Pandemic on the Brink Board Game EXPANSION - Face New Challenges and Save Humanity, Cooperative Strategy Game for Kids and Adults, Ages 8+, 2-5 Players, 45 Minute Playtime

Pandemic is one of my favorite games and does not need to be expanded. However, if you feel like the game is a little stale like you've played it so many times that you need new challenges or just something a little different, this is almost a must-have expansion. In this box are several new role cards, a 5th infection cube color, a 1-vs-all variant, cards to make a disease tougher, and a box insert that lets you store the base game, this expansion and the 2nd expansion: "In the Lab" (fitting all 3 expansions with the base game is quite difficult).The 5th cube color is used in 2 new game variants: bio-terrorist and mutations. The 1-vs-all variant has everyone trying to win the game while a bio-terrorist player is also infecting locations. The mutation variant adds a few cards to the player deck and a few cards to the infection discards and drawing one of those cards will add purple cubes to the board. Curing the purple disease is a little harder since there are half of those cubes than the original 4 colors.This expansion has Virulent Strain epidemics that can replace your epidemic cards. Instead of just following the basic 3 actions of an epidemic, you now have a new ongoing- or one-time effect like "remove 4 infection cubes from the virulent strain supply". You determine which disease has the least cubes available and dub it the virulent strain the first time you have an epidemic and will make curing that disease harder.The game comes with more events, roles, and a few blank role and event cards. With all the new events comes a new method in using them: 2 cards per players get shuffled into the player deck before dealing cards.I like the new roles, the new events, and the virulent strain variant a lot. The bio-terrorist has been played once in the ~100 times I've played with this expansion but everything else in the box has definitely been worth buying. If you can only afford 1 expansion for Pandemic, this is the one to buy. I recommend this expansion above the other 2; then "In the Lab" and "State of Emergency" last. (However, all 3 expansions are great and have new variants well-worth the money.)

Pandemic has become a favorite on game nights in my circle of friends, and the On the Brink Expansion improves the experience in several ways. There are new game modes, new roles, new events, and all of them work well. On the most basic level, the ability to have five players is a big improvement. You have to relearn the board setup some to compensate for how many new events are included to keep from unbalancing the game, but none of the changes are so drastic as to be overwhelming.Aside from this, most of the new material boils down to making the game more difficult. The most basic form of this is the addition of an additional Epidemic card to enable "Legendary" difficulty (I think we lost in ten minutes the first time we tried that mode). The Virulent Strain variation to the rules increases the power of one of the diseases. The Mutation variation adds a fifth disease. All of these are good for the increased challenge, but don't really change the core gameplay too much.The one exceptionally different mode is the Bio-Terrorist variation, which makes one player an enemy to the rest of the group. I, like many of the other reviewers, love this mode. My friends and roommates don't all agree. It is the type of game mode that certainly has the potential to ruin friendships if you play it too often, but I think it injects some welcome variety into the game. That said, it's totally optional and the expansion has plenty of other improvements to justify buying it even if this game mode doesn't prove to be a hit with your crowd.As a last, wonderful feature, the game box comes packaged with a tray that is capable of holding the materials not only for the expansion, but for the original game as well. This way you can actually store the original game and the expansion in a single box. It sounds like a small thing, but little touches and details like that are what separate the good game publishers from the great.

Overview: On the Brink adds a fifth player option and also provides 3 new variants to play with the base Pandemic game. The first variant turns one of the viruses into a Virulent Strain and becomes more difficult to treat. Another variant mutates a virus and adds a new disease (purple color) that the team has to manage. The last variant has a Bio-Terrorist working against everyone else through hidden movements. Even with the added variants, the basic premise of the game is still the same. Treat and cure diseases as you move around the world map.Set-up: The set-up for the On the Brink expansion takes roughly the same amount of time as the base Pandemic game. Just a few minutes to create the player & infection decks, then infecting cities around the world.Difficulty: Having only played the Virulent Strain and Mutation variants, the learning curve was very similar to learning the base game. These variants require the team to remember new conditions that are in play, and are fairly straightforward. The Bio-Terrorist seems to have new rules on movement and actions, and would require the person playing the Bio-Terrorist to understand the rules well since their movements are hidden.Replayability: Each of these variants seem to add more conditions/events in the gameplay, and I believe you are able to include multiple/all variants for added variability. On the Brink also adds more event cards and role cards.Final Thoughts: 9/10The variants that I have played add some refreshing changes to a great game, although the magnitude of the changes greatly depends on the randomness of the draw. I also like the petri dishes that came with the game to hold the disease cubes. Nice touch. With the new role cards and events, I will probably always add elements of the expansion to the game, even if I don't play the different variants.

If you like the base game, this expansion is an upgrade—the new roles and events are great, there are containers for the cubes (which are convenient; they used to just be on the table), and the new modes are fun (bio-terrorist mode does significantly change the gameplay, which may not be for everyone, but the other 2 modes are great). 100% worth it, get it if you want a fresh coat of paint for the original game.

This expansion game is great, Love the character cards and Petri dishes are great.. So much fun..

This is an excellent expansion in every sense of the word. It adds fun new mechanics to the original game - including new roles and events - and packages it all in a cool and useful container.I can't say that I'm entirely satisfied, though. The most complex part of Pandemic is setting the game up to play, and this expansion adds layers of complexity to that. Want to play with the new disease? Great! But you have to take out the old Epidemic cards and replace them with the new ones. Want to use the new events? Awesome! But now you have to pull out two of them for each player and add them to the deck during setup. The new roles are great, but the expanded rules only add one more player, meaning most of the roles will spend more time in the box than on the table.Lastly, a word of caution: I put all of the cards in protective sleeves because they get handled a lot during play. If you plan on doing this then you should know that all of the cards will NOT fit into the box. This may sound like a minor thing, but the expansion box is meant to replace the original one, and has places to store all of the necessary pawns and some - really cool - petri dishes for the disease cubes. I was hoping to be able to take the game to friend's houses in one box, but it's not going to happen.All in all, I'm happy with the purchase, and it makes a great game even better. I don't mind the extra setup time, but if your trying to explain the game to new players, you might want to stick with the base game at first.

Things I like about this expansion:- The Petri dishes help the disease cubes more organized and bring a bit of a thematic feel- The new role and event cards add more replayability to the game- The virulent strain adds more challenge if you feel the base game doesn't challenge your group enough.I haven't tried the bio-terrorist module so I can't speak of this. But I do hope that they use dry erase board instead, so we can store all components in the base game box.I can't think of anything I don't like in this game. Maybe a minor complaint on the insert that it should support sleeved cards. But overall. I don't see myself playing the base game without this expansion. You can even introduce it with the expansion mixed in as it does not add complexity to the rules.

Great add-on to original game. Lets you add a 5th player and makes a great game even better.

If you like pandemic - this is an absolute must have addition. The extra challenges bring a whole new level of play. 3 modes included in this expansion:1) 5th virus (purple), is a mutation disease and a new way the virus is added and spreads. Makes the game just a wee bit more difficult if you’re looking for a little more challenge and will extend the game play time a bit as well. Makes you really pay attention to what you discard.2) variant epidemics: you replace the ‘regular’ epidemic cards with a whole new set. These epidemics add a ‘plot twist’ to one of your viruses. Things like “you must remove a cube before you leave a city as an action” or “every time this virus has an outbreak, it counts as 2 outbreaks”. It ups the game difficulty level ten fold. Especially if you pair with the 5th mutation virus!Love these 2 modes together!!The 3rd is the ‘bioterrorist’. I’ve only watched YouTube videos, because of social restrictions we haven’t been able to have company to have enough folks to play this mode but looking forward to it.The new roles are key as well and really unique. Their skills definitely help with the mutation virus, such as being able to pick up a discarded card, having 8 cards in your hand or being able to peek at the top infection cards before your turn.There are also new event cards. Things like being able to swap out a character for a different one, also makes the game entirely different.I only wish I bought this expansion earlier. It is amazing and if you are a pandemic fan, this will blow your mind for a next level pandemic experience.Also.. cute little dishes for the cubes!

Il gioco mi è stato recapitato in tedesco seppure fosse indicata la lingua italiana al momento dell'acquisto. Chiarito telefonicamente l'equivoco con Amazon, mi è stata subito inviata la scatola italiana e creata un etichetta di reso che ho dovuto applicare al prodotto tedesco e recarmi in un ufficio postale per rispedirlo al mittente.A parte questo equivoco, comunque risolto agevolmente, passo alla recensione del prodotto.Premesso che per giocare bisogna possedere il gioco base, la scatola introduce dei contenitori molto comodi per le varie malattie, una quinta malattia viola, nuove carte e tre nuove esperienze di gioco anche combinabili tra loro. Pandemia è un gioco progettato davvero bene, ci ho giocato con diversi amici ed è piaciuto a tutti, dopo i primissimi turni di rodaggio ci si prende subito gusto e finita la prima partita viene voglia di riprovare! Consigliatissimo!

Pandemic por si solo es un juego bastante genial y entretenido. Facil de aprender y de entender. Pero tras jugarlo unas diez veces o mas, con personas que ya conocen sus mecanicas puede volverse sencillo y aburrido.Pandemic on the brink, es una expansion genial, añade diferentes modos y modulos de juego, algunos de los cuales se pueden jugar simultaneamente. Con estos modulos la dificultad y el estilo de juego cambian completamente inyectandole nueva vida y diversion al juego base.Como puntos adicionales (lo que me hace poner 5 en vez de 4 estrellas), el diseño de la caja permite almacenar pandemic y pandemic on the brink en la misma caja. Y contiene 5 cajas de petri etiquetables para almacenar los cubos de las 5 enfermedades.

Everyone knows Pandemic is a fun, addictive game; great to break out when you have friends over. Well this expansive pack brings more challenging to it and keeps it fun for those more experienced players. It also gives you three expansion in one. Bargain.

It's an awesome expansion. The box, rules, new roles, events, it's well done and thought-through. Great indeed.