Disclaimer

This blog entry represents my personal thoughts, reflections, confusions, questionable life choices, and general observations on board gaming.

It does not represent the views of:

– the Holiday Inn

– the World Health Organization

– local pandemic preparedness teams

– any board game publishers

– or Stephen, who is probably already stressed enough.

No real diseases will be harmed tomorrow.

Only egos.

So, tomorrow evening something quite special is happening at the Holiday Inn in Taunton. And by “special” I mean: a competitive tournament version of a cooperative board game that is already stressful enough when everyone is actually trying to help each other.

Yes.

Pandemic Survival.

Let me explain how we got here, because much like a real pandemic, this started quietly and then spiralled rapidly.

A while back, Stephen casually dropped a message into our board game WhatsApp group:

“Anyone interested in a Pandemic Survival tournament in November?”

This message arrived while I was on holiday. I skim-read it somewhere between pool and buffet refill, so naturally I ignored it. Also, there was a poll. I ignored that too.

Apparently, the rest of the group did not ignore it.

And the decision was made:

Pandemic Survival Tournament — Friday, 07 November 2025.

Fast Forward to This Week

The WhatsApp group has suddenly come back to life like a forgotten volcano deciding it fancies being active again.

Originally, there were meant to be about 12–13 players.

This was manageable. Sensible. Contained.

A pleasant evening of controlled, collaborative-based mild panic.

However — and this is key — someone (possibly the majority of the group) decided that actually, they also wanted to join.

Now we appear to be at approximately 18–20+ people, depending on who responds, who forgets, and who shows up because they saw “Holiday Inn” and assumed a quite evening of pushing Meeples.

Stephen is now desperately asking for more copies of Pandemic, in the tone of someone requesting backup generators during a blackout.

Fortunately, I dropped off my copy earlier today (Noticing a blue cube is missing I won’t be playing with that copy).

He already had eight copies in his house.

Eight.

Quick Explanation: What is Pandemic Survival?

Everyone plays Pandemic at the same time.

All tables receive the same starting setup, same infection cards, same epidemics.

Teams cannot communicate with other tables.

The goal is to cure all diseases first or be the last surviving table.

In short:

Co-op game + tournament structure + time pressure = mild existential dread served family-style.

Back to Reality

So tomorrow, 7pm, Holiday Inn.

Stephen — tournament organiser, rule enforcer, and emotional triage nurse — will attempt to coordinate somewhere between 18 and 400 players into a structured evening of global disease control.

I will be attempting not to trigger catastrophic outbreak chains and ideally not finish dead last.

See You at the Outbreak Map.

If we cure everything: We will never stop talking about it.

If we fail spectacularly: We will also never stop talking about it.

Either way, stories will be told.