Plague Inc.: The Board Game Review

Way back in 2009, our then 6-year old son, Caleb got us rolling in reviewing board games with his video review of Pandemic.

He shared how to play the game and what he enjoyed about working together to save the world from deadly viruses.

Fast-forward 12 years and the tides have turned.

Now we’re infecting the world with viruses and competing to be the most lethal in Plague Inc.: The Board Game!

That’s right, the popular mobile app game, Plague Inc., first released in 2012 by Ndemic Creations, is now available as a board game available from Asmodee.

I know it sounds odd while we’re struggling around the world facing a real global pandemic, but to be honest, we’ve had a very fun time playing Plague Inc.: the Board Game. And we’re happy to share why.

How to play Plague Inc.: The Board Game

In a game of Plague Inc.: The Board Game players are deadly diseases trying to spread across the world. They score DNA Points and evolve new symptoms for their pathogen to wipe out humanity.

Players start out with a disease player mat and their matching set of colored plague cubes. Each player also starts with a randomly drawn hand of 5 Trait cards. In turn order (starting with the player who washed their hands most recently), players draw one of the Starting Country cards and place it on the board in the appropriate continent zone. They then add one of their plague cubes to a city (black hexagon space) on that country card.

A player’s turn consists of 5 phases—which are referenced on each player’s mat.

DNA
Country
Evolution
Infection
Death

Phase 1: DNA

The player checks to see how many Countries they control (have a majority or tied for majority in a country) and moves their marker up that many spaces on the DNA Points track.

Phase 2: Country

The player picks a new Country card from those face up or from the top of the deck unseen. They decide whether to add it to the game board in the appropriate continent or discard it.

If they choose to discard it or can’t place it because all country spaces in that continent are full, the player discards their hand of Trait cards and draws 5 new Trait cards.

Phase 3: Evolution

Players start the game with core Traits on their player mat and can evolve their disease by adding more Traits to their mat. During this phase, the player may add 1 card from their hand to their mat by paying the cost (listed on the card) via DNA points (moving down the DNA points track).

Two spaces on the player mats have special abilities listed. If the player covers those with a Trait card, they can no longer use those abilities.

Adding Traits is how a player increases their infectivity, lethality, ability to travel between continents, and ability to become weather-resistant to heat or cold.

Phase 4: Infection

During this phase, the player places more of their plague cubes in cities on the board. The number a player must place is equal to their Infectivity rate (from their starting mat and Traits added).

Players may only place tokens in cities if they can resist the climate. For example, players can only place in Hot/Cold cities if their disease has evolved for Heat/Cold resistance.

Players can also only add cubes to countries they’re connected to. Countries in the same continent are always connected. But to spread to other continents, players must have either the Airborne or Waterborne traits and already have cubes in a country with that icon (plane or anchor) on it. Then they may add cubes to another country with that icon on it as well.

Phase 5: Death

If the player controls a country that is fully infected—has all its cities filled with cubes (no matter the color), they must try to “kill” that country. They do this by rolling the 6-sided die (known as the Death Die). If they roll a number less than or equal to their Lethality rate, they kill that country.

When a country is killed, the country card is removed from the game and all players that had plague cubes in that country get their cubes back and score 1 DNA point for each of their cubes. Each of those players also draw an Event card.

Event cards let players do special actions and then discard the card. The text on each Event card describes the action as well as when it may be used. Players just can’t use an Event card on the turn they acquire it and can never hold more than 3 in hand.

Game End

Once the final Country card has been placed or discarded, the game immediately enters Sudden Death. During Sudden Death, players skip the Country phase and the game can end in 1 of 2 ways:

Eradicated Plague – if any player has no cubes on the board, the game ends when the current player finished their turn.
Unable to Move – if any player can neither place cubes nor roll the Death Die during their turn, the game immediately ends.

Once the game ends, players total their scores. Players advance their marker on the DNA track for their evolved Traits and any bonuses. Whereas, players had to “spend” DNA points to place a Trait on their mat, they now get to add those points back (as long as the Trait is still on their mat).

Players also get bonus points for having the most cubes still on the board, killing the most countries in a continent, and killing the country with the most cities.

The player with the most points wins!

Can the whole family enjoy Plague Inc.: The Board Game?

We first became familiar with Plague Inc. when our sons started playing the mobile app game in high school. They were drawn in by the strategy and realistic modeling of variables to simulate the spread and severity of a plague.

And of course, it’s not just our sons that love it. According to Ndemic Creations, as of May 2021, Plague Inc. has been downloaded over 160 million times. And it was a runner up in the IGN Game of the Year 2012 awards for ‘Overall Best Strategy Game’.

So when we heard about the board game version of the game, I knew our boys would be interested in checking it out.

The published recommended age for the game is 14+. And we’re sure part of that is due to the theme.

However, the game play itself is very straightforward and there isn’t any gory type of content in the game. All the countries and “cities” in the game are just cards with black hexagon spaces. The Trait cards are just text and the Event cards don’t have any visuals of people. As such, the game is really abstracted from the premise.

And the game play is lots of fun with a good balance of luck and strategy.

The luck element comes into play when drawing Country, Trait, and Event cards as well as on the dice roll when trying to take out a country.

But players are also faced with a variety of choices throughout the game to direct their path and disrupt others. Perhaps the most impactful choices to make are those dealing with which Traits you want to play for evolving your virus or bacteria. It also matters where you place those Traits on your player board because if you cover up those spaces with an ability on them, you lose that ability. So the card you cover it up with better be what you really want.

Of course, the choices of which Countries to add to the board and where to place your Infection cubes is no less important since the majority control in a country means a lot (DNA points at the start of a turn and control on rolling the die). And without the right ability to spread to other countries, you’ll be limited in where you can take control.

We also really like the various Events in the game. They each add a unique twist that mix things up and can shift the balance of power. Plus, they’ve induced a fair amount of laughter in our games with how it changes the options for our opponents.

Overall, Plague Inc.: The Board Game delivers a fun game experience.

How does Plague Inc.: The Board Game rate on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter?

As you can imagine, Plague In.: The Board Game scores well on our “let’s play again” game meter. While we aren’t playing games back-to-back, it’s a keeper for future plays.

There’s also and expansion, Plague Inc.: Armageddon, that looks like a fun addition to the game as well that we’d love to try. It includes fungus and bioweapon disease types, a new genetic modification game mechanism, support for an extra player, and new event, trait and endgame score bonuses.