PANDEMIC

The Scientist catches a flight on a Fokker 100 out of Cairo to Aleppo and then boards a midnight train to Baghdad. From there she takes an Iraqi Airways Airbus A320-200 to Shanghai. Rushing to the research station, she leaves her binder on disease spread in Kinshasa on a bench in the Shanghai airport. Working on a hunch, she insists that the Researcher tells her everything about the spread of red death in Bangkok.

Then the Scientist stares silently at the distance and runs to the lab without saying a word. Thirty minutes later, she emerges with a cure to the red death.

The Scientist then discovers information about Algiers (Black) and Jakarta (Red).

Meanwhile, ominously following the Scientist's path, the Zombie outbreak worsens in Cairo, putting it on the brink, and Baghdad.

The situation:

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PANDEMIC

I don't think anything has changed enough for me to go ahead with the death of the red death plan, but I'll still wait to see what folks think.

PANDEMIC

I think Red Death is still the way to go.

Taking quick stock of the situation: We've just passed the halfway point in the deck, correct? So we'll get the next epidemic sometime in the next, what, seven turns or so?

There are six cards in the discard pile. Looking at the map, there are seven cities on the brink, and I'm pretty sure we've drawn five of them since the San Fran epidemic. (Everything except Beijing and Tokyo.)

If that's right, then the discards contain San Francisco, Atlanta, New York, Cairo and Seoul. And Baghdad, but that's not a danger. So before the next epidemic, we want to try and clear those five cities. (And possibly a few others, we have cities on two cubes as well.)

Easy! Any ideas?

PANDEMIC

So clearing all red cubes is now a free action for the Medic, right? So you can clear 2 red cities, reach SF and treat it, or clear 3 red cities and reach SF but not treat it. Hm.

Well, I can zap the Researcher and myself to Atlanta, pass her the card, and she can cure Blue next turn. How does that sound?

PANDEMIC

Yep, you go the situation right.

However, the Researcher needs five cards to cure so we're still a blue card short.

PANDEMIC

Nuts. Well, let's see what the Medic draws.

PANDEMIC

The Dispatcher could burn cards and take both Cairo and Atlanta off the brink. The Researcher could then still pass a yellow card and take San Francisco off the brink. I'm not seeing a way to take more than those three off the brink before the Scientist cures yellow.

PANDEMIC

Ok, let's see.

You can clear both Seoul and San Francisco this turn.
The Dispatcher can do either Cairo or Atlanta easily enough. Maybe Cairo? Atlanta is easier to reach for most of us. They could also take a cube off either Ho Chi Minh City or Algiers in the process.
Then, my turn: I can pass Yellow to the Scientist and then bounce to Atlanta to erase a couple of Blue Meanies.

That'd be four. I don't see a way to reach New York, probably not before the Medic's next turn. (I mean, that would be possible, but at the expense of delaying the Yellow cure.)

PANDEMIC

However, the Researcher needs five cards to cure so we're still a blue card short.

True! But we're looking pretty good for Blue. If the Dispatcher draws another Blue, I can pass my three cards to them. Likewise if the Scientist draws one. If I draw another Blue myself, then the Dispatcher can do the Atlanta hand-off and there we are.

PANDEMIC

I hate to skip Beijing when it would be so easy to clear right now, but I don't see it coming up anytime soon so doing San Fran, Seoul, and Tokyo is probably the better move.

The Dispatcher can get both Cairo and Atlanta by burning those two cards.