Quarantine: Region Map

You do not fight the virus in combat here. You manage uncertainty: you see less than there is, you decide before you know, and you pay for both.

How the epidemic works

1. Nine regions are joined by roads. Infection flows along traffic, so closing one strait protects several neighbours — and costs several neighbours their income.

2. Growth rate depends on density, season and your lockdown. The same lockdown in different regions costs different money.

3. The report shows counted cases, not real ones. Tests buy truth: without them you treat the submerged part of the iceberg and are surprised by deaths.

4. Beds lower lethality, not transmission. Vaccine lowers transmission but arrives two days late in doses too small for everyone: choose a region instead of waiting.

5. Two end-game counters: treasury and patience. Patience drops from lockdown and from the feeling that you do nothing; the treasury drops from everything at once.

Tips

• Test the highest-traffic node, not the loudest one: truth is worth money only where it changes a decision.
• Place beds BEFORE the wave, by traffic forecast rather than by fact — deployment takes two days.
• Reopening later than you closed is usually cheaper. Usually: watch the treasury.