Pandemic: The Board Game is a top-down logical strategy game. The game consists of a game board that is a network connecting 48 cities on the world map, 2 decks of cards (player cards and infection cards), 4 colors of cubes with 24 cubes each (each representing a different disease), 6 research stations, and a pawn for each role. Player cards include cards with the name of each city (the same as those on the game board); Event cards that can be played at any time (except for some expansion events) to give players an advantage; and epidemic maps. Infection cards consist of one card for each city on the board and the color of the disease that will start there.