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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.
blueatheart
Two plays in: Surprised at how much I enjoy this game, the small tweaks on the Pandemic formula works fantastically here. The water flow mechanics and sea level rise combine to make the game continuously tense and interesting. I wouldn't recommend playing with just the base 4-color game, it really opens up and feels like it's meant to be played with the population/objectives "variant" (and 5 objectives feels like it should be the standard). Mayyybe play the base way once if all players in your group are new. Second game, we had a situation where everything looked great, we were on a great path to get our four objectives, getting half the population put in place in the red/red/yellow/green 9 population objective, barely any water on the board...and a single storm raised the water level to 3, half the dikes broke in the northsea, and all but two water cubes were suddenly on the board and we're fighting for survival. Taught us to plan ahead for the storms better.
BigD527
I wanted to like this one more than I ultimately did. It was Pandemic with a few twists, but they mostly mucked things up, rather than improving on the system.
booned
I like the water spreading mechanism, it works very well, and I love that the board has character. Not in terms of art (although that's fine), but in terms of gameplay. Every region has a different feel which gives the game personality and makes me want to play it repeatedly to learn how to play best on it. As opposed to generic Pandemic which doesn't have much appreciable difference between all the different regions. The only advantage of the original, to me, is ease of teaching (but I'd prefer Forbidden Island for that, anyway), and the setup is a lot easier and quicker.