It was an ordinary day at CDC in Atlanta.
The Rapid Response Team on call for January comprises of:
Dr. Ace Ventura; a paramedic with Médecins Sans Frontières and a specialist in the treatment and containment of infectious diseases.
Dr. Maria-Isabella Fernandez-Herrera; lead scientist with the CDC Field Research Laboratory.
Martha Ilke; a logistics team leader with Mercy Flight, an international logistics group supporting CDC in ensuring teams and equipment are transported quickly to the areas needed.
Clara Eisenhorn; a computer specialist in identifying patterns in the spread of infectious diseases, Clara’s DataShare software can help predict where future outbreaks may occur.
2015 had been a quiet year; the expected bird flu outbreaks had been contained, and the seasonal flu outbreaks had not been as severe as expected due to the World Health Organisation’s immunisation work.
Then, the calls came in: unexpected outbreaks of four diseases in different parts of the world.
The Rapid Response Team called in the support staff – it was time to deploy.
Game One
01 January to 14 January, 2016
CDC Atlanta
The spread of two viruses through Europe and the Middle East are quickly halted, although a cure eludes the researchers.
It soon becomes apparent that Asia is going to be hardest hit by the virus dubbed “La Mort Rouge” with three cities heavily infected.
CDC announces a cure has been found at the Jakarta Foundation for Disease, an internationally funded laboratory set up to combat the latest threat to the region.
But it comes too late.
Tokyo, Shanghai and Seoul’s interconnected transport system and a number of epidemics in quick succession results one final cascade of five outbreaks overwhelming CDC’s resources as panic spreads through the region.
Inexplicably, the three diseases go into decline.
Result: LOSS L
Effects now in play:
- New! Event cards = Six
- New! J Skill-up for Ace: Once per turn, can remove disease cubes from an adjacent location.
- New! J Skill-up for Martha: Free action to look at the top two Virus cards in her turn.
Game Two
15 January to 31 January, 2016
CDC Atlanta
As the number of new cases inexplicably drops the team are recalled to Atlanta to report to the UN Special Committee on the previous two weeks events. Things do not remain calm, however, as reports are received that the infectious diseases have broken out again – again in Asia but also in South America.
Ace, Martha and Maria-Isabelle are immediately dispatched to the problem areas to contain the spread. Clara, using prediction data from her software, instead heads to Europe where things seem relatively quiet and prevents an unexpected flair up of Blue Danube in Milan from becoming a larger problem, before travelling to Asia to assist the research teams.
Things quickly go south.
As the Yellow Peril spreads through South America, Martha is caught in an outbreak and scarred. With the lack of a Patient Zero and so many un-related cases making research unexpectedly difficult, CDC scientists report that their worst fears are confirmed – the virus is mutating, making a cure impossible at this time and cleaning up much harder*.
CDC objectives change: focus on curing the other three diseases.
With this re-focussing of resources things start to improve. The Black Mamba Virus in the Middle East is eradicated and the Blue Danube strain spreading in Europe is also cured for now.
As La Mort Rouge continues to spread through Asia the CDC team is barely able to contain the spread and prevent panic hitting the population centres. However, the research centre in Hong Kong finally makes a breakthrough from the new gene sequencing work – and a cure is found.
Result: WIN J
Effects now in play
- New! Event cards = four.
- New! J Advantage: Research Centre in Hong Kong.
- New! J Advantage: Black Mamba only needs four cards for a cure. (Narrator’s note: Presumably the Research can now cure this with three cards?)
- New! L Scar for Martha: Unable to travel from one Research Centre to another.
- New! L Disadvantage: Yellow disease takes one extra action to remove cubes and is also incurable.
- J Skill-up for Ace: Once per turn, can remove disease cubes from an adjacent location.
- J Skill-up for Martha: Free action to look at the top two Virus cards in her turn.
*Narrator’s note – we screwed up here as this card was supposed to enter play when the second Epidemic hit in Game One. We missed it, and instead of applying it at the end of the game (as was the second criterion), decided to use it as the second Epidemic card hit in Game Two. To be honest, had this hit in Game One we’d have lost quicker, as it would have been applied to the La Mort Rouge and we’d have been totally FUBAR.
No comments:
Post a Comment