Components

• 7 Pawns and 7 Role Cards
• 78 Player Cards
• 56 Dike Failure Cards
• 4 Hydraulic Structure Tokens
• 1 Sea Level Marker
• 1 Reminder Marker
• 5 Reference Cards
• 1 Population Loss/Setup Summary Card
• 50 Dikes
• 5 Pumping Stations
• 12 Objective Cards
• 36 Water Cubes
• 36 Population Cubes
• 5 Ports
• 1 Board
• Instructions

Setup

1. Set out the Board and Pieces

   
   
   

   Place the board within easy reach of all players. Place the 5 ports, 5 pumping stations, and 36 water cubes nearby. Place the 4 hydraulic structure tokens on the board as shown.

   Place 1 dike on the board in each of the red dike locations . You will use all 5 dikes. Note: Two dike locations begin with 2 dikes.

   Return all 12 Objective cards, all 36 population cubes, and the Population Loss card to the box. These components are used in a game variant.

2. Place sea level marker and initial water cubes on the board

   Place the Sea Level marker on the lowest "2" space of the Sea Level track, then place 2 water cubes in both the Noordzee and Zuiderzee. These are seas. Water cubes are used to determine how much water flows into the regions (land spaces) of the board, and the number of water cubes in the seas increases as the sea level rises.

   Place the indicated number of water cubes into the following regions (all bordering the Zuiderzee):

   • 1 cube in Wieringermeer
   • 2 cubes in Markerwaard
   • 2 cubes in Flevoland
   • 2 cubes in Noordoostpolder

   Note: These regions have 1 or 2 below their names as setup reminders.

3. Degrade Regions

   Shuffle the Dike Failure cards. Flip over 3 of them. For each card, degrade the matching region 3 times. To degrade a region, remove a dike from it. Dikes bordering two regions belong to both of those regions.

   If there are multiple dikes in the region, collectively decide which 1 to remove. If there is no dike in the region, add 1 water cube instead, to a maximum of 3 water cubes in a region. During setup only, attempting to place more than 3 water cubes in a region has no effect.

   

   Flip over 3 more Dike Failure cards. For each card, d

   Flip over 3 more Dike Failure cards. For each card, degrade its region 1 time.

   Place these 9 cards faceup on the Dike Failure discard pile. The other Dike Failure cards form the Dike Failure deck.

   Note: Unlike in the original Pandemic, there are two cards for each region in the Dike Failure deck.

4. Give each player cards and a pawn, and determine first player

   Give each player a Reference card. Shuffle the Role cards and deal 1 faceup to each player, along with its matching pawn. All players place their pawns in Delfland. Return the remaining Reference cards, Role cards, and pawns to the box.

   Set aside the Storm cards until Step 5.

   Shuffle the Event cards facedown and randomly set aside the number of Event cards shown in the table below.

   Add these Events to the Region cards. Return the remaining Event cards to the box without looking at them.

   Shuffle the Player cards (Regions and Events). Deal cards, faceup, to players to form their initial hands as follows:

   # of players	Events in Deck	Initial Hand
   2	4	4
   3	5	3
   4	6	2
   5	8	2

   Players keep their cards faceup on the table. The player with the Region card listing the shortest "Primary Defense Line" is the first player.

5. Prepare the Player Deck

   Choose the game's difficulty level by using either 6, 7, or 8 Storm cards, for an Introductory, Standard, or Heroic game. Remove any unused Storm cards from the game.

   Note: This is 2 more than the number of Epidemic cards used in the original Pandemic!

   Divide the remaining Player cards into facedown piles, as equal in size as you can, so that the number of piles matches the number of Storm cards you are using.

   Shuffle 1 Storm card into each pile, facedown. Stack these piles to form the Player deck, placing smaller piles on the bottom.

   

   Place the Reminder token next to the Player deck. (Later, after you build your first pumping station, you will place it on top of the Player deck as a reminder to do the "Operate Pumps" step each turn).

   
   
   

6. Stacks Resolve Initial Water Flow

   Before the first player takes the first turn, resolve the inital water flow:.

   Water cubes in regions and the 2 seas (Noordzee and Zuiderzee) can cause additional water to be added into adjacent regions. (You can imagine it flowing from regions with a lot of water into regions with less water).

   Dikes on the board block this flow from happening, as do the high- elevation regions (such as Veluwe and Oost-Brabant) on the board.

   To complete the setup, check every region by doing these steps in order:

   1. For each region with 3 water cubes, add water cubes to each adjacent low-elevation region that is not protected from the first region by a dike, until each has at least 2 water cubes.

      (Don't add water cubes to regions that already have 2 or 3 water cubes).

   2. Then, for each region with 2 water cubes, add water cubes to each adjacent low-elevation region that is not protected from the first region by a dike, until each has at least 1 water cube.

      (Don't add a water cube to regions that already have at least 1 water cube).

Game Play

Each player turn is divided into 5 steps:

After a player is done with the Water Flows step, the player on their left goes next.

Players should freely give each other advice, letting everyone offer opinions and ideas. However, the player whose turn it is decides what to do.

Your hand of cards can have Region and Event cards in it. Region cards are resources, used to complete objectives and do some actions. Events can generally be played at any time, including during another player's turn.

Do 4 Actions

You may do up to 4 actions each turn. Select any combination of the actions listed below. You may do the same action several times, each time counting as 1 action.

Your role's special abilities may change how an action is done. Some actions involve discarding a card from your hand; all discards go to the Player discard pile.

Movement Actions

Other Actions

Operate Pumps

For each pumping station in a region with at least 1 water cube, remove 1 water cube from 1 low-elevation region of your choice that the pumping station can trace a path to through 1 or more regions.

Each region in this path must contain a water cube and the path cannot cross seas or dikes. Place the removed water cube in the supply. If you have multiple pumping stations, operate them in any order.

Draw 2 Player Cards

Draw the top 2 cards together from the Player deck.

If, as you are about to draw, there are fewer than 2 cards left in the Player deck, the game ends and your team has lost! (Do not reshuffle the discard pile to form a new deck).

Storms

If your draw includes any Storm cards, immediately reveal them and do the following steps:

1. Sea Levels Rise: Move the Sea Level marker up 1 space on the Sea Level track. If the sea level rises (from 2 to 3 or from 3 to 4), add an additional water cube to each sea (the Noordzee and, initially, the Zuiderzee) so that the number of cubes matches the new sea level.

2. Major Breach: Draw the bottom card from the Dike Failure deck. Degrade this region 3 times (removing dikes first and adding water cubes if there are no dikes remaining).

   If the region has no dikes left and 3 water cubes in it before you finish doing this, do not place any more cubes. Instead, a flood occurs once in this region (see "Floods" on page 8). Discard this card to the Dike Failure discard pile.

   

   If you cannot place the number of water cubes actually needed on the board because there are not enough cubes left in the supply, the game ends and your team has lost!

   This can occur when resolving a Storm card or during the Dikes Fail or Water Flows steps.

3. When It Rains, It Pours: Shuffle all the cards in the Dike Failure discard pile (including the card just drawn) and place them facedown on top of the Dike Failure deck.

   It is rare but possible to draw 2 Storm cards at once. In that case, do all three steps above once and then again. The second time, the card drawn for the Major Breach will be the only Dike Failure card to "reshuffle", ending on top of the Dike Failure deck.

   Event cards may be played after resolving the first Storm card and before resolving the second card.

After resolving Storm cards, return them to the box. Do not draw replacement cards.

Hand Limit

If you ever have more than 7 cards in hand (after first resolving any Storm cards you may have drawn), discard cards or play Events until you have 7 cards in hand.

Dikes Fail

Floods

When a flood occurs, place 1 water cube in each adjacent low-elevation region that is not protected from the flooding region by a dike bordering both regions.

If any of those regions already have 3 water cubes, do not place a 4th cube into those regions. Instead, in each of them, a chain reaction flood occurs after resolving the current region.

When a chain reaction flood occurs, place water cubes as above, except do not add a cube to regions that have already had a flood (or a chain reaction flood) as part of resolving the current Dike Failure card.

Water Flows

Player Cards

Place your cards faceup in front of you, for all players to see. Only Player cards count towards your hand limit. Your Role and Reference cards are not part of your hand.

Players may freely examine either discard pile at any time.

Event Cards

During a turn, any player may play Event cards. Playing an event is not an action. The player who plays an event decides how it is used. Most Event cards be played at any time, but they cannot be played in between drawing and resolving a card.

After playing an event, discard it to the Player discard pile.

Hydraulic Structures

Afsluitdijk

Discard 5 purple cards while in Wieringermeer or FryslQn to build this hydraulic structure.

The Afsluitdijk functions like a special dike, separating the Zuiderzee from the Noordzee.

When this structure is built, the Zuiderzee is no longer a sea. Treat it as a low-elevation region instead:

• The number of water cubes in the Zuiderzee no longer rises with the sea level. (If there are 4 water cubes in the Zuiderzee when the structure is built, remove 1 water cube, to bring it to the maximum of 3 water cubes).

• Players may now enter the Zuiderzee.

• Players may pump water, build a pumping station, and build a port in the Zuiderzee (like any other low-elevation region).

• Since it is now a low-elevation region, it is subject to floods (if another water cube would be added to it while it has 3 water cubes in it already).

• The Afsluitdijk itself can never be removed due to a Dike Failure card.

Deltawerken

Discard 5 orange cards while in Schouwen-Duiveland to build this hydraulic structure.

When built, you may place a dike adjacent to the Noordzee in each of the following regions:

• Voorne-Putten
• Goeree-Overflakkee
• Schouwen-Duiveland
• Walcheren
• Zeeuws-Vlaanderen

Normaliseringswerken

Discard 5 yellow cards while in Rijn en IJssel to build this hydraulic structure.

When built, place up to 4 dikes on yellow region(s).

Ruimte Voor De Rivier

Discard 5 green cards while in Roer en Overmaas to build this hydraulic structure.

When built, remove up to 6 water cubes from any green regions.

Turn End

After doing the Water Flows step, your turn is over. The player on your left begins a turn.

End of the Game

The players win when all 4 hydraulic structures are built (regardless of how many water cubes are on the board).

The players lose in 2 ways:

• if they are unable to place the number of water cubes actually needed on the board, or
• if a player cannot draw 2 Player cards after the Do Actions (and Operate Pumps) step.

Players win the game if and when all the objectives in play are currently met.

Variable Objectives

After you have had a chance to play the standard game a few times, try the Variable Objectives game for more variety and challenge.

In the Variable Objectives game, you will randomly select the objectives that you must complete in order to win the game (instead of always building the 4 hydraulic structures).

Additional Setup

During step 1 of setup, separate the 12 Objective cards into 4 piles (by color) and shuffle each pile. Draw 1 card from each pile and place these 4 objectives faceup near the board. Return the other 8 Objective cards to the box.

Read over the Objective cards in play, following any setup instructions on them. If there is at least 1 Population objective:

• Place the population cubes to the side of the board to form a supply.
• Place the Population Loss card on the board, above the hydraulic structures.
• Players can do the Expand Population action.
• Players lose if there are 5 or more population cubes on the Population Loss card.

New Action: Expand Population

As an action, discard 1, 2, or 3 Region cards of the color matching your current region to place population cubes there equal to the number of cards discarded. Players cannot discard cards to add cubes if it would put the total number of cubes (population plus water) in the region over 3 cubes.

Population Loss

Each region may contain a total of 3 cubes (water plus population cubes).

Whenever a player would add water cubes to a region that would put the total number of cubes over 3, they must remove population cubes from the region to bring the total number back down to 3 cubes.

Place the population cubes removed in this way onto the Population Loss card.

Unacceptable Losses. If you ever place 5 or more population cubes onto the Population Loss card, too many people have perished, and you lose the game.

Difficulty

For an euen more challenging game, try starting with 5 or euen 6 objectiues. (Randomly select your objectiues, but make sure you do not use more than 2 objectiues of any 1 color). You can further tune the difficulty by uarying the number of Storm cards in the game. Here are some configurations to try:

Roles

Each player has a role with special abilities to improve your team's chances.

Continue Reading