there are eight outbreaks, if a colour runs out of cubes, or if the player deck runs out. You win as soon as all four diseases are cured. You do not need to clear every cube from the board.

Everyone can see everyone else's cards and talk freely, so each turn turns into a short team discussion about where to go and what to clear first.

No India-specific edition or authorised Indian distributor was found, so every genuine copy is the imported Z-Man Games edition with English components. Bored Game Company listed it at ₹4,500 and Gameistry at ₹4,800, but both were out of stock on 5 October 2026. The Amazon.in listing that day was an expensive import, priced above Indian stores.

Buy the base game first. It is the 2013 edition, item ZM7101, with seven roles including the Contingency Planner and Quarantine Specialist. Other Pandemic boxes on Indian listings are different products. Pandemic Legacy (Seasons 0, 1 and 2) are campaign games played over many sessions, where you mark and change the components for good. Pandemic: Hot Zone – North America is a smaller, quicker standalone version. On the Brink is an expansion that needs the base game. Pandemic: Contagion is a separate card game where you play as the diseases.