Pandemic Legacy. Season 1, December

Playing December for the second time, this was to be our last game of Pandemic Legacy, Season 1.
I'll keep this account short and just highlight the important events of this game.

Tarek played the Generalist, Leander the Dispatcher, Kobe the Quarantine Specialist, Hannes the Immunologist and me the Medic.

Last time we played we lost very quickly because (almost) all the infected city cards that turned up were red, blue or black. This time we luckily got a lot of yellows too, which are almost all vaccinated cities, so no extra diseases on the board.

We managed to control the outbreaks of the 'normal' diseases by using quarantine markers and my services as the medic, while Hannes, Tarek and me vaccinated the three last Faded cities. Getting this problem out of the way and realizing one objective.

Another thing that helped in this game was an action we have not used up to now : Self sacrifice. If you use this action you add a scar to your character to skip the infect step for one turn, which drastically lowers the amount of disease cubes on the board. As this was our last game, our characters could take some scars. Tarek's even died, and he became a civilian.

As we were playing with 5, we also used the extra option to let several players skip a turn (no two consecutively and not more than 1 time per player). You get less cards in the game, but also no infect cities step and more time for the remaining players to do the actions you need.

Remained the other, and tougher, objective to find the COdA-stockpile using the search track. We needed just the right amount of cards in the right order to pull this off, all before the last epidemic hit us, because then the stockpile would be on a cold trail. In this we had some luck as we managed to find the stockpile with 3 cards left in the player deck and the epidemic being the last card in it. Close call, but very rewarding end of the game.

As an endgame we had to calculate how well we played throughout all the sessions of the game :
Calendar:
- 40 points for each game won in the first half of the month
- 20 points for each game won in the second half of the month
Cities:
- 5 points for each panic level 0-1 city that is vaccinated or non-faded
- 2 points for each panic level 2-3 city that is vaccinated or non-faded
- 1 point for each panic level 4 city that is vaccinated or non-faded
Bonus:
- 100 bonus points for vaccinating every faded city
- 100 bonus points for destroying the stockpile in Atlanta
- 80 bonus points for not having any military bases on the board
- -100 points if you opened package 8
- -200 points if Team Bravo came to your aid
The maximum of points possible was 1000, we managed to collect 689 in total.

0-375 - Collapse : The world tumbles into the chaos of the new regime. It takes centuries of sacrifice to return civilization to its former levels.
376-525 - The struggle continues : The foundations of the world civilizations are strong enough to recover, although it takes several generations and millions of lives to recover from the Faded.
526-675 - Recovery and progress : Partial success and a chance for recovery. The face of the world changes a lot in the ensuing wars. Humanity eventually recovers.
676-800 - Disaster averted : It takes a while but your efforts keep the world and its civilization on track. The last of the Faded are cured and those responsible face trial and are convicted.
801-1000 - Legendary achievement : You couldn't have done better. COdA is eradicated. Zodiac is destroyed, and the world recovers within the next year. you retire and enjoy the rest of your lives. Your faces will be on the money of future civilizations.

So we ended in the next to best achievement. Not bad at all, and really  not very far removed from the legendary achievement. It would have taken only the destruction of all military bases on the board (we had 2 left), and a number of cities with a lower panic level to win this achievement. In the first December-game we played we had a lot of outbreaks that lost us the game, so that would have helped.

But we don't complain, this was a very good and interesting game to play. Can't wait for the next game (SeaFall), which we will start playing in January.