Pandemic: Rapid Response – Preview

Pandemic is a well-loved co-operative game which brings plenty of people into the hobby. It was first released in 2008 and was designed by Matt Leacock. Since then, there have been several different iterations and spin-offs. Examples include Fall of Rome and Iberia, as well as two legacy games.

The next title in the series is Pandemic: Rapid Response, designed by Kane Klenko. This game takes the series in a slightly new direction, with a heavy focus on dice. It's for two to four players and comes from a designer known for good real-time games. Klenko also created games such as Flatline and Fuse.

Rapid Response - The Game

In Rapid Response the world is in chaos and trouble. Cities around the globe are crying out for food, water, vaccines and supplies. As a member of the Crisis Response Unit (CRU) it is your job to fly your specially equipped plane around the world delivering these essential supplies. Be quick though, as you are on the clock and only have limited time to deliver the supplies.

On a player's turn they will roll their dice (performing up to two re-rolls) and use these dice to move around the plane, fly the plane to different cities or assign your dice to a supply room. When assigning dice to a supply room the dice faces have to match and there are certain spaces requiring groups of like dice having to be placed at the same time.

However, a single player does not have to assign all the dice and this can be a group effort. Dice that are assigned to rooms are "locked" until the room has been activated often resulting in players having less dice to roll on future turns.

In addition, the more dice you have in a supply room the more resource you will get when it activates. This "locking" and increased resource mechanism brings the co-operative nature Rapid Response together wonderfully.