Feb 23, 20212 min read

North America, Its getting hot in here.

The viruses we raging through North America. The vaccine had been discovered and it looked like we were en-route to discovering the third and final cure. The kids were in bed and my wife Mary and her brother Ryan and Emily his wife and I were playing Pandemic North America Hot Zone on Tabletop Simulator.

Pandemic HZNA is a really scaled down version of Pandemic. It was kind of the perfect thing for us to play on a week night. Pandemic HZNA should take about 30 minutes to play. There are only four roles to play; Dispatcher, Generalist, Medic and the Researcher. The map is smaller than the original map and there are only 3 deadly diseases rather than the 4 you have to fight in the original. The structure of the game is identical to the original. The game moves a lot faster as there are less cities in the game and still 3 epidemic cards. It only takes four outbreaks to trigger the end game loss.

The scaled down version of pandemic has made it super portable it comes in a much smaller box and can be played in a matter of 30 minutes. We played through it 2 times on weekday evening and it really fit the bill. We lost 2 times, mostly because I kept saying "our goose is cooked" more times than one should. I kept hovering over the player draw deck so we knew exactly how many turns were left. This is an advantage you can use when playing online. In real life I wouldn't pick up the deck and count the cards.

I recommend this game a lot as its easy fast and quite relevant to the times. An added bonus of it being a CO-OP game is nice in these times when we are still all at home. Having a shared vision and common goal and working together seems so distant sometimes but it was really nice to play this one with the family.

We played this game with 2 computers and 4 players. We didn't have hidden cards or hands so it possible to play the game this way. We did not have to change players every time just let the other person control the computer during their turn. This is not really how TTS is supposed to work but sometimes you can use it in creative ways.

This game is relatively cheap if you want a physical copy its only $20 at your local game store.