PANDEMIC

I think it'd be better to move the Medic to Shanghai (before you move) than to Baghdad. They're best placed in Asia, which contains our two remaining hotspots. Plus, with the Medic's draw, it's looking less likely that I'll be able to pass a Red card to the Scientist. They may need to grab one from the Medic, which means getting back to that part of the world. (If the Medic can contrive to end a turn in Hong Kong or Osaka at some point, the Dispatcher should be able to make it happen.)

PANDEMIC

Shanghai gives me the same flexibility as Baghdad so that seems like a good idea.

PANDEMIC

All righty then. I will:

Dispatch the Medic to Shanghai, where I am.

Double move to HCM City

Treat HCM City once.

Let's see what the damage is.

PANDEMIC

The Dispatcher arranges for the Medic to ride in the cargo hold of an An-22 out of Tehran to get to Shanghai. Then the Dispatcher takes a train to Hong Kong and from there sails on a junk to Ho Chi Minh City. Once there she establishes a clinic that takes Ho Chi Minh City one step back from succumbing the red death.

Then the Dispatch draws an event (yay!) One Quiet Night, and an epidemic (boo!).

The epidemic breaks out in San Francisco taking it to the brink with blue plague.

Then we need to pause before infecting cities because we can play One Quiet Night and skip infections for this turn.

PANDEMIC

In a funny way it's a bit of a relief to see it finally. Anyway. We currently have only two cities on the brink, Seoul and San Francisco. Only two cards that could pop an outbreak. That's probably better odds than we're likely to get on the next two epidemics. I vote for holding onto the card for a bit.

When we're on my turn, obviously I'll be passing a Yellow card to the Scientist. Thereafter I could burn a Blue card to start treating San Francisco. (That could've been worse, it's not far from our Northeast Asia hotspot.) Argument against is largely that we haven't drawn much Blue yet, and cards are good. Argument for: we haven't burned any Blue cards yet either. It hopefully won't be too hard to draw more. What do people think?

PANDEMIC

Yeah, I don't think things are dire enough to use One Quiet Night. I think burning a blue card is fine.

PANDEMIC

Sounds good. I'll hold on to the night.

PANDEMIC

Sometimes you get lucky, but this isn't one of those times. Blue plague spreads in San Francisco resulting in an outbreak. Then the red death spreads in Seoul causing an outbreak and putting both Beijing and Tokyo on the brink.

The situation:

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Oh, come on.

You cannot see this because it's all virtual, but I am flipping the table right now. This is me, virtually flipping the virtual table. I mean, the initial outbreak, there were maybe two or three cities that could've set up a chain reaction, and a minority of cards that could then make it happen. And this one, there had to be barely one chance in a hundred of drawing both outbreaks.

I feel better now. At least this means that we can't get another outbreak on this turn. I don't think we can get another outbreak until the next epidemic, in fact. Though it'd be easy for things to be out of hand by that time. I'm thinking maybe I save the Blue card and instead, after passing Yellow to the Scientist, just hop to Shanghai and treat something.

My thinking: I can't stop San Francisco blowing up now, so that's no longer as urgent. Shanghai could also be on the brink by the next epidemic, and we need to put more Red cubes in storage, so treating Red seems a good option. And, of course, a Blue card in my hand is a bit more useful than usual, as it's easier to pass it to whomever is closest to the cure.

Thoughts?

PANDEMIC

Yeah, if you treat Shanghai, I could also head there after curing yellow. If you draw a red, I can grab it there. If not, then the Medic could at least clear Seoul & Tokyo.