Pandemic: American Swine Guide

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Topics

Basic Concepts

» Game overview

» Government types

» Interface overview

» Controls

» Tips & strategies

» Walkthrough

Nation Overview

» One-time operations

» Recurring operations

» States & cities

» Hospitals & vaccines

» Airports & seaports

» Country borders

Finances

» Overview of finances

» Tax revenue

» Domestic tourism

» Foreign tourism

» Expenses

Panic and Media

» Overview of panic

» Overview of media

» Positive news reports

» Negative news reports

» Controlling the media

Introduction

Pandemic: American Swine is set within the United States of America in the year 2010. The Swine Flu continues thrive and threaten the lives of American citizens. Public panic has begun to rise dramatically as the media continues to publish sensationalist reports. You have been recruited to take control of the situation and exterminate the Swine Flu once and for all.

Your Task

All of the country’s resources have been made available to you. You will be required to carefully manage public panic and finances while you combat the Swine Flu. Only by remaining calm under pressure, making intelligent decisions and being vigilant can you hope to succeed in your mission to save the United States.

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Government Transparency

The transparency of your government will have a direct impact on gameplay. Some operations may be limited to certain specific government transparencies. Each government transparency has its own strengths and weaknesses that can be taken advantage of depending upon how you play the game.

Open Transparency

Open transparency will give you access to the “Info Campaign” operation. Vaccine research will progress more quickly, the “Hand Out Masks” operation will cost less and panic will rise more slowly. Unfortunately governments using open transparency cannot use the “Nuclear Strike” operation or the media “Censor” operation.

Average Transparency

Average transparency is the most well-rounded transparency type available. All one-time operations will remain active for a longer period of time. The “Info Campaign” and “Extreme Policies” operations are unavailable for governments that have an average transparency.

Closed Transparency

Governments using closed transparency receive discounts for the “Quarantine” and “State Curfews” operations. Access to the “Extreme Policies” operation is also granted to the player. All media related operations will remain active for a longer period of time. Panic will rise faster for closed transparency governments.

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Game Interface

Unless you are saving money for an operation, you should be spending your money as often as possible. Except for when you are focusing on very specific targets, it’s often best to deploy many cheap operations rather than a few expensive operations.

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Mouse Controls

Pandemic: American Swine is played primarily with the mouse. To move the map around simply click with the left mouse button on any part of the map and drag the mouse. Clicking on one spot without dragging the mouse will let you select map objects.

Keyboard Controls

Using the arrow keys will allow you to move the map around if you dislike moving the map by clicking and dragging. Press “T” will open up the game tutorial window.

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Spend Your Money

Unless you are saving money for an operation, you should be spending your money as often as possible. Except for when you are focusing on very specific targets, it’s often best to deploy many cheap operations rather than a few expensive operations.

Know When and Where

It is not often practical to save every city or state at the same time. When working with interstates it’s best to focus on natural choke points rather than attempting to isolate states that are connected to a large number of other states.

Isolate and Destroy

You will be able to manage the Swine Flu more easily if you contain it to a small number of states. Limiting domestic travel and making full use of the vaccine will let you prevent the disease from spreading rapidly across the country.

Monitor Outside Sources

Prevent unexpected infections by regularly checking the probability of foreign tourists arriving in the country. Seaports, airports, Canada and Mexico all have the possibility of bringing in infected tourists. Probabilities can be checked by selecting Seaports, airports, Canada or Mexico.

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Walkthrough Introduction

This is a general walk through to help those who are having difficulty with Pandemic: American Swine. Due to the game playing out differently for every player, explicit instructions cannot be provided. Instead, this walk through provides a general "path to victory" which will help players that are confused or lost. Players should note that this walkthrough outlines just some of the many possible strategies that players can use.

Day 1: Step 1

You have just started a new game of Pandemic: AS. Despite whatever government transparency or difficulty settings you have selected, you will still need to limit your exposure to the disease. Immediately close all domestic traffic in airports and seaports that reside within infected states.

Day 1: Step 2

Since you should still be in day one, you will not have many options available to you. You can deploy a road-block between California and Oregon and start handing out masks in New Mexico, or you can hand out masks in both New Mexico and Nevada.

Day 2: Step 1

As soon as you enter day two, you should censor the media if possible if no positive reports have been released. Always keep an eye on your panic and be ready to censor the media before you start to get in trouble.

Day 2: Step 2

With your remaining money it might be a good idea to deploy or a road-block between Texas and Louisiana. Use the remainder of your available funds to hand out masks and enforce curfews in as many states as possible. *If you are playing with a government using open transparency, it is never too early to start an info campaign operation.

Day 3-6

Until you have completed research on the Swine Flu vaccine, you will want to keep the disease as confined as possible. Road-blocks between New Mexico and Colorado or Florida and Georgia is never a bad idea. Wherever possible, hand out masks and create curfews. If curfews are no longer generating any positive news, stop the operations. Always keep an eye on the possibility of being infected from other countries.

Day 7 and on

By now you should be close to finishing research on the Swine Flu vaccine. As soon as research is completed you will want to focus on states that have the largest healthy populations in the game. This usually means New York, New Jersey, Michigan and Illinois for starters. States that have open hospitals will be automatically vaccinated. You will want to keep pressure on the disease while are disbursing the vaccine. Rarely should you devote all of your time and money into vaccinations.

Victory

If all is going well you should achieve victory by vaccination by day 30 (depending upon difficulty). And remember, this is walkthrough is just one strategy you can use to beat the game. Don't be afraid to experiment.

Walkthrough video on Extreme Difficulty

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Introduction

One-time operations are operations that only remain active for a short amount of time. Unlike recurring operations, one-time operations require only one payment instead of regular payments every 24 hours. Once a one-time operation has stopped you will be able to activate again after a short amount of time if you wish.

Recurring Operations

Recurring operations are operations that remain active until they are stopped (either by the player or due to the lack of money). Unlike one-time operations, recurring operations require regular payments ever 24 hours. Once a recurring operation has stopped you will be able to activate again after a short amount of time if you wish.

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States

The map is primarily populated with different states. Each state contains a unique percentage of the nation's overall population. States may contain cities, airports or seaports. The summary of the state (income, expenses, population) will also include all information from available cities, seaports and airports. Operations launched within a state will also affect any cities found within the state. States are connected to neighboring states via interstates.

Cities

Cities can be found within certain states across the map. Each city operates as a "sub state" in terms of containing a population and generating revenue and creating expenses. Cities generate more tax revenue per person than regions do so it is important to keep them safe.

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Hospitals

Hospitals are found within a number of states over the map. Hospitals are important for many different reasons. One of the core reasons is that vaccine research time is completely dependant upon the number of open hospitals across the nation. Hospitals also decrease mortality rates within their states and will passively distribute vaccines once research has been completed.

Vaccines

The vaccine to the Swine Flu can only be obtained one way: by researching the vaccine (which can be found in the Nation Window). Once a vaccine has been researched you will be able to disburse the vaccine at your own discretion. Vaccines will only work on those who are healthy.

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Airports

Airports and seaports both work in a very similar fashion. Airports generate domestic and foreign tourism revenue for every flight that lands. The more busy an airport is the more money it will produce. Players can either ban or permit international or domestic flights if they wish in order to slow the spread of the Swine Flu.

Seaports

Seaports and airports both work in a very similar fashion. Seaports generate domestic and foreign tourism revenue for every ship that docks. The more busy an seaport is the more money it will produce. Players can either ban or permit international or domestic travel if they wish in order to slow the spread of the Swine Flu.

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The United State of America is neighbored by two other countries: Canada and Mexico. Each country will generate foreign tourism if their U.S. border is open. Sometimes there might be a good chance of infected tourists arriving in the United States from a neighboring country. Players have the option of closing U.S. borders to neighboring countries at the expense of foreign tourism.

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National finance management is one of the core challenges of Pandemic: American Swine. Detailed financial information on every state is available to the player through the "Finance Window". The nation's finances can be greatly affected by public panic. It will be up to you to ensure that you take full advantage of the funds available to you by spending money intelligently.

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The majority of all your financial income will be generated by tax revenue. Tax revenue is directly affected by public panic and will fluctuate during the course of the game. Tax revenue is generated by the nation's population. Every citizen within a region or city contributes towards the nation's tax revenue. Cities generate more tax revenue per person than regions, so it is vital to keep them safe. Infected people contribute less than healthy or immune populations towards the nation's tax revenue.

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Domestic tourism is generated whenever people travel from one state to another by air or sea. Without seaports or airports the amount of money generated by domestic tourism would be negligible. Throughout the game the amount of money generated by domestic tourism will fluctuate, so do not depend upon it entirely.

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Foreign tourism is generated whenever people enter the country from somewhere outside of the United States. This occurs whenever people enter the nation via the Canadian U.S. border, the Mexican U.S. border, air or by sea. Without seaports, airports or borders with neighboring countries no foreign tourism would be generated at all. Throughout the game the amount of money generated by foreign tourism will fluctuate, so do not depend upon it entirely.

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Infrastructure Expenses

Infrastructure expenses are generated by states, cities, open airports and open seaports. Each object on the map requires an up cost fee to ensure it remains operational. Infrastructure expenses can be reduced by airports or seaports.

Health Care Expenses

Health care expenses are generated by each and every open hospital. Health care expenses can be reduced by closing hospitals. Just beware of the consequences for closing hospitals: slower vaccine research, higher mortality rates and a slower adoption of vaccines.

Operation Expenses

Operation expenses are grouped into two categories: recurring operation expenses and one-time operation expenses. The latter is not listed directly on the "Finance Window" but is displayed within the graph at the top of the window. Recurring operation expenses are generated by the payments required to keep recurring operations active. One-time operation expenses are created every time a one-time operation is activated.

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Public panic can greatly impact your attempts to eradicate the Swine Flu. The amount of tax revenue being generated and the cost of operations can be greatly impacted by the amount of panic within the country. The likelyhood of riots or looting depends entirely upon the amount of public panic. Panic is generated entirely by reports released by the media.

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The media is responsible for reporting on news occurring throughout the country at any given time of the day. Every news report released by the media will have an effect on public panic in one way or another. Each report will remain active for a period of time before being removed from the "News Bar". Players can click on a news report to find out more information about the news report.

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Positive news reports are identified by their flower icon within the "News Bar". Positive news reports will decrease public panic while they remain active inside the "News Bar". Not all positive news reports have the same amount of impact on public panic: some reports will decrease panic more than others.

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Negative news reports are identified by their flower icon within the "News Bar". Negative news reports will increase public panic while they remain active inside the "News Bar". Not all negative news reports have the same amount of impact on public panic: some reports will increase panic more than others.

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Due to the fact that the media is the driving force behind public panic, it is necessary to control what reports are released as much as possible. This can be done in two different ways: either directly with media related operations or indirectly by fighting the Swine Flu infection. To control the media directly players only need to launch media related operations (Censor, Spin or Solicit Fear). To indirectly control the media players can launch operations that slow infection rates and give people hope (Military Support, Hand Out Masks, Info Campaign, Disburse Vaccine or Curfews).

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