Designers:  Javier Fuentes (Pentaurus: Black Hole, Pentaurus: Duel, Pentaurus: Fleet), Rafael Oliva (Pentaurus: Black Hole, Pentaurus: Duel, Pentaurus: Fleet)

Artist:  DanielRGB (Blood & Steel: Mythological Series, Pentaurus: Black Hole, Pentaurus: Duel)

Publisher:  Amphora Games (Pentaurus: Black Hole, Pentaurus: Duel, Pentaurus: Fleet)

Genre/Mechanisms:  set collection, simulation, worker placement

Funding Status:  At the time of this posting, Pandemain is already fully-funded. Pledges currently total more than 1.5x the initial funding goal with less than 3 days to go on the campaign.

Player Count:  1-4

Solo Mode:  yes

Complexity:  heavy

Risk:  HIGH

What It’s About:  “A worker placement and bread-making game where players run competing small bakeries in the village of Nördlingen during the Middle Ages.”

How It Works:  “Each game has 5 rounds. Each round represents 1 day and is divided into 4 phases: daytime, dusk, night-time, and dawn. At the end of the 5th day, the town holds a mass for St. Honoratus, the patron saint of bakers, and the final victory points are tallied to determine the player honoured in the ceremony – the winner of the game. Throughout the game, players use workers to carry out actions and reap the rewards. The most frequent actions are buying ingredients, baking bread, and selling it. However, there are many more things to do in a medieval town! Master bakers improve the baking process and provide bonuses; animals and carts supplement certain actions; and offerings to the church increase players’ penitence level in the eyes of the Inquisition.”

“In the Daytime phase, players take turns placing one worker on a space of the board and immediately performing that action. This phase ends when the players have no workers left to place.”

“In the Market, players can buy water, salt, yeast, and milk for 2 pfennigs each plus 1 pfennig for each worker already at the Market. The player uses an ox token to go to the left-most spot, or an ox or cart token to go to the second-left-most spot, then takes resources from each stall to their right, choosing from two different paths through the market.”

In the Mill, players can buy one column of available flour tokens by paying the indicated price; choosing a column of 4 tokens also requires an ox or cart token.

In the Granary, players place a worker for free, then receive 2-3 flour tokens during the Dawn Phase.

In the Feudal Lord’s Oven, players pay 1 pfennig for each worker already present up to 2 pfennigs, then spend the required resources from their reserve to bake rye, spelt, oat, and wheat bread. Different types of bread go stale at different rates.

In Hohenzollern Castle, players can work for the Hohenzollerns if they have an ox token to receive 3 pfennigs, or they may take a loan at a cost of 2 victory points, gaining 6 pfennigs.

Players can send their workers to the various Villages to fulfill bread orders there, paying 1 pfennig for every other worker present in the same village; Augsburg require a penitence level of 5 to enter, but rewards players with an additional penitence level for each bread token sold. At all Villages, players gain pfennigs as well as victory points for bread sold, and they’ll gain more victory points for bread sold in earlier rounds.

At the Church, players make offerings to raise their penitence level, as well as to determine future player order.

At the River, players collect 2 units of water, 4 if they use a cart.

The Trade House allows players to trade one type of resource for another, from among 1 pfennig, 1 flour type, 1 milk, 1 salt, 1 yeast, and 1 victory point.

And finally, at the Bakers’ Guild, players can Hire or Upgrade a Master Baker.

Players can also Milk Cows as a bonus action, flipping up any cow tokens to gain 2 units of milk. They can also sell bread to the Feudal Lord’s Servant if they end the day at the same location, receiving a Feudal Lord Favor Token in the process.

In the Dusk Phase, players recover all the workers of their colour. The bread starts to go stale.

In the Night-time Phase, and in reverse turn order, players can take an optional turn, using one of their workers. During this phase, however, players may only choose to take actions at the River, Trade House, Church, and Feudal Lord’s Oven, and players must pay an additional pfennig on top of the action’s normal cost to take the action.

In the Dawn Phase (the maintenance phase), the game is prepared for the next round. This includes rewarding each player in front of the Inquisition with a victory point, and giving a penitence token to each player who has fallen behind the Inquisition. Some players (like those who visited the Granary during the Day Phase) will receive ingredients.

After the Dawn Phase of the 5th Day, players first must repay any outstanding loans, if possible, paying 6 pfennigs for each loan token. Players will then add victory points to their current standing on the victory points track in the following amounts: 1/3/6/10 for the 1/2/3/4 villagers they possess; 3 points for each bread token in their reserve; and less 3 points for each loan token and each penance token in their reserve. Players will also make adjustments as indicated by their reputation markers. The baker with the highest total victory points wins the game, with ties broken by the highest penitence level, and then by the player with the most remaining pfennigs.

Comparisons: Pandemain feels mid-way between Viticulture and Village, both in theme and design. Much of the look of the game, and the various worker placement areas, bear a strong resemblance to Village. But Village is somewhat a grab bag of mechanics, and the game plays lightly and breezily, and can also be unbalanced without the right combination of expansions and modules. Pandemain feels more tightly-balanced than Village. And with a focus on one type of good (bread in this case, instead of wine, as with Viticulture) as well as that good’s evolution (the bread can go stale), it’s a bit reminiscent of Viticultures aging grapes and wines– though not as specific or requiring the same kind of maintenance. Some other worker placement games that also feature set collection include Champions of Midgard, The Gallerist, Lords of Waterdeep, Raiders of the North Sea, Stone Age, and Teotihuacan.

What Should I Pledge?:
$38 Skilled Baker: a copy of Pandemain: Traditional Farmers’ Bread with all unlocked stretch goals.

Add-Ons:
None.

KS Exclusives
An additional Village board with new mechanics, and a Cloth Bag with the Pandemain name printed on it.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $38 for the Skilled Baker pledge plus $18 in shipping for a total of $156.

Pandemain completes its Kickstarter on Thursday, April 16th and tentatively ships in November 2020.