Unboxed the Board Game Blog

And so we arrive at April, six months since I started games night with an accidental birthday gathering. This month was a selection of games that I consider to be quintessential to the board gaming hobby. They were, for me at least, as seminal as The Matrix or the Sam Raimi Spiderman films. They are a selection of games that I think all gamers should at least play once, just as a reference point for games that came later. The big four, for me, are #Pandemic (which was played

It’s Christmas so I decided to give my #GameNight group a little present and picked up #PandemicLegacy. Okay, it’s mostly a present for me, but they get to play too! So far we’ve played January so what follows will not explore beyond the first two games but if you don’t want any spoilers look away now. “It was a cold new year, much like any other, viral infection was rampant with the temperature lowering the populations immune systems. We figured it was a January just like an

Epidemics sweep the world, hospitals are crowded with the sick and the dying. Their only hope is you, brave adventurer. You must go forth and search for a cure, to end the suffering and the dying. Save those you can, quarantine those you can’t and don’t forget to wash your hands. Many moons ago, back when this blog was young I reviewed Pandemic with a sardonic vigour, ending with “I am still not as blown away by Pandemic as I feel I ought to be. For me it is a filler game at

So, this is just a mini review examining the new roles that come in the first expansion for the 2008 hit Pandemic. On the Brink adds many new ways of playing Pandemic but it also adds new material that can simply be added straight into the base game. Each of the new roles add a little complexity, but not too much. Although they all add exciting new abilities some of them feel a little underpowered when compared to the original 5 roles. In particular we find ourselves struggli

In Pandemic you are a member of the CDC sent out to battle disease wherever it may lie. What are those diseases called you ask? Why… Red, Blue, Yellow and Black of course. And how do those diseases manifest you might ask, why as Cubes of course. The truth is while the game claims to be about fighting disease, it’s really not, it’s an abstract maths puzzle. In a lecture given by Matt Leacock, he describes the method he used to create the game and it is really mathy, that’s not