habanero pepper
United States
Utah
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I just ordered Pandemic and On the Brink. It seems as though the Pandemic reviews are mixed, however, everyone raves about how On the Brink positively impacts the original game.
So when my games show up, would you recommend that my gaming group start out just with the base game for a few turns to learn the game rules and dynamics, or should we plow right into incorporating On the Brink? I guess the instructions are short, and well written. We did this with Shadows over Camelot with Merlin's Expansion, and it worked out just fine.
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Ira Kalina
United States
Deerfield
Illinois
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Unless you all have played Forbidden Island and are familiar with the epidemic/water rises mechanic and the actions per turn, collecting cards mechanic, I would recommend banging out a game or two before you add the mutations and on the brink stuff. There is more than enough going on in the base game and I think the expansion will be more enjoyable after you have the base game nuance. Just my two cents.
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Matt Davis
United States
Upland
California
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Kalii wrote: Unless you all have played Forbidden Island and are familiar with the epidemic/water rises mechanic and the actions per turn, collecting cards mechanic, I would recommend banging out a game or two before you add the mutations and on the brink stuff. There is more than enough going on in the base game and I think the expansion will be more enjoyable after you have the base game nuance. Just my two cents.
I concur.
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Bryan Jensen
United States
Layton
Utah
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If you are only using the new roles I think you can introduce those On The Brink elements from the get-go; plus you have a changed Ops Expert in the OTB edition that is better. However, I agree that you should not introduce the other OTB elements until you have some games under your belt.
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Sean McCarthy
United States
Seattle
Washington
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Base game.
It is an excellent game on its own, won awards, is ranked really highly, etc. It doesn't need an expansion.
Once you're starting to get tired of it, add the expansion. It is a really fantastic expansion.
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Jordan Alexander
United Kingdom
Accrington
Lancashire
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I got both games at the same time, and me and my group played the standard game but with the alterations from OtB, ie, additional skill cards and character cards and the new deck creation rules, but we left out the 3 challanges.
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Joe Reil
United States
Barre
Vermont
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habanero wrote: I just ordered Pandemic and On the Brink. It seems as though the Pandemic reviews are mixed, however, everyone raves about how On the Brink positively impacts the original game.
It does, BUT Pandemic is still a great game without it. Seems there's consensus on this - I'd say play at least one game with only the base game components (with one exception, noted below) and then you can add the optional Event cards and new player characters.
I would definitely recommend waiting until you have a good feel for the game before you try to use the other main component set of OTB: The Virulent Strain or Mutation challenges, as they can make the game significantly more difficult.
The one exception I noted was that you should replace the base-game Operations Expert with the replacement version from On the Brink. The original Operations Expert was so-so at best and the revised version from the expansion is a lot more fun to play AND his power level was brought up to be closer to the other characters.
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Frank Feldmann
United States
Dayton
Ohio
Now contributing to Father Geek!
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Base game. However, as others have noted, use the new OpEx role card. I played nearly 40 games before I got the expansion (this Christmas). I don't know about mixed reviews (I tend to read specific reviewers only), but it didn't make it to the Top 100 without having something going for it!
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Geert Vinaskov
Belgium
Rijkevorsel
Antwerpen
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If your gaming group consists of Gamers, I wouldn't see a reason not to. But don't include all stuff from the expansion.
What would I include, if I were you?
- The fifth player.
- The simple additional roles, but I'd leave some of the more complex ones out. Whay you consider simple, is up to you.
- The extra event/action cards, and the rule that says that you shuffle in two per player.
Leave everything else out. But if you're stubborn, and want to include more, you can do this:
- Instead of playing with four green epidemic cards (the normal ones), you can play with three green ones and one random red epidemic card (virulent strain).
But don't come complaining if everyone dies, I've warned you.
PS1: Play with all hands/cards closed, it makes a better game.
PS2: The thing about expansion - nonexpansion basicly boils down to this: In the base game you'll see the same roles and same action cards over and over again, with the expansion there are so many roles, action cards and virulent strain cards that you'll never have the same combination twice. The other two parts of the game (bio-terrorist and purple cubes) aren't necessary at all.
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Greg Jones
United States
Washington
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I'd say play with the base game, at least the base game roles. It's not that the expansion roles are bad, but it's possible to get a set of roles with lots of redundancy in their abilities, and in that case it can be hard to win. It might give you a bad impression of the game.
Besides, the best part of On the Brink is increasing replayability, and you don't need to worry about that for your first game.
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habanero pepper
United States
Utah
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Thanks for all of the suggestions.
My first game was just the basic setup, and my wife and I figured out how the game works.
My second game was again just with the base game. Oh, we really enjoyed it.
My third game was with my brother and his wife, and we just played the base game. It was terrific fun, and we totally have the basic rules and strategy down.
My fourth game was with 6 people, and we incorporated the roles of the expansion, as well as the new Epidemic cards, along with the Virulant strain. This was the 1st time for 4 of the players, but we had a blast. They picked it up quickly, and we totally rocked the game. We had 2 more players who were ready to cure the last 2 diseases, when we ran out of cards from the draw pile. Probably cause we had 6 players and not 5.
This game is a huge hit, and it totally has a place on the shelf and the table.
Now to learn how to play the bio-terrorist...
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