Lead the Netherlands into the Industrial Age in the latest version of the cooperative classic! It is the dawn of the Industrial Age in the Netherlands. For centuries, the country has relied upon a series of dikes and wind-powered pumps to keep it safe from the constant threat of flooding from the North Sea. But this system is no longer enough.
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It is the dawn of the Industrial Age in the Netherlands. For centuries, the country has relied upon a series of dikes and wind-powered pumps to keep it safe from the constant threat of flooding from the North Sea, but this system is no longer enough.
In Pandemic: Rising Tide, it is your goal to avert tragedy by constructing four modern hydraulic structures in strategic locations that will help you defend the country from being reclaimed by the ocean. Storms are brewing and the seas are restless. It will take all your guile to control the flow of water long enough to usher in the future of the Netherlands. It’s time to get to work.
Containing the water that threatens to consume the countryside is your greatest challenge. Water levels in a region are represented by cubes, and as the water containment systems currently in place begin to fail, more water cubes are added to the board. With water levels constantly on the rise, failure to maintain the containment system could quickly lead to water spilling across the board.
To successfully build the four hydraulic structures needed to win a game of Pandemic: Rising Tide, you must first learn to predict and manipulate the flow of water. Failing to maintain safe water levels throughout the country can bring you perilously close to failing your mission. Fortunately, water can be corralled by a strategically placed dike or slowed by pumping water out of a region. Correctly identifying and intervening in at-risk areas can get you one step closer to victory.
| Ages | 8+ |
|---|---|
| Mechanics | Action Point Allowance System, Cooperative Play, Hand Management, Point to Point Movement, Set Collection, Trading, Variable Player Powers |
| Play Time | 45m |
| Players | 2 Players, 3 Players, 4 Players, 5 Players |
| Publisher | Hobby Japan, Z-Man Games, Inc., Asmodee, Asterion Press, Edge Entertainment, Z-Man Games |
| Designer | Jeroen Doumen, Matt Leacock |
biasedisland
We have strayed away from coops so most of ours are finding new homes. We liked this rendition but it didn't live up to the original. If you're looking for a different Pandemic try Iberia or Fall of Rome. Traded away.
agentpatman
This was obviously another game in the pandemic system so not much different on that front. However in this one you will be focusing on building more infrastructure like windmill pumps and dikes to prevent the flow of the water. The water flow adds some interesting decisions as removing water cubes doesn't help as they come right back. Instead you need to block the water in the first place to be able to move it and add pumps to help you get the water out for no actions. The difficulty is higher than the original and there are some setups that fail immediately at the start of the game due to existing water in purple territories and having to apply 3 more damage to multiple purple cards. I get that it's supposed to start off with a challenge but it's unfortunate that the game can end in turn one due to random setup when they could have added a rule that if you draw multiple purple during setup to ignore the third. All in all its different enough that I owe multiple but that difference might not be big enough for most people.
Akado
"Rising Tide" must be Dutch for "Snowball Effect." An interesting take on pandemic, where outbreaks constantly happen and require careful management. And, like all elegant solutions, careful management is very fragile and prone to sudden and inevitable betrayal. There's more depth here than with regular pandemic, as long-term elements (ports and pumping stations) are available from Turn 1, and also with how the removal of dikes is quite meaningful later in the game. The unfortunate part is that new players won't know which dikes are "better" or "safer" to remove, and the rules do have a typo about water flowing. That being said, this was an interesting game and I would play it again, but the complexity takes it beyond an entry level game and that means I don't need to own it, as I have other not-quite-entry-level games I would rather play. It's also very fiddly, with windmills always removing a cube but water always pushing out more cubes.